ON A SEPTEMBER afternoon at Westport’s Essex County Fairgrounds, a farmers’ market on steroids is underway. People stroll booth to booth and table to table along a loop of growers and bakers and makers. Bread, beer, beef, bouquets, cheese, pastries, apples, pork, pies, berries, garlic, mushrooms, wine, jam—it’s all here. Kids compete in potato-sack races, get their faces painted and ride ponies. There’s a straw-bale toss competition. A draft horse–drawn wagon trundles about, carrying festival-goers. On the bandstand, musicians blend reggae and funk. Inside Floral Hall, even more farmers and their bounty are showcased, while demonstrations and workshops dot the grounds.
This is the annual Adirondack Harvest Festival—an event under the umbrella of the nonprofit Adirondack Harvest, a flagship program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County—that’s been going strong…
