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Valley News
08/27/07
A harvest of creativity
By Audrey Wong - Daily Republic
Children paint pottey at the Clay Station at Mankas Corner during Fun Family Farm Days Sunday. (Adam Smith/Daily Republic)
MANKAS CORNER - Nkosi Williams-Ross, 9, shaped, molded and created to his hearts content Sunday at The Clay Station on Mankas Corner.
He proudly displayed a red and blue coffee cup and spoke about how he punched his finger through the clay to make the handle.
'Its very fun,' Nkosi said of the clay making. 'I love it because we make our own stuff and we get better at it.'
But Nkosi didnt just express his artistic side at the Fun Family Farm Day Sunday. He beat on a Japanese Taiko drum at The Vegetable Patch, ate jelly beans and pet llamas at 99 Cherry Orchard.
'They felt really squishy,' Nkosi said.
The second annual Fun Family Farm Days highlights the farms, restaurants and other businesses in the Suisun Valley as well as harvest time. Suisun Valley Harvest Trails organizes the event. Participants follow a map to the vendors.
Foot traffic was steady, said Tracy Ellison, Suisun Valley Agricultural Ambassador. Ellison estimated attendance was lower than the 2,200 people who came last year but vendors drew many new customers, Ellison said. The next Fun Family Farm Days are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 23 and Oct. 21.
Attendance was 'above a normal Sunday,' Ellison said.
Children swarmed the candle making and clay play table at The Clay Station, an artist cooperative. Young people packed cubes of brightly colored wax into a Dixie cup then co-op member Casey Erlenheim poured hot wax into the cups to create candles. Erlenheim estimated she helped make 50 candles.
Small artists flattened, balled up and rolled clay into pottery or creatures. Aiden Richards, 8, made a cleaning monster which seeks trash with its large eyes and picks up clothes with its antenna.
Phylicia Horton, 10, improvised with the clay, bending the sides up then dabbing red paint on it to make a dish. She had no idea what her final product was going to be.
'Sometimes when you think about stuff you make up stuff,' she
said.
Reach Audrey Wong at 427-6951 or awong@dailyrepublic.net.