LIFE & TIMES C1Satur day, Sept ember 2 2, 2018

recor der.com

By MAX MARCUSStaff Writer

T o celebrate the North Quabbin Garlic& Arts Festival’s 20th anniversary, or-ganizers are presenting festival-goerswith a gift that could change the re-

gional landscape.The gift? Packets of pollinator seeds.The seeds will allow those who visit the fes-

tival on Sept. 29 and 30 to support and partici-pate in the ecological process of pollination,explained Deb Habib, who co-founded the fes-tival and still participates on its planning com-mittee. But the seeds represent somethinggreater, too — they are symbolic of “pollinat-ing the important values” that the festival hasembodied since its beginning in 1999: commu-nity, collaboration, creativity and environmen-tal sustainability.

“The values have not changed,” Habib said.“I think a lot of the times, people organizingevents don’t stop to think about what the val-ues are and to return to those values. We as acommittee return to those values often.”

Filling a needThe first Garlic & Arts Festival was held in

1999 by five neighbors in Orange. The ideaarose from a conversation between Habib’shusband, Ricky Baruc, and friend Jim Foun-tain. Baruc mentioned there were not manyplaces to sell the garlic he grew on his farmand Fountain, a woodworker, said the sameproblem existed for his artwork.

The group of neighbors decided to give lo-cal garlic farmers a venue to show and selltheir products without having to leave the re-gion, as well as a platform for artists. At thetime, the “buy local” movement was just be-ginning, Habib said.

Each person contributed $20, and the festi-val was held at Habib and Baruc’s Seeds ofSolidarity Farm. It drew about 700 people.

The next year, Garlic & Arts moved to thelarger Forster’s Farm at 60 Chestnut HillRoad, where it has been held ever since.Habib said it now draws about 10,000 people,both from western Massachusetts and be-yond, over the course of a weekend, with thefestival grounds behind open from 10 a.m. to 5p.m. each day.

The festival organizers don’t plan on ex-panding further, she added.

“We want it to feel abundant,” she said. “Wewant all the people who are drawn to come tocome because there’s so much to learn hereand to gain from it. We want the exhibitors tohave a good experience, too.”

“From the start, the intention of the eventwas a celebration of the artistic, agriculturaland cultural bounty of the region,” Habib said.“Sometimes we’ll get an inquiry from some-one who designs things to have made in, like,Raleigh. That’s not what the festival is. Thefestival is about people growing or makingthings with their hands, whether it’s food, artor agriculture.”

Signature staples and fresh featuresWhile garlic is an important aspect of the

festival, Habib said there’s something for ev-eryone to enjoy, even those who don’t likegarlic.

“You can go to the spoken word stage andlisten to poetry all weekend,” she said. “Or youcan go to the ‘Portal to the Future’ area andexperience the incredible renewable energyand local-living workshops all weekend. Oryou can spend time talking to all of the artistsat their booths, learning from their creativity.”

As in past years, there is a program of localmusicians, dancers, poets and storytellers.

New this year is a “slow cloth” demonstra-tion tent. Visitors at the tent will see how plantand animal fibers are prepared to be spun intothreads, then woven into cloth or twisted intorope.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday, there will be a paradeto celebrate the festival’s 20 years, followed bya circle of gratitude and a giant birthday cake.

Keeping with the garlic portion of the festi-val’s theme, 19 restaurants from North Quab-bin have booths and will serve garlic-orientedfood. There is also a schedule of cookingdemonstrations that all involve garlic, as wellas garlic-planting workshops.

A grassroots effort to go greenThe festival itself is a model of community

organizing. It is overseen by a committee of 20volunteers, and about 150 more volunteersstaff the festival itself, Habib said.

Environmental sustainability is empha-sized, too. Special attention is paid to ensuringvisitors know how to dispose of different mate-rials. Even with 10,000 people passing throughover the course of the weekend, the festival

leaves only three bags of trash. In comparison,the festival produces about 130 bags of com-postable materials and about 25 bags of recy-clables.

“It takes effort, but it feels really impor-tant,” Habib said. “That’s part of what peoplelearn while they’re here. If we can do this on alarge scale … then certainly people can do iton smaller scales in their own lives.”

Food vendors don’t sell bottled water, Habibsaid. Instead, there are free water stationsaround the festival grounds, and visitors areencouraged to use reusable bottles.

Last year, Garlic & Arts introduced a “urined i v e r s i o n” project, which is back this year.Festival organizers partnered with the RichEarth Institute of Brattleboro, Vt. to collecturine from the festival’s toilets. It is later pas-teurized and used as fertilizer for nonfoodcrops. Toilet docents will be on hand to explainthe process.

All the physical infrastructure of the festi-val — the stages, tables, tents, etc. — are builtby organizers using local products. The mainstage, which hosts local bands and dancetroupes, is completely powered by a solarpanel setup from Pioneer Valley Photovoltaic.

Given festival organizers’ efforts to makethe event more sustainable and the wide vari-ety of attractions, Habib said the events h o u l d n’t be misconstrued as being all aboutgarlic.

“Frankly, I get kind of bummed when re-porters say, ‘And there was garlic ice cream,’and that’s like the only thing they have to say,”she said. “There is garlic ice cream, but that’snot what it’s about.”

“Garlic & Arts becomes a unique combina-tion, and a way to bring people to an eventthat’s much more than that, that’s incrediblyeducational and like nothing they’ve ever ex-perienced,” Habib said.

Admission is $5 for a day pass or $8 for thewhole weekend. Children ages 12 and underare admitted for free. Visitors are encouragedto check garlicandarts.org for information onparking and shuttling services.

Staff reporter Max Marcus started workingat the Greenfield Recorder this year. He cov-ers Northfield, Bernardston, Leyden andWarwick. He can be reached at: mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 261.

Garlic & Arts Festival returns with fan favorites, fresh features

STAFF FILE PHOTOS(From top, counterclockwise) Attendees of the 2016 North Quabbin Garlic & Arts festival in Orange sit on the hillside. Marc Greene, of Montague Chili Roasters, dumps out a batch of NewMexican chilies. Audrey Barker Plotkin, of Simple Gifts Farm in North Amherst, cooks garlic dogs, one of the festival’s garlic-themed foods.

Entertainment ScheduleMAIN STAGESatur dayNoon — Celtic Heals1 p.m. — She Said2:15 p.m. — Bamidele Drummers and Dancers3:30 p.m. — The Outer Space BandS u n day11:45 a.m. — The Inside Out Dance Company12:45 p.m. — Kate Lorenz and the Constellations2 p.m. — I n cu s3:30 p.m. — The Pangeans

SPOKEN WORD STAGESatur day11:30 a.m. — Adam Grabowski, Roberta Jonesand Deborah RoiskiNoon — Dina Stander, Peter Murphy and AliceBarret t12:30 p.m. — Richard Wayne Horton, J.J. Whiteand Rick Marsh1 p.m. — Lori Desrosiers, Mary Clare Powell andLindy Whiton1:30 p.m. — David Wyman, Lori Lamothe andRick Paar2 p.m. — Daniel Hales, Cindy Markevich andCandace Curran2:30 p.m. — Ilina Singh, Paul Richmond andGerry YelleS u n day11:30 a.m. — Rick Marsh, Lawrence DarrenGreen and Michael YoungNoon — Ron White, Paul Szlosek and PaulRichmond12:30 p.m. — Jovonna Van Pelt, Alice Barrettand Sharon Ann Harmon1 p.m. — Karl Meyer, Peter Murphy and AmyL aprade1:30 p.m. — Cindy Markevich, Doug Andersonand D. O.2 p.m. — Richard Wayne Horton, Dina Standersand Andrew Shelffo2:30 p.m. — J.J. White and izikhotane

SEE SC HEDULE C2

M I L E STON E S C2Satur day, Sept ember 2 2, 2018

recor der.com

1.2.3.

▲

▲

Check out next week’s Greenfield Recorder or visitbit.ly/2MM1Gtrto see if you guessed correctly.

▲

▲

Where in Franklin County?

Name the Warwick rock formationlocated north of Stevens Swampand south of Old South Road.

How well do you knowFranklin County?

Who was the first pastor at Whately’sFirst Congregational Church?

What commodity was made inRowe and shipped west during thegold rush?

From the Display Case

Answers: 1. Wooden bowls, designed forwashing gold. 2. Indian Cave. 3. The Rev.Rufus Wells of Deerfield.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/BUCKLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETYMade out of pine wood in the mid- to late 1800s, this 3-foot longcountry-made baby cradle is part of the Buckland Historical Society’scollection at the Wilder Homestead.

W EDDING

Hudson —B rad l ey

Shannon Kathleen Hudson andPatrick Michael Bradley of St. Johns-bury, Vt., were married Aug. 25, 2018at 4 p.m. at the Warfield House inCharlemont. Thomas Palmer was offi-ciant. A reception followed at theWarfield House.

The bride is the daughter of MarkHudson and Gail Hudson of Conway.The groom is the son of Michael andRebecca Bradley of Rowe.

The bride is a veterinary technicianfor Dr. Craig Calamaio in St. Johns-bury. She graduated from Frontier Re-gional High School in South Deerfield,and from Holyoke Community Collegein Holyoke.

The groom is a depot training spe-cialist for Schwann’s in Littleton, N.H.He graduated from Franklin Techni-cal School in Turners Falls, and fromLyndon State College in Lyndonville,Vt. Shannon and Patrick Bradley

STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZDoris Glabach, 97, is presented with a gold-headed cane and a certificate for being theeldest resident of Northfield by Selectman Alexander Meisner during the Northfield SeniorCenter ’s third annual “Gay 90s Party” for residents ages 90 and over on Sept. 14.

The big 9-7

By ESTELLE CADE

W hen home freezers came in,home canning lost favor (untilrecently, perhaps). But when

I was a teenager, canning was a rou-tine part of life.

I remember the hot July days of1942, when the green beans wereready for harvest. Dad said theymust be picked before they grew toolarge. Our “Victory Garden” wasflourishing.

In the equally hot kitchen, therewere rows of canning jars, sterilizedand waiting, as my father brought upan enormous pile (to my young eyes)of green beans, or string beans as theywere called.

I sat down to my assigned task andstart snapping ends off. “Snap, snap,snap.” Then I proceeded to cut thebeans into approximately uniformpieces for my mother to wash off un-der cold running water.

My younger sister tried to help, butshe was pretty slow at snapping. And italways seemed that justas we reached the end ofone pile, my father wouldarrive with plenty more.

One such day, I re-signed myself to an en-tire morning of snappingand cutting. “No bike rideto the Ashfield Lake to-d a y, ” I thought. Mymother already had eightquarts washed andpacked into the jars,ready to start processingthem in the large blue enamel canningkettle. This could go on into theevening hours, as it required threehours in a boiling water bath to pro-

cess each eight-quart batch.As summer progressed, there were

blueberries, which were fun to pick ina neighbor’s pasture, but picking was

followed by more hours ofwashing and canning inbatches.

Then there were thetomatoes! What fun it wasdipping them in hot waterand slipping off the skins.Then they’d be put intothe prepped jars andtheir hot water bath,which must be perfectlydone. Tomatoes can be“touchy ” — no bubblesallowed.

The work on those summer daysand family garden produce fed us wellin the cold, cold days of our New Eng-land winters.

The days before freezersCanning a

routine part of lifein early 1940s

COURTESY PHOTOA woman cans vegetables using a pressure cooker in Story County, Iowa in 1940.

COURTESY PHOTO/CREATIVE COMMONSGreenfield resident Estelle Cade, formerly of Ashfield,remembers the process of canning tomatoes in theearly 1940s.

How to Submit: Do you have a story you’d like to share abouttimes past? The Greenfield Recorder and its readers would loveto hear it. Please send your memoir, with any photos that mightapply, as well as a photo of yourself, to: features@recorder.comand write “Times Past” in the subject line. You are welcome to

call 413-772-0261, ext. 276, with questions.

FAMILY STAGESatur day11 a.m. — Josh and Luke Levangie, father and son12:30 p.m. — The Barret Andersen Band2 p.m. — Bomba de Aqui Dance Troupe3:30 p.m. — Re B el l eS u n day11:30 a.m. — The Green Sisters1 p.m. — Cr azeFaze2 p.m. — Amandla Chorus3 p.m. — All-festival anniversary celebration with theExpandable Brass Band

RENEWABLE ENERGY & LOCAL LIVING TALKSSatur dayNoon — “Solar Cooperatives — Solar Ownership forEver yone,” with Gregory Garrison of Northeast Solarand Don Stone of the Wendell community solar project1 p.m. — “Renewable Fuels for Transportation,” wit hSteve Russell of MOR-EV2 p.m. — “Clothing from the Local Fibershed,” onfarm-to-garment clothing and textiles in westernMassachusetts, with Nur Tiven of the WesternMassachusetts Fibershed3 p.m. — “Urine Diversion and Use as Fertilizer,” wit hAbe Noe-Hays of the Rich Earth InstituteS u n day11 a.m. – “Ecological Pollinator Conservation,” wit hDr. Robert J. Gegear of the Worcester PolytechnicInst itute’s Beecology ProjectNoon — “Code Compliant Tiny Homes inMassachuset ts,” with Chris Haynes1 p.m. — “Soil Carbon Sequestration: PracticalScience in the Garden and Field,” with Julie Rawsonand Jack Kittredge of Many Hands Organic Farm2 p.m. — “What is Green Burial and Why Might I WantO n e?” with Green Burial Massachusetts, Inc.

COOKING DEMONSTRATIONSSatur day11:30 a.m. — Beth Ingham of Noonday Farm inW inchendon1 p.m. — Hannah Jacobson-Hardy with Sweet BirchHerbals in Montague2:30 p.m. — Rob Sacco with Soup on the Fly in AtholS u n day11:30 a.m. — Cristina Garcia with The Farm School inAt hol1 p.m. — Andy Sussman with Culinary Consultantsand Catering in Amherst2:30 p.m. — Mark Ellis with Clamber Hill Inn andRestaurant in Petersham

FROM C1

S chedule