The end of summer was officially marked by the Danish Days celebration last weekend in Solvang.

The weather was beautiful, with a feel of fall in the air, as the Danish folk dancers performed on the streets to the music of the Village Band, high atop the Carlsberg Beer Wagon.

Karen the kids and I got home from watching the Danish Days Parade around 6 p.m. As we went about feeding our chickens, dogs and horse, I noticed a cool breeze coming out of the north. The usually bright sunlight of summer had definitely changed to a softer hue. Fall was in the air.

I looked out at the syrah grapevines planted on the hills behind our home and began to notice some yellow and red leaves on vines, where the soil is a little weaker.

Sunday morning, I awoke around 5 a.m., got up and made some coffee while the house was nice and quiet. It was a good time for me to think about a busy week coming up.

Our little boy, Clayton, passed by the kitchen, nodding his head and giving me a quick “Good morning, Dad” on his way in to snuggle up with Mom. I looked out our front window and could barely make out the chardonnay vines and the hills beyond with the first wisps of fog flowing up and over the oak-covered hills, and finally down into the vines lined up in the fields below. Soon the fog pushed its way up the canyon and fully engulfed our house. Around 8:30, the sun’s rays began making their way through, and by 9:30, the last of the lingering mist had disappeared.

Wine-grape harvest should be in full swing by the end of this week. During the next 30 days, growers will be bringing in 90 percent of the fruit grown in Santa Barbara County for 2008. It is, as I told you in my last column, an exciting time on our vineyards, and a time for both cautious optimism and celebration.

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Many communities up and down the Central Coast continue to celebrate this time of year. Arroyo Grande has its Harvest Festival, and of course Solvang has Danish Days, which was first held 72 years ago, for the most part to showcase the Danish heritage. But I would like to think that because most of the folks living in Solvang and the valley were tied to a more agrarian way of life, they were celebrating the end of a summer of hard work. Harvesters had finished cutting the golden fields of barley that used to dot the valley floor. Bales of alfalfa and oat hay were stacked in the barns, awaiting the winter rains. Silage for the valley’s dairies was cut and stored as well.

Today, several farm groups use this time of year to remind an ever-increasing non-agrarian society that farming is still an important segment of our communities.

The Central Coast Wine Growers’ Association holds its annual pre-harvest celebration and fundraiser near the beautiful Foxen Vineyard in mid-August.

This year, the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau will hold its second annual Celebrate Harvest fundraiser and dinner on Oct. 18. This year’s event will again be held at Joe Carrari’s historic Rancho Alamo, just west of the quaint town of Los Alamos. It is co-sponsored by the county Farm Bureau’s Growing Agricultural Awareness Through Education (GAATE) Foundation.

The event held inside and out of Rancho Alamo’s historic barns will showcase a farmers market, complete with fresh vegetables that folks can purchase and take home; a silent auction and wine-tasting; a Santa Maria-style barbecue prepared by long-time area cattleman and master barbecuer Ernie Righetti and his top-notch crew; and dancing to the music of the valley’s own Foss Brothers to round out the early afternoon and evening.

You can call the Farm Bureau office at 688-7479 for tickets to this great event.

The mission statement for our Farm Bureau is to “represent and promote agriculture in Santa Barbara County.” The GAATE Foundation “strives to promote and increase awareness, understanding and appreciation for agriculture in Santa Barbara County.” These two organizations are key to keeping our beautiful county the special place it is to live and raise our families.

The pressures of staying in business are higher today in agriculture than they have ever been. Farmers and ranchers today are faced with urban sprawl and unnecessary, redundant and costly regulations written by politicians who have no real understanding of agriculture and the sustainable farming techniques used in the 21st century.

That is why it is so important to come out and support the Farm Bureau and the GAATE Foundation, as we try to educate our legislators, the general non-agrarian public and regulatory communities, so farmers and ranchers from Santa Barbara County can continue to provide the beautiful open spaces and remain great stewards of the land, while providing the safest, most plentiful food supply that too many people take for granted day after day.

I hope to see you at the second annual “Celebrate Harvest” event. Come out and enjoy a day in the country and help keep agriculture viable right here at home.

Kevin Merrill is a vineyard manager for Mesa Vineyard Management in Santa Maria. He serves on the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau Board of directors and is president of the Central Coast Wine Growers’ Association Foundation. He can be reached at kmerrill@mesavineyard.com.