It’s not every day that little kids get to hand-feed apples to a 2,000-pound shaggy beast on Whidbey Island.

The unusual scene was played out at Elizabeth Upton’s Candlewick Farm just north of San de Fuca Saturday. She invited residents to bring post-Halloween jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins, as well as apples, for her mini-herd of 15 bison.

Even with rainy weather, about 200 people showed up bearing more than 500 pumpkins, some whole and others carved with scary faces. The buffalo happily munched on the piles of broken gourds until they could eat no more.

“It’s like the buffalo went trick-or-treating, except everyone came here with the treats,” Upton said.

The star of the day was undoubtedly the king bull at the farm, a gentle giant named Cannonball. Upton estimates that the big lug with the giant head weighs more than a ton and he stands more than six feet tall at his hump.

Cannonball gently ate apples out of the hands of children brave enough to feed him.

Children and adults who stopped by the farm also got the chance to try some barbecued buffalo. Louis LaBombard, a professor at Skagit Valley College, grilled up some of the meat for folks to taste.

Hopefully, Cannonball and the other bison didn’t realize what was cooking.

Upton said next year she hopes to hold the event again, maybe with a cider press. If the weather is nice, she said LaBombard may give a talk about the legacy of the buffalo.

“The buffalo belong to all of us, especially the children,” Upton said. “They are a gift.”

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com.