Editor's note: This photo essay is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. Please check out the photos in the carousel above.

BATTLE CREEK, MI — On the last Sunday in September about 75 people attended an autumn harvest festival at Of The Land on H Drive North in Marshall Township.

Bridget Blough, a co-owner of Of The Land, says this was the third year for the event and the second including the Free To Bloom home school co-op. After a meal, provided on the premises, people were able to pick pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes, and squash, or walk around the 30,000 square feet of landscaped gardens.

Blough and her husband and co-owner, Trent Thompson, are thrilled to have the public visit their place. “We love that people are gathering here, that’s what we’re about.”

Haylee Ferguson’s five-year-old daughter, Nora, is a second-grader at the home school co-op, Free To Bloom, which operates at Of The Land. She says students attend the co-op Monday through Wednesday and then get homework from the teacher to continue learning at home.

“It’s more of a holistic approach learning off the land and book work too,” she says.

Students and parents sold produce at the harvest festival and staffed informational displays about the school, which is in its second year of operation.

Mike McKim, who was helping his son Graham, a Free To Bloom student, learn to sell chocolates, describes the event as, “Good food, good people, and good stuff.”

Kate Antoniotti of Kalamazoo, who walked with her children to pick pumpkins, says, “This is an incredibly cool place!”