Harvest and Craft Fair a fall tradition

And the Sheep Pasture celebrates fall this weekend with its annual Harvest and Craft Fair, the town’s premier autumn festival offering 100 crafters, entertainment, children’s activities, and the Sheep Pasture’s trails and natural beauty.

A 37-year-old local tradition, the festival is a major event, said the trust’s director, Jennifer Cummings. “People look forward to it and come back every year. It’s a community event. . . . People come expecting to see other people they know there.’’

The fair’s good food, quality crafts, and entertainment for adults comes with pony rides, face-painting, pumpkin-decorating, and other treats for children, such as Magic by George. Popular magician George Saterial, whose stage show has earned him magic’s top awards, has been a hit with audiences at previous fairs.

Animal presenters from the Blue Hills Trailside Museum will bring a bird, a snake, and a turtle to display at their program.

Local food vendors such as El Mariachi of Easton, Soups On Center of North Easton, and Chili Head of West Bridgewater spice up the afternoon.

New this year is fiddler Amy Basse and her musical friends who will kick off the entertainment at noon with “upbeat lively tunes’’ derived from rural American roots along with Scottish, Irish, and Cape Breton music.

“I will be promoting my CD ‘Spinning Lily.’ It’s toe-tapping kind of stuff,’’ Basse said.

She will perform with Michael Kelleher of Taunton on guitar, bodhran (Irish drum), and mandolin; Dan Emery of Marshfield on upright bass; and Glenn Scott of Sharon on mandolin, cittern (a medieval stringed instrument), and autoharp.

Sunday’s performance will also mix in new songs, including a few written by Basse’s son, Dillon, who taught himself guitar and sings his own songs. The 13-year-old attends Easton Middle School.

Basse, who grew up in North Easton and lives there today, picked up the fiddle as a child. Today her children are studying instruments through Easton schools just as she did. Her daughter’s violin studies provide inspiration for the CD title “Spinning Lily.’’

The Natural Resources Trust expects 6,000 to 8,000 at the event, which is its largest fund-raiser for the land conservation and education nonprofit.

The Sheep Pasture property was donated to the trust in 1967 by a member of the family that owned the Ames Shovel Shop, a historic 19th-century industrial complex in North Easton. The factory got an early push manufacturing shovels for the California gold rush and is now the subject of ongoing preservation efforts.

The trust says its purpose is to preserve open space in Easton and use the Ames property’s natural resources as “a living laboratory’’ for educational programs. The property holds a farmer’s market and works “a mini farm’’ of its own with goats, miniature horses, and fowl — and, yes, the Sheep Pasture has sheep.

Working closely with Easton Public Schools, the trust brings every student in grades 2 to 6 to the Sheep Pasture to work on nature science lessons prepared by teachers. Counting visits by other school groups, education programs bring about 3,000 students to the Sheep Pasture every year.

Educational topics for group visits to the Sheep Pasture include “Incredible Insects,’’ a program that involves catching insects to study their physical traits.

The trust’s naturalists also visit schools to present programs such as “All About Animals’’ while showing off some “native critters’’ in the classroom.

Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups use the Sheep Pasture for outdoor adventures and skill-building programs.

The Sheep Pasture is open every day free to the public for trail walks, bird-watching, and dog walks, Cummings said. The site also has a picnic area, and its farm animals are on display.

“There’s a lot going on here,’’ Cummings said.

There will be even more on Sunday.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox2@gmail.com.