Buffalo to pig out on gourds
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Some giant, shaggy creatures that live behind barbed wire near Oak Harbor will have to wait until the day after Halloween to get their treats.
Elizabeth Upton, owner of Candlewick Farm and a mini-herd of a dozen bison, is hosting the first Pumpkin Party Saturday for kids 12 years old and younger. Families are invited to bring carved jack-o-lanterns, uncut pumpkins, along with other foods like apples, bananas and bread, to feed to the beasts.
It’s the perfect chance to get rid of those after-Halloween pumpkins and meet some of the biggest animals on Whidbey. Cannonball, the patriarch buffalo at the farm, towers over the other members of the herd and weighs an impressive 2,000 pounds.
“It’s a nice little fall thing to do with kids,” Upton said, “and this way the pumpkins don’t go to waste.”
The pumpkin and buffalo party will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will also be refreshments, storytelling and photos with Muffy the tame buffalo.
During a trial run of the pumpkin feast Tuesday, Dulinda Hawkins brought her grandchildren, 4-year-old Lauren and 2-year-old Mason, to feed the buffalo. It took a while for the animals to figure out what to do with the big gourds. They rolled the pumpkins around with their noses until Upton cracked them open. Then the bison weren’t shy about tasting them.
Muffy, a buffalo that Upton bottle fed as a tiny baby, currently lives in a separate fenced pen with her two calves. Tuesday, she reached through the fence to greedily munch on the jack-o-lanterns that the children held.
Many kids in Oak Harbor are already familiar with Muffy the bison. Upton hosts field trips for school classes at the farm. The focus is on the environment and Native American culture.
Upton said Muffy has even had some national exposure. She said a News-Times photograph of the buffalo with a giant American flag behind it was buried at Ground Zero in New York along with other memorabilia and items from each state.
Upton is also working on an illustrated children’s book about Muffy, which she hopes to finish next year.
“It’s good to share the buffalo with everyone,” she said. “They are such a gift.”
You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at
jstensland@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/whidbeynewstimes or call 675-6611.
