Seaonal Calendar

Just another reminder that there is a calendar at the bottom of this page with Belchertown events and events in the Pioneer Valley. Each entry has information or a link to the event webpage, when available. It's updated regularly and has fairs, festivals, parades, and more! Check back often!

Saturday at the Fair

If you missed the Belchertown Fair this year (or even if you didn't), here are some scenes -- see someone or something you recognize? Perfect weather, fun day, good food. Already looking forward to next year!

Belchertown Fair

The Fair starts today! Tents have been set up, rides are ready to go... yesterday afternoon the ground looked like this:


Music begins tonight at Chestnut Hill School at 5pm, to be followed by fireworks at 7:30. And don't forget the parade on Saturday that runs through the center of town!
For more info, see the Fair insert in this week's paper.

New! Event Calendar!

If you haven't been to the blog in a few days, but you read the posts through Facebook or some other aggregator, you may have missed the most recent addition -- the new local events calendar! The calendar hangs out at the bottom of the page and includes websites and details when available. There's even a handy dandy link to the calendar at the top of the page so you don't have to scroll all the way down each time you want to look at the calendar updates.

The calendar covers selected events in Belchertown, the Pioneer Valley, and Western Massachusetts -- and I'm open to suggestions for other events, as well. Hope it's useful to you!

Fall Fairs & Festivals, 2009

It's nearly late summer already, and with the turning of the season comes a plethora of fall fairs and festivals celebrating harvests and farms and the domestication of the natural world.

Wilbraham Peach Festival, Aug 21-23 (Wilbraham): http://www.peachfestival.org/

Red Fire Farm Tomato Festival, Aug 22 (Granby): http://www.redfirefarm.com/news/tomatofestival.html

Smolak Farms Peach Festival, Aug 22&23 (North Andover): http://www.smolakfarms.com

Chilifest, Aug 29 (Belchertown): http://stonesoupfarm.googlepages.com/chilifest

3 County Fair, Sept 4-7 (Northampton): http://www.3countyfair.com/

Franklin County Fair, Sept 10-13 (Greenfield): http://www.fcas.com/

Annual Honeybee Festival, Sept 12 (South Deerfield): http://www.warmcolorsapiary.com/SpecialEvents.asp

Big E, Sept 18-Oct 4 (Springfield): http://www.thebige.com/

North Amherst Harvest Festival, Sept 20 (Amherst): http://www.simplegiftsfarmcsa.com/index.php?page=10

Belchertown Town Fair, Sept 24-27 (Belchertown): http://www.belchertownfair.com/

Fiber Twist, Sept 26 (Greenfield): http://www.fibertwist.com/

Eat the View, Oct 2 (Northampton): http://www.buylocalfood.com/ETV2009.htm

Garlic & Arts Festival, Oct 3&4 (Orange): http://www.garlicandarts.org/

Franklin County Cider Days, Nov 7&8 (Shelburne Falls): http://www.ciderday.org/

There are, of course, others -- this is just a sampling. I found more listings that I wanted to include, but I didn't include events with out-of-date event information on their webpages (like the Llama Photo Event at Hickory Dell Farm or the Fall Shearing, Felting, and Fiber Day at Winterberry Farm). However, you can find many more events with details at the CISA Events Webpage. I'll try to fill in more date as I discover more festivals/fairs in the Valley.
Seems to me there should be a local corn and/or cow festival -- don't you think so?


9/3/09: For more than what's posted here, see MDAR and the Community Events Calendar

Valley Kid Stuff: Blog

Periodically I find a site/blog that I feel is worth more than just a link on the sidebar. I found this gem this afternoon. Valley Kid Stuff is a local blog with great ideas and activities for kids. Full of pictures and commentary, VKS is good for people new to the area, people who have been here a while, people with kids, and even people without kids! There are also links to posts about upcoming events (including fireworks and summer concert series) and places to visit. It's worth taking a gander -- especially if you have kids and/or need to get out and explore the Valley.

Belchertown Showcase, Take 2

Belchertown CAN and participants of showcase are feeling grateful today -- the weather cooperated for their first annual Belchertown Showcase on Saturday, despite all indications to the contrary.

Yesterday I took the opportunity (twice) to get out to the Belchertown Showcase on the Common (see the previous post). There was a great turnout of vendors and providers, including Mandala Massage (from whom I received a free chair massage), Rippa Chiropractic, PVTRA, Luca's K9 Playhouse (and Shepherd Rescue), Teaching Creatures, the Boy Scout Troop & Cub Scouts, Oak Specialists Inc, Mountain Women Goods, Portraits by Neill, Summersault Soaps, Belchertown Conservation Commission, and so many more -- probably close to 40 (I didn't take paper, so this all from memory and photographs). There was music to listen to, a quiz about Belchertown, contests and raffles, face painting, toys and games, and other entertainment. It was a great place to be.
Here are a few pics from the show:

Vendor Tents

Wagon Rides

Corn Snake (from Teaching Creatures)
Crafted Wares (from Mountain Women Goods)Summersault Soaps Display

Town events like this that bring the community together and show off where we live are part of what I love about this area and part of what makes me glad I moved here. Look forward to next year's Showcase.

(The past week's Sentinel lists out other vendors planning to be in attendance -- I just finally had time to open the paper.)

Showcase Belchertown

Tomorrow (Saturday) on the Common from 10-4: Showcase Belchertown.

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, having passed by the sandwich board on the Common a number of times in the past week, but I haven't taken the opportunity to look up the information until tonight. My apologies. This is what I'm gleaning from a few websites:

Showcase Belchertown is a free event sponsored by Belchertown CAN with the goal to boost the local economy and educate the citizens on services, agencies, and merchants available for them. It will feature local arts, crafts, and foods, restaurants, information, local businesses, and more. It's a family affair and will include pony rides, a sidewalk sale, and the Belchertown Twirlers. Bring the whole family! Rain date: June 21.

This is supposed to be the first annual Showcase Belchertown, and I think it sounds like a great idea. I hope the weather lets it be successful and that it grows in the years to come. Enjoy!

Tasty, Tasty, Mmmm...

Coming this weekend, and starting on Thursday (for a long weekend), is the annual Taste of Amherst. This is not an event I have attended before, still being new to the Valley, but it certainly sounds good. Food, entertainment, people, and fun -- what more could you ask for on the Amherst Town Common in the middle of June? More than 20 restaurants will be represented with tasty vittles to tempt the palate -- and menus to take home. Entertainment in the form of music will include Unit 7, Swing Caravan, Client 9, Rusty Belle, and Wild Wood -- the full music schedule can be found on The River website. And there are fun things for the kids, too! The Kids Carnival will be in full swing with pony rides, face painting, and more. It sounds like a great time -- and four days of fun leave plenty of time for even busy folks to get out and enjoy it.
FOOD! (I love food!)

Eric Carle Birthday Bash

Tomorrow at the Eric Carle Museum there will be a birthday bash (for EC's 80th) and a children's picture book festival. I was at the museum today, enjoying the new Winnie-the-Pooh exhibit, and was able to catch a preview of what tomorrow will bring as the artists and illustrators were setting up their booths -- such beautiful work by very talented artists. It will be a wonderful time with book signings, demonstrations, craft activities, music performances, and a silent auction. All this on top of the beautiful exhibits of Eric Carle, EH Shepard, and Virginia Lee Burton. Don't miss this opportunity!

First Night: Northampton/Amherst

Because of weather conditions and also because I've never attended, I'm not going to make a very big announcement about First Night: Northampton. (Wow, look at that snow, blowing and swirling about -- it's a veritable white out.) Nevertheless, if you're in Northampton today and looking for a festive way to welcome in the New Year, you may want to look into First Night. You can find all the details here.

Belchertown Fair

If you missed out on the Fair because of rain and the threatening skies, you'll be happy to know you can give it another shot next year (presumably), but you may be a bit unhappy to know all you missed -- the rides (including the scrambler, the zipper, the merry-go-round, the dragon wagon, and more), delicious hot fries, cotton candy (that crystalized in the rain and humidity), the baby contest, the live music, the horses (including the escape of the 4-H horse from his small stall), the cows and goats and bunnies, the giant pumpkin with bear claw marks in it, the booths for the library and the bands and the scouts and the sports teams, the pulling competitions, the fried dough, the arts and crafts building, the costumes, and just the many happy people strolling around and enjoying themselves -- and all that was just on Saturday morning!











It was a good time despite the rain -- and maybe even just a little bit because of it. I was happy to see the numbers of people who did turn out for the fair and the hoards of very happy children riding the rides, petting the animals, and eating sugar (of which I ate plenty, myself -- cotton candy is weird when it drips onto your hands -- very difficult to get off once it crystalizes in pink and blue all over your fingers). I hope the drier Saturday evening helped to bring out bigger crowds.

Rainy Fair Day

Today starts the official first day of the fair, and I would have to say that fair-goers lucked out last night with the it's steadily raining.
But it's still early -- perhaps we'll see a break in the clouds and precipitation as the day wears on.
Hope you enjoyed the fireworks, and hoping even more that things dry up for the weekend!

Notes of Note

First of all, a quick reminder that the Belchertown Fair is this weekend, starting Friday -- there will be fireworks, a parade, rides, animals, booths, food -- and so much! I drove past the town center today and the rides were being assembled, the food vendors were out, colorful tents were already up, and so was a corral. The fair is a long-lasting tradition for the town, and I can't wait to go!

There's an important town meeting on October 2, 7pm, Town Hall Auditorium, regarding Question 1 (State Personal Income Tax) on the upcoming election. Information about the question can be found on page 6 in the Information for Voters put out by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Basically, the proposed law would eliminate state income tax -- and thereby greatly reduce the monies available to the state to support schools, libraries, police & fire stations, road repair, and other important services we receive, while increasing other taxes and fees. I encourage your participation in the meeting -- and a "NO" vote at the polls. I know it sounds advantageous to drop the income tax, but truthfully, we can't afford to -- we rely on the services provided. I know there's a lot of waste in government, but punishing communities by taking away essential services isn't the way to fix the problem. Get out to the town meeting -- find out what it's all about.

Garlic & Arts Festival

Yesterday I took an opportunity presented by a glorious early autumn September Saturday and headed off to make a visit to the "Festival that Stinks!" aka The Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange, just up 202. This year was the festival's 10th year, and it looks to be going strong -- at least two parking fields were full and there were loads of people meandering around enjoying the sights and smells and sounds of the festival. The mission of the G&A Festival is to promote local culture, local artistry, and local agriculture -- especially garlic, which is a strong crop in the region and part of why the whole festival got started.

Booths offered beautiful hand-carved wooden bowls, local honey, pottery, pickles, old local and regional maps, framed art, wool and yarn and hand-crafted sweaters and blankets, toys, jewelry, local natural medicinals, massages, farm produce, and of course, braids and braids and braids and bulbs and bulbs and bulbs of garlic -- including demos on how to plant and grow it.

There was music and a bandstand and plenty to eat, as well -- breads and soups, meat on skewers, pad thai, burritos, strawberry shortcakes, and of course -- garlic ice cream (created by Bart's Homemade Ice Cream). Oh -- and a hula hoop field for anyone who wanted to try swinging one of those hoops around their waste (or neck or knees).

When I first heard about it, I couldn't believe there was a festival dedicated to garlic, but after an hour and a few visits to garlic-bearing booths, I began to get a better understanding. With its inexpensive admission prices and relaxed atmosphere, this festival is a great chance to spend a day outside in the beautiful Connecticut River Valley while sampling some of the region's local fare.