By Aditi Rao

The usually quiet, almost clinical atmosphere of Weyerhauser was absent on Nov. 6. Instead, a combination of fall festivity and Macalester-hippy emanated from the Board Room. The reason was Harvest Feast, a potluck with music and dance performances that was organized and hosted by the MULCH student-community garden and the Veggie Coop.

MULCH is “devoted to gardening, sustainable foods and vegetable eating,” according to the MULCH website. The Veggie Coop is the group of students notorious for living under the football bleachers and indulging in home-cooked, organic vegetarian fare. Harvest Feast was a culmination of the annual harvesting season, featuring a potluck made with food from the MULCH garden, music by the Flying Fingers and performances by the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. When the event began streams of students were pouring in and out. The ambiance was embellished by folk music Flying Fingers, a group of four musicians on fiddles, guitars and violins. The fresh from the garden food included squash soup, pumpkin pie, kale chips and a variety of other fall delights. It was no wonder then that the food was out in barely any time.

“It was like biting into a squash fresh from the garden,” Harry Kent ’13 said.

As the food ran out, people began petering away in search of other events on campus, but many of them returned when the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers took center stage.

The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers is a non-profit educational organization committed to preserving Appalachian clogging as a dance form by putting on workshops and performances around Minnesota. Their dancing incorporated dance styles ranging from Irish tap dance to square-dancing that all contained an infectious energy. The female dancers dressed Little Women-esque costumes and men in flannel shirts. The 40 or so members of audience sat with their eyes open, tapping their fingers and bobbing their heads to the rhythm of the dance and music.

To end the performance, the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers invited the audience to join in a square-dancing lesson. The audience gathered in a huge circle and with a few instructions, soon everyone was dancing with partners to music played by the Flying Fingers.

Harvest Feast couldn’t have been a more upbeat welcome to the long months of Minnesotan winter ahead.