Fun, Prizes & Surprises!
Saturday – July 27, 2019 – 10am – 1pm
Craftsbury Common, VT
A Free Family-Friendly Blueberry Festival in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom
- Enter free drawing each Saturday from June 29th through July 27th for hundreds of dollars in Craftsbury Farmers “Market Money” & Other Prizes.
- Enter the Vermont Blueberry Festival Pie Contest to Win $50 in “Market Money”. New this year. Bakers, here’s your chance to see how your best blueberry pie recipe stacks up with other baker’s pies. Download the entry form including the rules here.
NOTE: Craftsbury Farmers “Market Money” is redeemable at any Craftsbury Farmers’ Market vendor through October 5th.
The 4th annual Vermont Blueberry Festival at Craftsbury Farmers Market is free and everyone is invited. Enjoy the festivities on the stunning Craftsbury Common town green. Bring your camera! Craftsbury Farmers’ Market vendors get creative for our Vermont Blueberry Festival and produce blueberry & pollinator themed products especially for this event like:
- Alder Hardt Ironworks / Alder Hardt: blueberries
- Chole’s Authentic Mexican Food / Chole Adams: blueberry & pineapple tamales
- Harvesting Vitality / Catie Pazandak: Bilberry (European Blueberry) and Goji berry herbal honey
- Hawthorn Meadow Farmstead / Liz Echeverria: blueberry crepe recipe kits with fresh blueberries and crepe mix
- Newfield Herb Farm / Peggy Newfield: Blueberry themed material on relaxing herb pillows
- Nomadic Roots Studio & Kitchen / Nancy Van Winkle: Blueberry kombucha
- Raz’s Simple Smoothies / Raz Mille: blueberry, kiwi, apple smoothies
- Richardson Road Bakery / Susan Schulman: blueberry-flavored coffee, blueberry French macarons, blueberry wheat-free donuts
- Taste of Country / E&T’s Lemonade: blueberry lemonade and blueberry goodies
- VT Oma’s Art / Sheila Lapoint: muslin bags with hand-painted blueberry designs
- Wandering Brook Farms / Jodi & John Smith: Blueberry jelly donuts, blueberry bagels with blueberry cream cheese, jars of jam, blueberry crisp, Blueberry cheesecake
- Whale Song / Margarita Echeverria: blueberry ice cream
- Wild Branch Valley Farm / Kris Coville: blueberry shortcake
- Wilson Herb Farm / Lindsay Sedore: Blueberry Herbal Vinegar
- Wood & Grass / Travis Reynolds: blueberry pop tarts
PLUS:
- Enter our FREE drawing – Win prizes
- Each Saturday from June 29th through July 27th, enter our drawing for $100s in “Market Money” and other prizes.
- Free, family-friendly circus music by Gordon’s Granite Calliope, perhaps the only “rock” in the world that performs. Here’s a Seven Days “Stuck in Vermont” episode (June 6, 2019) of Gordon’s Granite Calliope at a Groton, VT supper.
- Meet special guests: descendants of the high-bush blueberry developer, Frederick V. Coville
- Pie baking contest – Win $50 – Entry Form
- Blueberry & pollinators theme face-painting
- Free caricatures
- Bouncy house
Did you know?
- The 3rd Annual (2018) Vermont Blueberry Festival at Craftsbury Farmers Market was selected as a “#1 Must See, Must Do Event” by Seven Days, Vermont’s Independent Voice Weekly.
- Native blueberry shrubs have been around for tens of thousands of years.
- Blueberry is a native shrub that was grown by Native Americans.
- In the 1900s, Dr. Frederick Vernon Coville of the USDA, with New Jersey resident Elizabeth White, a commercial cranberry grower, selected blueberry shrubs from the wild and crosses that formed the basis of highbush varieties available today.
- Descendants of Dr. Frederick Vernon Coville live in Craftsbury, VT.
- Coville is a popular variety of the highbush blueberry in the Vaccinium genus (Vaccinium corymbosum ‘Coville’).
- “The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of blueberries, harvesting a total of 564.4 million pounds of cultivated and wild blueberries in 2012. More than 473.3 million pounds of cultivated blueberries were harvested, and about 60 percent were sold as fresh blueberries.” –foodreference.com
- “Blueberries are the 2nd most important commercial berry crop in the United States, with a total crop value of nearly $850.9 million in 2012. (Strawberries are number 1)” –foodreference.com
- “North America produces nearly 90% of world blueberry production (2005).” –foodreference.com
- “The blueberry bush is a relative of the rhododendron and the azalea.” –huffingtonpost.com
- “Blueberries protect against memory loss. A 2012 study suggested that eating at least one serving of blueberries a week slowed cognitive decline by several years. One possible explanation as to why came from a 2013 study in mice, which found that berries might protect the brain by clearing toxic proteins that accumulate there.” –huffingtonpost.com
- “One of the best facts about blueberries is that such a tasty treat is also highly nutritious. In fact, the nutritional value of blueberries is so off-the-charts high that you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything healthier to put in your mouth. Blueberries, quite simply, are one of the healthiest foods on the planet.” –backyard-gardening-fun.com
- “Researchers have found blueberries to be higher in anti-oxidants than any other fruit or vegetable tested. By combating free-radicals in our bodies, anti-oxidants help protect against cancer and delay the aging process. But that’s not all, there’s evidence that blueberries can reduce urinary tract infections and protect against heart disease, too.” –Vern Grubinger, UVM Vegetable and Berry Specialist
- July is National Blueberry Month.
The Vermont Blueberry Festival at Craftsbury Farmers Market is one of many Vermont festivals celebrating some aspect of life here. Check out these websites to find more Vermont family-friendly festivals and events.