Garlic and Arts Festival

This weekend, I attended the 8th annual North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange. I always thought of Orange as being so far away, but it only took about a half hour to get there! (I suppose that parallels what people often mistakingly think about Fitchburg.) We decided to hike in from Bullard Farm in New Salem, which was just under 3 miles each way. The route we followed was part of the Chestnut Hill Trail system. It was a bit difficult to locate the start of the trail, but thanks to the help of the kind owner of the Bullard Farm Bed and Breakfast, we had no problems after that.

The premise of the Garlic & Arts Festival is to celebrate the two eponymous products of the region. Unfortunately, my ability to sample the garlic component was limited by a larger-than-anticipated crowd that led many of the food venues to run out of menu items. But at least the garlic spread I found for my veggie burger was very good! I also brought home some fabulous “garlic lover’s pesto” from Linabella’s Gourmet Garlic Farm.

The arts component of the festival far exceeded my expectations. Patrick Zephyr’s photography was truly astounding, capturing both vivid landscapes and tiny wildlife with striking clarity. James Kitchen’s work was also impressively unique, combining found scrap metal objects to create sculptures with a strong sense of personality and implied motion. And when the time comes to finish off my basement, I now intend to incorporate the offerings of Royalston Arts Foundry into my design - some of their bronze tiles were such works of art that I was tempted to purchase single tiles to simply frame and hang on my walls! The afternoon was capped off with a performance by Dar Williams, who is quite a well-known folk artist.

Throughout the festival, there was a strong emphasis on recycling. Last year, they reportedly created only two bags of trash! This year’s goal was to reduce that to zero bags of trash, which is a significant accomplishment considering that nearly 10,000 people were in attendance. The entire event was run using solar power, and there were environmentally-friendly education booths scattered among the agricultural- and arts-themed booths. Combined with the perfect weather, it really was a great day overall!