For the first time, the iconic blueberry pie eating contest was held on the Centre Street Congregational Church stage, situated in a shady part of the church greenspace. The crowds seemed to enjoy it! Helen’s Restaurant co-owner Julie Barker worked with fellow judge, Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen, to weigh her restaurant’s famous pies and declare the winners. Photo by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

After the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival

I walk our dogs on wooded gravel roads so they can run without leashes. And because other neighbors walk there, too, I pay keen attention to tracks in the gravel, hoping to discern whether Shawn is out enjoying his ATV or if our young neighbor with horses might be out for a ride. 

They don’t need my curious pups in their way.

I didn’t see ATV or horse tracks last week, but I did see that our neighbor had been driving his tractor. For 10 minutes or longer, the dogs and I loped along, Dot and Flossie sniffing the previous night’s wildlife movements and me following the tractor tracks, pondering what could have led Harry to bring it out until — behold! Powdery remnants of a rotten tree trunk were strewn across the road.

Gripping mystery solved.

This is the usual level of excitement that fills my days Way Downeast. But then comes the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, where I store up five months of excitement and six months of socializing in just three days.

Blue skies and comfortable sunshine prevailed festival Saturday and Sunday when Ryan Malagara captured this festive birds-eye image of the church greenspace and its vendors. To see many more aerial photos of the weekend, click on the photo. Photo by Ryan Malagara

I’ve volunteered at the Porter Memorial Library festival book sale for years because used books are my favorite, and libraries are my favorite, so the math just works. For the first time this year, I volunteered to assist festival director Ellen Farnsworth in small tasks, including staffing the festival information booth, a perfect fit because you almost can’t stop me from offering information to total strangers.

Just ask my (embarrassed) children.

But in the end, my labors were light, thanks to Ann-Marie Evans, Matt Bauman, Cheyenne Robinson-Bauman, Jackie Leonard, Abbie Brooks, Griffin Dedmon, Jack Brady, Isaac Atkinson, Larissa Claire, her friend Cody, Carol Christiansen,  my husband, Chris Dedmon, and Christina LaBrosse. Their assistance allowed me to roam the festival for some of my favorite events, like the pie eating contest, and the reenactment of the 1777 Battle of the Rim.

The Machias Fire Department’s food booth can be seen lit from within in front of the Machias Grange Hall, as the whole of Bad Little Falls Park sparkles with twinkle lights hung by blueberry ball organizer Melissa Hinerman.

The festival’s timing made it a perfect subject for my inaugural Way Downeast podcast, which launched last week and can be found online here or anywhere fine podcasts are sold.

But in many ways, the festival would have been my first choice for the podcast because it typifies so much of what I love about Washington County, including its no-nonsense spirit of collaboration. In the festival’s case, many hands make great work.

Around the central festival produced by Centre Street Congregational Church, each year, more organizations and businesses than I could count add something special to the party, alongside the town of Machias, whose police department, ambulance, fire department, and public works department are on duty all weekend long.

Members of the Machias Ambulance and Machias Fire Department speed away from the food booth where they were working, in order to respond to a call. Town manager Bill Kitchen told how three of them made siren sounds as they shuttled their way up Court Street. The Machias Fire Department’s food booth is always a popular feature at the festival. Photo by Cat Cannon

And it’s not only festival volunteers who represent the county so well.

Jennifer Weaver, who for the second year in a row was the fastest woman in the five-mile blueberry run, shared this compliment from a vendor who said he would “definitely be back next year.”

“The reason, you ask? The people! He said out of all 40 festivals he has visited this year, the Blueberry Festival had the most respectful people. He couldn’t get over how many people would stop and carry on a conversation with him and how nice everyone was,” wrote Weaver. “He said at other festivals around the U.S., you don’t find people like you do in Downeast Maine. After our conversation was over and I walked away, I just felt so proud of the place I was raised and choose to live.”

Me, too.

Last week I raked blueberries for the very first time, at West Branch Farms in Machias, and I had the great pleasure of raking with this lovely young family visiting from upstate New York. Photo by Natalie Gilbert

Festival Season Continues Way Downeast

Festival season is not over yet, far from it! This very weekend (Aug. 26-27) brings us the Washington County Fair, sponsored by the Pembroke Trotting Association and held at the Pembroke Fair Grounds. This is a Maine agricultural fair featuring classic country fun like blacksmith and scything demonstrations, 4-H exhibits, a pig scramble, a bouncy house, and a skillet and hammer toss, among so many other events.

Next up, a festival near and dear to my knitting heart, the Machias Fiber Festival on Saturday, Sept. 9, where I ensure my house contains enough wool to patch holes in my roof should another meteor come to town. 

On the same weekend, look out for the Eastport Pirate Festival, a three-day event running Sept. 8-10. Always a lot of great energy, great food, and above all, great costumes.

Photographer and fisherman Patrick Gardner captured this beautiful image of the Machias Seal Island Lighthouse on Wednesday, Aug. 16, while fishing aboard the F/V Ain’t Miss Behavin’, owned by Trevor Jessiman. This week, Washington County lost a staunch defender of all lighthouses. Timothy Harrison, the founder of the Lighthouse Digest, passed away in Bangor on Aug. 19. Harrison’s historic lighthouse advocacy and his books will continue to benefit — and teach — us all. Photo courtesy Patrick Gardner

Congratulations go out to Sharon Mack of Machias who was the winner of our most recent giveaway, for a copy of Rich Bard’s excellent guide to Washington County, “Beyond Acadia: Exploring the Bold Coast of Down East Maine.”

If you’re subscribed to this email, you’re already entered to win our next contest, soon to be announced! If you aren’t subscribed already, sign up here!