20th Annual Harvest Supper

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Celebrating local food, farms, and community!

FARM-TO-TABLE FEAST - FACE PAINTING - NATURAL VEGGIE DYE ART-MAKING - LIVE MUSIC!

Every August the Franklin County community comes together to share the bountiful summer harvest! Farmers, local producers of goods, and talented chefs all donate their time, talent, and products to create an amazing meal served on the Greenfield Town Common!

This supper is made for neighbors, by neighbors! It takes a whole community to make a great community event. Hundreds of volunteers, over thirty farms, a dozen organizations, and countless home gardeners (and 1,000 hungry diners!) help make the Harvest Supper a success every year.

The meal is offered on a pay-what-you-can basis. We welcome anyone to give what they can to help defray the costs of the meal and contribute to Stone Soup's weekly programs. You can give online or send checks to “Stone Soup Café,” PO Box 57, Greenfield, MA 01302. Please note “Harvest Supper” on the check.

The "Free Farmer's Market" is another way community members can contribute to the Harvest Supper. Gardeners and farmers are welcome to bring the overflow of extra produce they have, and, per its name, all of the produce is free to take home. In past years, the produce offered has included peaches, apples, eggs, tomatoes, squash, greens, flowers, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, and more. To donate, just bring your veggies to the town common between 4pm and 5pm.

Event Schedule

4pm - Appetizers are served

4:30pm - Food Line Opens

6:30pm - Food Line Closes

7:00pm - Harvest Supper ends

DONATE

SPONSOR THE EVENT

History of Harvest Supper

Photo by Geoff Bluh: Juanita and Wally at the Greenfield Farmer's Market 1996

The Harvest Supper was created when a group of passionate farmers, foodies, and community advocates believed that all our neighbors should be able to access the amazing abundance of food in our happy valley. It was started in 2005 by Juanita Nelson. She was an ardent pacifist, war tax resister, civil rights activist, and supporter of local, organic agriculture. She and her husband, Wally, helped found the Pioneer Valley War Tax Resisters, the Greenfield Farmers Market, and the Valley Community Land Trust. After Wally's death in 2002, she was instrumental in launching Greenfield’s "Free Harvest Supper," which has since become an annual tradition in the community ever since!

Nelson, a lifelong activist arrested numerous times at tax resistance and civil rights protests during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, moved to Deerfield with her husband, Wally, in 1974 to practice organic farming.

For the Nelsons, encouraging people to grow their own food and to support local farming as part of the local economy was another expression of their all-encompassing nonviolence, expressing their will through their lives against agribusiness and an exploitative economic system. Juanita Nelson died in 2015 at the age of 91.

Listen to a Podcast about Juanita Nelson

Sponsor the Event!

Showcase your business to over 150 volunteers and hundreds of Greenfield residents!

Help us fund this uniquely Greenfield event and support the ongoing mission of Stone Soup Café.

We have multiple sponsorship levels available for this year’s 20th Annual Harvest Supper. (See adjacent image.)

DEADLINE TO SPONSOR IS AUGUST 1, 2025.

If you’d like to be a sponsor, please go to our giving page here: givebutter.com/sponsor-stone-soup or send a check to Stone Soup Café PO Box 57, Greenfield MA 01302

SPONSOR THE EVENT