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Just like how you can find small patches of thimbleberries in the Keweenaw Peninsula. This week the first Thimbleberry Festival will start small. From the ground board member Amanda Makala says the farmer’s market collective hopes to reconnect people with nature and the community through a regional favorite fruit.
The thimbleberry is a cousin to the raspberry plant, and it is sort of more found in the West Coast area. But we also find it here because we share a very similar rocky temperate climate that has the right soil conditions, weather and seasonality conditions that sort of match this place elsewhere. – Amanda Makala, board member, From the Ground Farmers’ Market Collective
Throughout the week families can look and forage for berries at Paavola Nature Area. The festival partners with the Keweenaw Land Trust to bring a Native American story to life. The conservation group will place pages of the storybook Berry Song by Michaela Goade along the trail for families to enjoy reading.
Paavola has a lot of thimble berries, a lot of just really beautiful nature. And so, we’re hoping that they go out there, they maybe taste a berry, they read the story and they kind of create their own memories together. Paavola is also; it’s a historic Finnish homestead. So, you’ll see the home, you’ll kind of think about the family that was there. Maybe they were picking berries too. So we’re just looking with this festival to connect people to this berry that’s so iconic. – Amanda Makala, board member, From the Ground Farmers’ Market Collective
Or join Copper Shores for a food demo at the Houghton farmer’s market on Tuesday.
From 3 to 6, vendors will have different thimble berry inspired food, or jams. We have one vendor who will have a salve with thimbleberry in it. And Meghan Jaszczak will be doing a food demo. Featuring a thimbleberry vinegarette and some locally sourced sourdough bread. – Amanda Makala, board member, From the Ground Farmers’ Market Collective
Makala hopes to see the festival grow and connect with more vendors, business sponsors, and cottage businesses for future events.
So even though our festival this year is sort of small and very sort of localized to our farmers market, we do hope this idea inspires some partnership with local businesses to sort of create themed menus and small businesses to sort of also incorporate the branding and the ideology in their own business.
Makala continued, she hopes the community sees this festival as a unique opportunity to reconnect with nature, family, and farmers after a busy summer.
Throughout thimble berry festival explore the copper country and search for thimbleberries on a hiking trail. Stop at a homemade jam sign, or grab scoop of thimbleberry ice cream at the copper scoop. The first thimbleberry festival encourages market vendors to theme items around the delicious berry too.
If you miss the festival, lucky for you, there are plenty of shops to go to, and still buy Thimbleberry jams. The farmers markets will be going off into October, so you’ll still get a chance to meet with different vendors and try perhaps some of their seasonal offerings. But we have some great places here like Carmelita’s with the Thimbleberry margarita and a lot of other ways that you can sort of enjoy. But if you’re interested in kind of connecting with this endeavor and maybe finding a little bit of information about what we are doing. what the Thimbleberry is, you can go to thimbleberryfestival.com. – Amanda Makala, board member, From the Ground Farmers’ Market Collective
The Thimbleberry Festival is created through partnership between Visit Keweenaw and the From the Ground Farmers’ Market Collective, with support for the event from the Keweenaw Land Trust. Learn more about the first Thimbleberry Festival here.
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