To the editor:

Friends of the Farms wants to thank the 125 volunteers, and the more than 2,200 visitors who helped turn the 18th annual Harvest Fair at Johnson Farm into a rip-roaring success.

The event welcomed people from Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County and the world (Japan! New Zealand!) onto publicly owned farmland to listen to music, square-dance, cider press, hayride, land-slide, sample obscure varieties of apples and pears — thanks to the B.I. Fruit Club — and fill up on the some of Bainbridge’s best local food vendors.

Preserving public farmland puts Bainbridge Island at the forefront of landscape preservation, creating opportunities for farmers to remain an integrated part of the community and to offer their produce to the local market. Events like Harvest Fair help raise awareness for Friends of the Farms, which manages 60 acres of public farmland right here on Bainbridge, as well as the array of fresh food and farming happening right in their back yard! But more importantly, Harvest Fair gives the public a good reason to get out and enjoy the farms they help support.

ERIN HILL

Bainbridge Island