By Grace Gorenflo, For the Valley Record

Duvall’s March of the Vegetables saw its largest turnout yet on Saturday, March 30, once again marking the dawn of spring with promenading flowers and vegetables that wave hello.

Hundreds of costumed friends and families zigzagged through downtown Duvall, led by Seattle street band Filthy FemCorps, with the Cedarcrest High School drumline bringing up the rear. The procession ended at Depot Park where more gathered for live music, children’s activities and a Valley House Brewing Co. beer garden.

Betsy MacWhinney, a local since 1991, founded the parade in 2017 as a way to bring the community together in the name of a new growing season and the Snoqualmie Valley’s creatives. To keep things whimsical, MacWhinney said she doesn’t allow anyone to march in uniforms or carry signage with words or symbols. Dressing up as a vegetable, fruit or animal, however, is highly encouraged.

“What we want to avoid is having a lot of corporate vibe to it,” she said. “We want to keep it really off the beaten path.”

For an extra artistic kick, MacWhinney commissions two local artists — Dan Cautrell and Paula Strobel — to create pieces for the event. Cautrell, whose primary medium is woodcut printmaking, created a watchful praying mantis out of carved and stained wood, decorated with fabric drapings. The event, Cautrell said, is about both vegetables and friends of vegetables, his piece representing the latter.

Strobel, who primarily makes puppets and other toys, created two “vegetable people” — one with a tomato head, the other with a beet head — both dressed in detailed gowns with puppet-like arms that waved as they went through the parade.

Strobel also teamed up with Cryderman and his blues band Devils of Duvall to put on a puppet show at the parade’s afterparty. Vegetables and other figures made of painted cardboard danced to the tune of Cryderman’s original lyrics depicting the new season and life in the Valley.

“The parsnips promenade, their fellow onions on parade, while the carrots kick their heels up just for you,” Cryderman sang. “It’s the March of the Vegetables.”

Parade committee member Sarah Cassidy said March of the Vegetables has a deeper purpose not necessarily articulated: a celebration of the land.

“It is that rite of passage that so many farmers have at the beginning of the spring with their seed sowing,” she said. “A big celebration of gratitude and welcoming back the full circle of our seasons so that now we can start again and grow food and feed ourselves and others because of the goodness of the land.”

Cassidy, who co-owns The Grange restaurant and Hearth Farm, said it’s special that the Valley has preserved its “agrarian roots” when most towns would prefer to grow into a big city.

“It’s rare that there is a farming community,” she said. “Nobody can brag on that anymore.”

One reason the Valley remains undeveloped is its tendency to flood, which Cassidy and MacWhinney agree is a thing to be celebrated, despite the inconveniences it may cause.

“I was noticing that it was a small subset of residents that really understood why the Valley isn’t developed,” MacWhinney said. “I just thought, let’s make this into something we celebrate.”

Siri Erickson-Brown, a self-proclaimed pro-flood local farmer, appreciates the attention the parade draws to the Valley’s agriculture. Erickson-Brown owns Local Roots Farm and its accompanying brick and mortar farm shop in Duvall. Her hope is that people won’t just dress up as vegetables, but will eat some, too.

“If you live in Duvall or Carnation, or even up on Redmond Ridge, and you’re not … basking in the amazing food that this Valley is producing,” she said, “you’re missing out on one of the best things about living here.”

Seattle street band The Filthy FemCorps arrives at Depot Park after parading on Saturday, March 30. Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record

Artist Dan Cautrell poses with his wood-carved praying mantis at Depot Park on Saturday, March 30. Cautrell creates a new piece of art for each March of the Vegetables. Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record

A group of volunteers line up as the “March of the Vegetables” at Depot Park on Saturday, March 30. Artist Paula Strobel made the vegetable figures with cardboard and paint. Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record

A tomato person made by artist Paula Strobel sits at Depot Park on Saturday, March 30. Strobel likes to call the piece “a tomato in Russian dressing.” Photos by Grace Gorenflo/For the Valley Record