Fall color and harvest plenty will fill a historic part of Cambridge near Harvard Square during the Second Cambridge Urban-Ag Fair on Sunday, September 19 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fair celebrates local gardens, produce growers and food producers. It's free and open to the public.

The central location is Winthrop Park, located on JFK Street between Winthrop and Mt. Auburn (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl). Displays, information booths and vendors will spread from the park into adjacent areas along Brattle Square and Mt. Auburn Street between Eliot and JFK Streets.

Veggies, fruits, flowers, baked goods, honey, preserves and pickles are some of the treats that will be on exhibit for competition or simply to be admired and—in some cases anyway—to be tasted. Local chefs, restauranteurs, beekeepers and brewers will share expertise, along with experts on composting, water collection and other horticultural specialties.

Information displays will include a Cambridge Conservation Commission booth featuring possibilities for container gardening, the city's pick-a-pocket gardens, and other ways for residents to exercise or develop their green thumbs, according to Director Jennifer Wright. There'll be information about the city’s 13 community gardens, but these are not being promoted actively right now because at the moment they're all filled up.

“Right now there’s a long waiting list for garden plots—close to 300 names,” Wright said.

At a recent City Council meeting Vice-Mayor Henrietta Davis, Chair of the City’s Environment Committee, noted the growth in popularity of community gardens, and said that possibilities for more space are being investigated. Details of the discussion and plans for the fair are at http://www.cambridgema.gov/cityClerk/CommitteeReport.cfm?instance_id=540.

Winthrop Park was the original market square for what is now Cambridge; the city was known as Newtowne back when the streets were laid out in the 1630s. A history of the area by Charles M. Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission is on line at http://www.cambridgema.gov/~historic/hsqhistory1.html. The account includes maps of how the area developed from its early configuration to today’s layout.

More information about the fair is on line at the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA), http://www.harvardsquare.com/Home/Articles/Second-Annual-Urban-Ag-Fair.aspx, and at http://www.urbacult.com/. Sponsors of the event are HSBA, Grendel’s Den and Gus’s Grown-Up Soda.

Photos of cherry tomatoes, zucchini and New England asters are from Field of Dreams community garden plots, corner of Akron and Banks.