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:

• blueberry goat milk soap
• blueberry lemonade
• blueberry smoothies
• blueberry fabric quilted items
• blueberry tie-dyed clothing
• blueberry baked goods including gluten-free & dairy-free: short-cake, pies, muffins, buckle, scones, tea cakes, pancakes
• blueberry cider
• blueberry jams, jellies & preserves
• blueberry granola
• blueberry & pineapple tamales

PLUS:

• Enter our FREE drawing – Win prizes
  • Anson Tebbetts, Vermont’s Secretary of Agriculture, Food & Markets will facilitate the drawing with the help of some youngsters.
• Meet special guests: descendants of the high-bush blueberry developer, Frederick V. Coville
• Enjoy free, family-friendly entertainment
• 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 was 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.

• Visit Vermont
• Find and Go Seek
• Everfest

The 2018 Vermont Blueberry Festival at Craftsbury Farmers Market was generously supported by these incredibly community-minded businesses.