Cauliflower Festival highlights county's agricultural past
Sep. 20—Cauliflower, once an important crop grown in Delaware County, will be celebrated Saturday, Sept. 23 in Margaretville.
Karen Fairbairn, manager of the festival, was busy Wednesday morning marking out where more than 70 vendors would be placed Saturday in Margaretville's Village Park behind the Freshtown Supermarket/CVS plaza.
In what is now the store's parking lot on Bridge Street, farmers would bring wagons filled with heads of cauliflower in crates to sell at auction before they were taken to New York City on trains and sold, Fairbairn said. Her son's grandfather, who is now 85, was called Topper because he would climb the wagons and "turn over the best heads, so the auctioneers could see and bid on the best heads," she said.
Many dairy farmers chose to grow cauliflower as a cash crop and the vegetable helped them weather the Great Depression, including Fairbairn's family. Her grandparents were able to pay off the mortgage on their dairy farm in 1932 because they also grew cauliflower, she said. "Cauliflower was king," she said. "For generations we were supported by growing this crop. It was a great crop for farmers to grow and sell."
Once farms on Long Island started growing cauliflower in the 1950s, it signaled the end of the cash crop in the Catskills because Long Island is closer to New York City, she said.
The 19th Cauliflower Festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. will celebrate the area's rich agricultural history, she said. Pure Catskills sponsors a large tent at the festival where 25 local farmers and farm product producers will sell a variety of produce and maple, honey, distilled spirits and more. The Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce sells 300 heads of cauliflower at the event and is usually sold out within the first two hours.
Food vendors also incorporate cauliflower into their menus, she said.
In addition to arts and crafts vendors, the festival includes many demonstration areas, a tractor parade, a cornhole tournament and children's activities, a media release said.
The tractor parade will begin at 11:30 a.m. Vehicles participating in the Catskill Conquest rally of antique and contemporary vehicles will stop for a visit as they travel along the Scenic Byway to mark the 120th anniversary of an endurance automobile run held in 1903.
Exhibits at the Historical Society of Middletown's History Tent outline the unique history, the release said. This year there will also be a display on "The Builders" who erected many of the homes, hotels and commercial structures in the area more than a century ago.
The Pine Hill Community Center and the Catskill Mountain Christian Center will offer children's crafts, and the Margaretville Central School Art Club will offer face painting, the release said. The Catskill Mountain Quilters Guild will have a show and Pak's Karate students will perform. The Catskill Forest Association tent will let people build bluebird boxes and the Delaware County Soil & Water Conservation District will display its stream table.
New to the festival this year is the Cauliflower Festival Cornhole Tournament, which is open to both adults and youth, the release said. Youth can play free, adults will be charged $10.
Performing from noon to 3 p.m. is a Pine Hill based band called The Pops, the release said.
Exhibitors include the Catskills Water Discovery Center, the Catskill Recreation Center, Heart of the Catskills Humane Society and other local organizations that will offer resources on topics ranging from literacy to aging to energy and the environment, the release said.
For more information on the festival visit https://tinyurl.com/yes7sxm8 or check out the Margaretville Cauliflower Festival Facebook page.
Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.
