FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 • TIMES 21 buzz QUEENS Onderdonk House’s annual Harvest Festival coming soon Ridgewood showed up for the 23rd annual Fresh Pond Road Italian Street Festival BY CRISTIN NOONAN [email protected] @RidgewoodTimes Friends and families of Ridgewood came together this past weekend for the Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens sponsored Fresh Pond Road Italian Street Festival. Held on both weekend days from noon until late (10 p.m. on Saturday and 9 p.m. for Sunday) and over the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the 23rd annual event was a great opportunity for the community to come together. Ridgewood had their pickings of food and attractions, and whether or not you were a kid, you joined in the fun and ate a bunch of fried Oreos, smashed a pink lemonade, and won a stuffed dinosaur playing one of the festivals many games. Out of the game selection Shoot out the Star involved shooting a (fake) gun, and the Ridgewood Times talked with one of its owners. Susan Cooke, part-owner of Shoot Out the Star, said about her new attraction that “my brother bought the trailer after it had been fl ooded from Hurricane Sandy.” Working festivals around the greater New York City area is a tradition that has been in her family for 60 years and Cooke tells the Ridgewood Times that “we used to travel all around Long Island.” Cooke’s partner in Shoot Out the Star is her ex-husband, and though they aren’t married anymore, Cooke smiles and endearingly notes that “we’re just buddies now.” Working festivals around the city is something that brought the two together initially and is something that continues to bring them together: “I fi rst met him when I was 7 years old and he was 12 and I had a crush on him, but it wasn’t until many years later that we got together.” There were funnel cakes, meat on sticks, pierogi, Polish sausage and, yeah, freaking fried Oreos. Scroll through the photos from the Fresh Pond Road Italian Street Festival and never forget what’s really important: family and friends. Photos: Cristin Noonan/RIDGEWOOD TIMES BY CRISTIN NOONAN [email protected] @RidgewoodTimes It’s that time of year again, Ridgewood: Come Saturday, Oct. 9, the community is invited to participate in Onderdonk House’s annual Harvest Festival. Lasting from noon to 5 p.m. over Columbus Day weekend, the event is conveniently situated in the earlier part of the month and before all the Halloween hootenanny begins. Partnering with the Kiwanis Club, the Onderdonk House has been putting this event on for more than 15 years. Originally the Harvest Festival existed as a Halloween event, “complete with costume parade,” said Linda Monte, president of the Greater R i d g e w o o d Historical Society. Its current form as the Harvest Festival is rooted in a rich Ridgewood history: “The Vander Ende Onderdonk House was once a farm with over 100 acres, so celebrating the harvest would be a special event for the Vander Ende’s and Onderdonks,” Monte explained. Since the fi rst 500 children will receive a free pumpkin, it behooves attendees to come before 3 p.m. To put things in perspective, Monte said that the Harvest Festival typically pulls in roughly 1,000 people. Pumpkins for the pumpkin patch hail from a distributor who gets them from both Long Island and Upstate. “I wish we could grow our own, just like the Dutch farmers, but that would take up too much space,” Monte said. Because pumpkin carving has the potential of getting a little out of hand and unsafe, the Harvest Festival will include pumpkin painting, which Monte said is “just as messy, but safer.” To really get your autumnal blood fl owing, besides pumpkins there are other cute and fun activities to participate in at the Harvest Festival. For example, volunteers from the Boy and Girl Scouts of America and other community organizations will be instructing people on how to make cider and candles. Mark your calendars for Oct. 9 and prepare yourself for some totally wholesome fall fun, Ridgewood! Save the date October 9th Photo courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society The pumpkin patch at a past Harvest Festival
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