Roast Master Tami Williamson, of Home Town Coffee Roasters in Arlington, has set up shop at every Morrow County Harvest Festival since it began three years ago.

The bounty was plentiful both inside and outside the SAGE Center during Saturday’s third annual Morrow County Harvest Festival.

More than 30 vendors from across Eastern Oregon set up to showcase their homemade and homegrown goods, including everything from fresh produce to art, crafts, jewelry and quilts.

SAGE Center Manager Kalie Davis said the festival, which drew approximately 1,000 visitors last year, is a fun way to bring the community together and give people an opportunity to share their talents.

“Our whole goal is to provide free activities for families,” Davis said.

The event is presented by the SAGE Center, in conjunction with the Boardman, Irrigon and Heppner chambers of commerce. While the focus is primarily on local agriculture, there were plenty of other items to pique shoppers’ interests.

Upstairs, Del and Phyllis Piper manned their booth with a selection of homemade Raggedy Ann-style dolls. The couple, which used to own Del’s Market in Lexington before retiring, has attended every Harvest Festival since it began.

Phyllis Piper originally began making dolls for her two daughters nearly 50 years ago. She bought the original pattern for 35 cents, and figures she’s made several hundred dolls over the course of about 10 years.

“Little girls just love them,” she said. “They’re soft and cuddly.”

Raggedy Ann is a legendary creation, Phyllis said, and continues to be enormously popular. Plus, making the dolls is a way to keep her busy.

“I do an assembly line, maybe six at a time,” she said. “I just like to keep busy.”

In addition to Phyllis’ dolls, Del showed off his book of nature photography, poems and short stories titled “The Legends of Mud Hollow,” which he published in 2011. The majority of his shots are of elk in the Blue Mountains, which he captures using infrared, motion-triggered trail cameras.

“These things are wilder than rolling thunder,” he said.

Across the room, Dave and Carmen Williams, also of Lexington, set up their table with a wide variety of leather key chains, wallets, coin purses, handmade towels and wood carved accessories.

Dave Williams figures he’s been crafting for about 10 years now since retiring.

“You’ve got to do something other than play golf,” he said with a smile. “Otherwise, you’ll go nuts.”

Outside the museum, kids could go on horse and buggy rides, race through a maze or paint their own pumpkins. Local farmers set up shop to sell some of the region’s famous produce, such as watermelons, sweet onions, potatoes and peppers.

Davis said she hopes out-of-town visitors would come away with a sense of how important farming is to Morrow County.

“Agriculture is obviously a huge industry for us here,” she said. “It provides thousands of jobs. It really boosts the economy here, and provides a lot of growth.”

Craft beverages from Sno Road Winery of Echo and Ordnance Brewing of Boardman, were on hand for sampling. Fresh coffee, courtesy of Home Town Coffee Roasters in Arlington, was also available.

Roast Master Tami Williamson said she got started four years ago, and sales have been steadily and progressively improving. She buys her beans from an importer in Seattle, which delivers in 150-pound bags to her garage.

Coffee roasting has been a dream of Williamson’s ever since she used to work for the state Employment Department in The Dalles.

“I was sitting in my cubicle and dreaming of being a coffee roaster,” she said. “What I like (about the Harvest Festival) is meeting people and telling them about my business. It gets me out there and meeting face-to-face with people.”

Admission to the Morrow County Harvest Festival is free, which Davis said is unusual for an event of its size. The goal, she said, is for people to spend their money instead on the cornucopia of local goods on full display.

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Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.