Vintners, food, music on tap for Harvest Buchanan Saturday

Published 11:21 pm Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Buchanan Area Chamber of Commerce, the Buchanan Downtown Development Authority and WVPE 88.1 Public Radio are hosting Harvest Buchanan Saturday in downtown Buchanan.
Harvest Buchanan, at the Commons on Days Avenue adjacent to the Buchanan Arts and Historic District, will feature live music, food and spirits. The best of the area’s vintners will be on hand with their finest wines, including Lehman’s Orchard, Wyncroft Winery, Founders Wine Cellar, Free Run Cellars, Round Barn Winery and Lemon Creek Winery.  Greenbush Brewing Co, one of the region’s fastest-growing microbreweries, will be tapping its popular craft brews. Food will be provided by The Wheatberry Restaurant and Tavern and The Orchard Hills Country Club.
The Commons Stage will start with piano jazz and end with high-energy pop. Dean Ulrich will be on the piano from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by Buchanan’s T-Bird Thornton and Brian Johnston with a set of folk and blues music from 5 to 6 p.m.. Then the energy will crank up as three bands fro Chicago take the stage for an evening romp. The Mudflaps are on from 6 to 8 p.m. with its driving rockabilly, followed by the good-time jams of The Delafields from 8 to 9 p.m. and Planet Claire, a high energy B-52’s tribute band, from 9 to 10 p.m.
There are a great many things to enjoy in the area over the weekend. The Buchanan Farmers Market opens at the Commons at 8 a.m. Saturday, followed at 11a.m. by the Annual Scarecrow Assembly by Buchanan’s Scarecrow Ladies. They paint the town with homemade scarecrows every fall.
This weekend also marks the annual Apple Cider Century bike ride through Michigan’s Wine Country, an event that has attracted as many as 5,500 bicyclists who participate in rides of varying length.
On Sunday, Buchanan will play host to the annual Blessing of the Animals at the Buchanan Art Center on Front Street. See www.BuchananArtCenter.org.
The Harvest Moon is traditionally a time of hard work and celebration in rural America. The full moon in early fall allows farmers to work well into the evening harvesting the bounty of a long growing season.
To learn more about Harvest Buchanan, visit www.HarvestBuchanan.org.