“Bigger seeds leave bigger gaps,” says Daniel Frey. “Smaller seeds, pretty good coverage.” This is one of many lessons the artist and stay-at-home dad, 37, learned when he started designing the Harvest Monument for Mt. Angel Oktoberfest. Based on Die Fruchtsäule (direct translation: the fruit column) at Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest, the tower will stand by the Glockenspiel at the intersection of Charles and Garfield during this year’s Mt. Angel event, running September 17–20. The largest Oktoberfest in the Northwest, the celebration turns 60 this year.

Frey has also learned that yellow split peas and white navy beans look good on their own but that red quinoa can use a little boost from paint, and that cream of rice becomes translucent in wood glue. Phillis Schmidt, who designed the monument for more than two decades before retiring in 2023, warned him that some grains might sprout on him, goofing up the careful design on the eight wood panels that slide into the tower’s frame.

While the grapes, cabbages, and handful of wilt-prone flowers surrounding the panels are fake—otherwise “they would look terrible by the second day,” Frey says—the apples, onions, and gourds are all the real thing, picked up at local farms or from Frey’s grandparents’ apple trees. 

Impaling them on nails poking from the plywood is part of the Harvest Monument’s final assembly the Tuesday before the fest starts, with help from family, friends, and volunteers. “It takes a crew to put that all together,” Frey says. “It’s a lot of stapling of hops on all the edges.”

The seed-covered wood panels from past years show up around the festival venues as decoration. The tableaux of fresh fruits and veggies are more ephemeral, their parts bound for the compost heap or for farm animals.