On a September afternoon at Westport’s Essex County Fairgrounds, a farmers’ market on steroids is underway. People stroll booth to booth and table to table along a loop of growers and bakers and makers. Bread, beer, beef, bouquets, cheese, pastries, apples, pork, pies, berries, garlic, mushrooms, wine, jam—it’s all here. Kids compete in potato-sack races, get their faces painted and ride ponies. There’s a straw-bale toss competition. A draft horse–drawn wagon trundles about, carrying festival-goers. On the bandstand, musicians blend reggae and funk. Inside Floral Hall, even more farmers and their bounty are showcased, while demonstrations and workshops dot the grounds.
This is the annual Adirondack Harvest Festival—an event under the umbrella of the nonprofit Adirondack Harvest, a flagship program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County—that’s been going strong for almost a decade. It’s a highlight of the season that draws thousands, and a summer finale of sorts that celebrates farm-fresh food and local products.
Adirondack Harvest works to expand markets for regional farms while also promoting local food at the consumer level through farmers’ markets, schools, restaurants and more. But it’s this festival that brings all those pieces together, connecting community with the hard-working people who feed them.
This year’s Adirondack Harvest Festival happens September 20, noon to 5 p.m., at the Essex County Fairgrounds, in Westport, and is free to the public. For a schedule of the day’s events, visit www.adirondackharvest.com.
Above: Mossbrook Roots Flower Farm & Florist’s “Bloom Bar,” photograph by Ben Stechschulte
