Homedale Harvest Festival

Pies, pumpkins, and foam in Bette Uda Park

The Homedale Chamber of Commerce fills Bette Uda City Park, on East Idaho in Homedale, with vendor booths and food trucks one Saturday each fall. The 2026 Harvestfest, the third, ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. The program held the contests the chamber called “as usual”: pumpkin carving, pie baking, and pie eating. Kids’ games ran through the day, and the Homedale Police Department hosted what the chamber called “the good old-fashioned games.” Les Schwab’s Fast Pitch machine returned. Among the shopping was a Young Entrepreneurs Marketplace, and Hop House ran a beer and wine garden.

The Homedale Assembly of God church served as master of ceremonies and supplied the music. Two features were new for 2026: a candy cannon, courtesy of Provision Insurance, and an afternoon foam party, put on by Foamatomic. The day after, the chamber wrote: “From the great weather and entertainment (Foamatomic we all loved you!) to the candy cannon (thanks for the sugar rush Provision Insurance), contests, shopping, food, and family activities, it was a day to remember!” In the same post the chamber gave the festival’s fixed date: the last Saturday of September each year.

The chamber’s president is Leslie Griffith, a realtor, and its vice president is Shelly Lee. Volunteers staff the day. In its thanks the chamber called them “can’t do this without you.”

Two parks and a bus, 2024

The festival first ran on Saturday, October 5, 2024, as Homedale’s Hometown Harvestfest. It was held in conjunction with the Homedale Assembly of God’s 10th annual classic car and bike show. In July of that year the Owyhee Avalanche listed both events at Riverside Park. Its report after the event placed the car show at Bette Uda City Park, with a Homedale Chamber of Commerce bus shuttling people between the two parks. The city’s own events page still describes the festival as held at Riverside Park and throughout the downtown area.

The Avalanche ran its coverage under the headline “Harvestfest gets a jump on Halloween.” Its photographs showed children at the pumpkin carving contest and the winning pumpkins wearing judges’ ribbons. “It went amazingly well for the first time,” Griffith told the paper. “The vendors were overall happy and excited about the event, and we had decent attendance for the first one, too.” By 2026 the festival had moved to Bette Uda Park, the car show’s 2024 grounds.

Ferry, rails, and the crops around town

The harvest the festival is named for comes from the ground around Homedale, the largest town in Owyhee County. Its farms grow alfalfa seed, sugar beets, potatoes, corn, and grain. Across the Snake River the land produces hops and wine grapes. According to the city’s history, the Union Pacific line built in 1913 to Nyssa, Oregon, together with irrigation, turned the county into a productive farming region.

Before the railroad there was the river crossing. Jacob Mussell, the first known permanent settler, built a ferry boat in 1898 to carry people over the Snake. The first bridge across the river followed. The city’s history dates it 1921 in its text and 1920 in a photograph caption.

A large number of people of Austrian heritage live south of town in an area called Austrian Town. Land speculators drew them to Homedale in 1914 by “selling” them the ground. When the settlers arrived, they found the land undeveloped and still had to buy it from the government.

Homedale was officially established in 1920. A mayor and council were seated, and the town’s name, the city history says, was chosen by drawing names from a hat.