As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, The Rainier Valley Co-Op Preschool is holding their annual Fall Festival this Saturday, October 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The festival will be held in the 1700 block of Forest Street, in front of Beacon Lutheran Church.

The family event will include a block party, a dj dance party, live music by Eli Rosenblatt, bike parades on the hour, hot dogs, a bake sale, games for kids, a recycled toy shop, a treasure hunt in the sandbox, face painting, and more!

Neighbors of all ages are welcome to have fun and help support the preschool. Bring your bicycle if you want to be part of the bike parades.

Another fall activity will be taking place a bit further north on the hill at the same time (10 a.m. on October 8), where neighbors are invited to help harvest apples from the orchard at Dr. Jose Rizal Park. Most of the apples will become cider for the Beacon Hill Harvest Festival later this month, but some apples will also be available for your own baking. Craig Thompson writes:

Please come down to harvest the second crop of apples (tiny, tiny one last year, this year is much bigger); these apples are destined for the City Fruit apple press at the Oct. 22 Beacon Hill Harvest Festival, but there should be enough for your baking needs.

Now, these apples may have some bugs, but last year the winesaps I picked were still good for a significant pie.

We’ll have three fruit basket pickers (whatever they’re really called), plus some orchard ladders. We’ll also have all the containers necessary to hold the apples and transport them over to the Garden House, where the cider destined will cool in the basement until the Harvest Festival.

Forecast says it should be pretty nice in the late morning, too! So please take a wee bit to pick some fruit and, also, to check out the park. It’s really pretty magnificent now, and it will only get better!