Harvest Faire attracts a crowd

Thousands of folks from all over the Pacific Northwest rolled into town for the 41st annual Sisters Harvest Faire hosted by the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce last weekend on Main Avenue.

Fairgoers browsed through 170 juried artisan vendors that showcased quality handmade items from textiles and wood-carvings to pottery and glasswork.

There were novelties for everyone's taste.

Scott Pieper from Sisters Country and owner of Panorama Ranch brought along a few alpaca, and it was a treat for the whole family.

"This is our first time at the Faire and we are selling our rugs that come from our alpaca," Pieper said. "The alpaca is primarily a fiber animal and are related to the llama."

Two of the alpaca were only 15 months old and the third was eight years old. The trio attracted people of all ages to come by and pet their soft hair.

"On our ranch we run between 25 and 30 alpacas. We are breeders and primarily sell them, but we shear every year and use the fiber to make rugs," Pieper said.

Scores of folks, notably artists, gathered around the Lebenzon Paintbrushes booth where you could test the custom hand-crafted natural or synthetic fiber paintbrushes with bamboo handles on special cloth.

"Our brushes are designed to be used for a variety of applications such as ink, acrylic, oils and watercolor," said brush designer Tracy Lebenzon. "We are using high-quality calligraphy practice cloth as a demonstration of how each brush could work for you. The paper turns dark where you apply water with the brushes."

Each brush was unique and varied in size and length and you could find natural brushes made from goat, elk, moose, ox or even deer hair.

Musical entertainment on the Fir Street Park stage enhanced everyone's shopping experience, with Moon Mountain Ramblers performing on Saturday and native Hawaiian singer Bill Keale from Bend on Sunday.

Lots of little folks stopped their parents to gawk at the hand-crafted wooden animal-shaped step stools named "Zools" over at Pop-pop's Children's Furniture Company. And all of the chairs and rocking chairs are also designed with creative zoo-animal handles. It was a father-and-daughter team from Ashland, and Kate Meltzer Levin was on hand to tell The Nugget how their kids' furniture business began.

"My dad is the one who hand crafts the furniture, and I cover the business end of everything," Levin said. "It all started after I had a child. It was hard to find really cute table and chairs made out of wood for toddlers. So after Dad retired from being a general contractor we decided to partner up, with him handcrafting the furniture. All my kids call him pop-pop, so the name stuck for the business."

There were samples for your taste buds from lavender-infused toffee to homemade spicy dips. There were samples of unique scented lotions that softened your skin and handcrafted soaps that smelled like everything you love about fall.

There were also samples for your pooch, and a ton of dogs and their pet parents browsed through The Doggie Bakery from Bend over at Michael Banks' booth. There were cookies, cakes, chews, and chicken-breast and beef-liver jerky made just for your furry friend.

The all-natural, preservative-free gourmet doggie treats looked and smelled almost good enough for human consumption!

"This is all about the dogs," Banks said. "My wife, Traci, and I started The Dog Bakery 10 years ago because we had dogs that couldn't eat anything. They had food allergies and were getting sick, so we started making our own food and treats for our dogs. We took our great-grandmothers' recipes and converted them to dog-friendly and we've been in the business ever since."

Sisters Harvest Faire event coordinator Jeri Buckmann was busy making the rounds to make sure all the vendors and guests were happy all weekend.

"The Sisters Harvest Faire is a huge economic boost for Sisters," Buckmann said.

"It was a very successful event for lots of people, not only at the faire but throughout downtown.

There were large crowds, people with smiles and of course great weather.

I want to thank Nicole (Abbenhuis) at the City of Sisters for the prep work and the businesses on Main Avenue that allowed the closure on Friday for set-up.

I love producing this event and bringing as many people to Sisters as possible.

In walking through town on Saturday, Sisters was busy.

Even with food vendors at the event, Sisters restaurants saw steady business.

This was the second year being held on Main Avenue with very positive comments from the public."