As you folks may have figured out by now, I love food festivals, and even non-food ones as well. I get a thrill from wandering the grounds watching everyone and taking shots of all the food, people, and weird and wacky events. Well it looks like another one is coming along. The Wild Blueberry Festival and Union Fair will be from Sunday August 19 through Saturday August 25, 2007 in Union, Maine.

The Wild Blueberry Festival is a yearly event here in mid-coast Maine and is part of the Union Fair. Amazingly, out of all the summers I have spent in Union, Maine; I have never made it to the Fair and Festival. When I just summered here, my main goal was to relax in a rustic cottage right on a lake and do nothing for several weeks. I might go out to pick up some lobsters, take a half day sightseeing trip, or go pick a few handfuls of wild blueberries; but then I would scurry back to the lake and sit on the waters edge, enjoying the antics of the ducks begging for food and the cry of the loons.




Well now that I am living here right on the waters edge, this time on the coast, I have the time and inclination to head out and explore, and go to all the fun events. So I plan to go to the Wild Blueberry Festival and Union Fair just about every day to see what it is all about. There will be a bunch of food related events like the kid's wild blueberry pie eating contest, the coronation of the Festival Queen, judging of the vegetables (what crime did they commit?), the wild blueberry spitting contest, pig races, bubblegum blowing contest, judging the wild blueberry muffins (I am amazed that all these foods are so unlawful!), a Moxie tasting (Got Moxie?), judging the wild blueberry angel food cake (this cake can't be an angel), rooster crowing and hen cackling contest, the wild blueberry pie competition, the traditional fireworks, and so much more. Then of course there is all the festival foods to sample and enjoy.



One thing to mention is that this festival is all about wild blueberries. these are the tiny, intense tasting blueberries that are not often seen in markets in other parts of the country. They make the best pies and preserves and have to be harvested by hand. A labor intensive process that usually means long days over several weeks during August for lots of high school and college kids trying to put a few bucks in their pockets for the fall. The best of the berries grow on the low bush sweet blueberry plant. As the name suggests these are low bushes, four to fifteen inches high, that are back breaking work to harvest. A special blueberry rake is used for the job. Well I don't plan to harvest any blueberries this year but I am already eating my fill. There are roadside stands all over, selling the hand harvested berries that are so tasty, and good for you too.