Discovery Days

A Hands-On Adventure for the Whole Family

Saturday, Sept. 13 and Sunday, Sept.14

11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

 Admission: Adults $5, Children $3, children 2 & under free

Discovery Days is all about trying something new! This interactive fair invites families to roll up their sleeves and dive into hands-on experiences. Admission includes free tours of our gardens, alpaca pastures, bee hives, and renewable energy features—plus fun activities like scavenger hunts, making alpaca beads, wind dangles, and more. Additional activities like making butter, crafting a backyard bird feeder, trying hammer dyeing, or assembling a sprouting jar are available for a small materials fee. Whether you're exploring or creating, Discovery Days is your chance to discover, play, and learn—together.

 

 Activities

  • Build a backyard feeder
  • Use a hammer to extract natural pigments from plants and flowers onto fabric.
  • Try your hand at butter making the old-fashioned way and take home your tasty treat.
  • Mold fiber from our alpacas into beads.
  • Taste some edible plants and learn how to identify them.
  • Create your own sprouting jar and add some nutrition onto your next salad or sandwich.
  • Fashion a wind dangle by combining natural and man-made materials.
  • On Saturday, make a wood pendant on a lathe with Harold Solberg, an experienced woodturner.
  • Shop the farm stand or gift shop.
  • Take a free tour to explore the gardens, visit bee hives, encounter alpacas, or learn about renewable energy.
  • And much more!

 

Tours

 

11:45 Amazing Alpacas

12:15 Edible Plant walk

12:45 Chickens & Goats

1:15 The Buzz on Bees

 

1:45 Edible Plant walk

2:15 Amazing Alpacas

2:45 Renewable Energy

3:15 Amazing Alpacas

 Food

Delicious food from Zaytuna’s Kitchen will be available in addition to hot dogs, veggie dogs, brats, and corn-on-the-cob. As you eat, relax in the shade near the alpaca pasture.
 

        

  

Pre-registration is required for:

Paint-a-'Paca

Art teacher Vicki Schmitz will teach you how to paint an alpaca using actual alpacas as models. Register here.
   

 

Yoga with Alpacas

Join the herd in the pasture as you practice yoga while the alpacas wander around you. Register here.

 

 

Enter to win our $1,000 Sweepstakes!

Tickets are $3 each, $15 for 6, or $30 for 12. (No purchase necessary. Purchase will not increase odds of winning.) Click here for tickets.

Drawing will take place after 4pm on Sunday, September 14. You do not need to be present to win. 1 out of 24,000 chances to win.

If you'd like to enter without purchase, email with your name, phone, and email address.

Proceeds raised during Eco-J Discovery Days…

  • Contributes towards garden production – over 30% of which is donated to the Northside Food Pantry
  • Buys 160 bales of hay for more than 40 animals on the farm
  • Purchases 58 bags of chicken feed
  • Pays for vet care for our alpacas & goats
  • Contributes towards education of school groups, summer camp children, and visitors

 

Be a 2025 Discovery Days Volunteer!

We could use your time and talent! You may be helping people make beads out of alpaca fiber, scoop ice cream, serve food, direct parking, collect tickets; the list goes on!  For more information and to let us know you're interested in volunteering, please fill out this form. Thank you for supporting Eco-J! 

 

Thank you to our 2025 Discovery Days Sponsors!

Discovery Days is Eco-J's largest and most important fundraiser of the year. Discovery Days sponsors are individuals or businesses that make financial or in-kind donations to assist with printing, signage, food, and more.

   
     

 

 

If you or a business you know would like to be a Discovery Days sponsor, email us!

$1000 Sponsorship of the sweepstakes grand prize

Ten admission tickets for Discovery Days, the opportunity to distribute informational brochures at our sweepstakes table, your logo in all social media and print advertising, acknowledgment in “Rooted in Hope” (the Eco-Justice Newsletter sent to 1300 homes), inclusion on our website and in our sponsor directory, a letter of recognition for your support.

$500 Sponsorship 

Four admission tickets for Discovery Days, your logo in all social media and print advertising, acknowledgment in “Rooted in Hope” (the Eco-Justice Newsletter sent to 1300 homes), inclusion on our website and in our sponsor directory, a letter of recognition for your support.

$250 Sponsorship 

Your logo in all social media and print advertising, acknowledgment in “Rooted in Hope” (the Eco-Justice Newsletter sent to 1300 homes), inclusion on our website and in our sponsor directory, a letter of recognition for your support.