Blog

By Julie Allen • Lake Superior Chapter Coordinator

Celebrate the harvest season at the 31st Annual Lake Superior Harvest Festival on September 6, 2025, brought to you by the Sustainable Farming Association. From 10am-4pm at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth, come and enjoy the largest farmers market in the region as well as artisan vendors, live music, educational demonstrations, and a renewable energy fair. This free family-oriented event celebrates the diverse agricultural bounty of the Lake Superior region as well as the organizations focused on sustainability working to enhance our community. Donations are welcomed at the entry to support this community festival. Parking is $10/car at Bayfront.

Harvest Festival started 31 years ago with just a Farmers Market, and this year the farmers’ tent will showcase the season’s bounty. Shoppers can come early and stock up, and then drop off heavy bags at the “Produce Parking Station” at the LSSFA Info Tent while they enjoy the festival. Harvest Festival activities include maypole dancing, petting chickens, a blacksmith, and crafting with Duluth Folk School. Food available will include ice cream, coffee, lots of baked goods, tacos, fried fish, and much more. Artists and crafters from our western Lake Superior region will be showcasing and selling their wide variety of work from stone carvings to candles to recycled wool mittens. You can also expect to see a fleet of electric vehicles on display, thanks to Minnesota Power and the other utility companies of the Arrowhead region.

Harvest Festival strives to be a zero-waste event, which means that trash will look differently than at other events. We require all of our food vendors to use BPI-certified compostable serviceware, which will then go to WLSSD’s organics recycling to turn into garden soil. There will be only 4 waste stations at the festival, and this is on purpose. Volunteers from Eco-Rotary and others help visitors sort their waste so that it goes into the proper bin. Last year, we had only 8 bags of landfill waste after this all-day event, and that included waste that was already in the park!

The major sponsors of the 2025 Harvest Festival are Minnesota Power and Whole Foods Co-op. For a lineup of all the vendors, exhibitors, sponsors and activities, visit sfa-mn.org/harvest-festival. You can also see the festival map on our website. Follow us on Facebook for updates.

The Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association (LSSFA) hosts events to enhance our local food system. This year’s farmer-to-farmer field days include farm tours and educational events on silvopasture, growing flowers, and more. For more information, please visit our website www.sfa-mn.org/lake-superior/ or our Facebook page @lakesuperiorsustainablefarmingassociatoin. In addition, check out our new website for recipes featuring locally-produced food: www.RootsandRecipes.org, where you can submit your own recipes, too!