About 60 members of the Glenorchy community made the most of a stunning autumn day yesterday to celebrate the inaugural Head of the Lake Harvest Festival.
Rural Women Glenorchy branch president Kate Scott said the event had been a bit of an "experiment" to see if it was something the community wanted on its annual calendar.
"It's a Rural Women's thing ... We just thought we'd give it a whirl and see what happened.
"It's partly come through discussions after the [Glenorchy] flower show.
"A lot of people aren't into growing flowers, but they are into growing veggies.
"We said 'maybe we could do something about it'."
The community - which has a fluctuating resident population sitting at about 300 during peak season - was encouraged to show off their best produce, with categories including the best harvest display basket; the "king of the root vegetables"; the "vegetable oddity", awarded to the "weirdest growth"; the "super-sized spud"; the best "leafy leviathan" (big and green); "herb heaven" for home-grown herbs; and the "best vegetable effort", an open category for "other" vegetables.
A super-sized spud and a deformed capsicum were both medallists, while "Richie McCorn" was a crowd favourite in the "best-dressed vegetable" category.
Additionally, the committee held competitions for home cooks, whose efforts were first judged and then devoured by the community.
Home cooks were encouraged to enter the "loafing around" (bread) category; one of three pie categories ("sweetie pie", "savoury pie" and "you little tart"); the "dazzling dessert"; "in a pickle" (best jar of pickles) and "fruiti tutti" (best jar of fruit).
After judging, all of the breads, pies and desserts were served up to the community at its first "long lunch" - a pot luck event designed to help everyone catch up, Ms Scott said.
"Over summer it's so busy and everybody's flat out. By this time of year everything's quietening down [so we thought] it would be a nice idea to get everyone together."
The festival also harked back to the days of the Glenorchy School picnic, with organisers ensuring lots of fun for the young and young at heart.
Ms Scott said the annual picnic in the 1960s was a "real community event", with apple bobbing, three-legged races, egg and spoon races, sack races and wheelbarrow races - all of which were hotly contested yesterday morning.
The event - which cost $1 to enter a category - raised about $150 for the Glenorchy first response team and looked likely to become an annual event.
