A couple of scarecrows hard at work at Sky Top Orchard in Zirconia. Photos by Tim Robison
We at Bold Life love a theme. And so we were pleased, following our discovery and interrogation of a former professional scarecrow at the Land of Oz theme park (see feature story in this issue), to find this panoply of scarecrows hard at work at Sky Top Orchard in Zirconia.
Land O’ Sky Garden Club of Hendersonville created the more than 30 playful figures. The local group engages in significant community outreach year round (including offering scholarships and beautifying local hospitals and hospice centers). Member Laurie Bakke notes that the old scarecrows at Sky Top had grown frayed from years of weather, and that orchard co-owner Lindsey Butler asked the garden club for help.
With its U-pick acreage, kids’ attractions, and open-air market, Sky Top is a hugely popular destination during apple season, generally from August through the early winter holidays. “We love having scarecrows, but between growing the apples, harvesting them, and [running the orchard], we don’t have time to keep them up,” explains Butler. She praises the new scarecrows, made from old clothing and other recycled materials, as “astoundingly creative,” and identifies the beekeeping scarecrow as one of her favorites.
Bakke reports that the garden club split up into small groups and accomplished its scarecrow-making mission in only two weeks. She’s partial to the figures her own group created: straw-stuffed likenesses of the whole Butler family. “It really was a great amount of fun,” she says.
Visit Skytoporchard.com for more information.