Cranberry Harvest Festival Resumes Tomorrow After One-Year Hiatus

FALMOUTH- The Falmouth Cranberry Harvest & Farm Festival returns this year, after skipping a year, and will offer a variety of fun and educational activities, all related to the native fruit October 18 from 10 AM to 3 PM at the cranberry bogs on John Parker Road.The rain date is Sunday.
This is the fifth year for the nonprofit, non-commercial festival, created by five retired teachers: Louise F. Houle, Adele M. Rohe, Barbara A. Hampson, Linda E. Davis, and Yvette N. Thivierge. More than 4,000 people attended the last festival in 2006.
Ms. Houle said she expects a smaller attendance this year, because they missed a year, perhaps 1,000 or 2,000 people to come out to the John Parker Road bogs, to celebrate cranberry farming in Falmouth.
Ms. Houle said, “We’re a group of retired teachers who wanted to keep some sense of history in the town. When the town was considering getting rid of some of the town bogs, we realized how important it was.

Signs alongside the bogs on John Parker Road in East Falmouth announce some of the features of the Cranberry Harvest Festival tomorrow from 10 AM to 3 PM. DON PARKINSON/ENTERPRISE

“We walk with our dogs on the bogs between Hatchville and East Falmouth. We decided to teach people about the history of cranberry farming and fresh foods. We wanted to teach kids how things started. Not everything comes in a plastic bag.”
Among the many reasons to attend are free baked goods and balloons for children, along with complimentary cranberry-orange relish. Visitors can learn about the history of cranberries, as  well as the variety of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, craft, and culinary uses. 
The new farmer of the John Parker Road cranberry bogs, Fred C. Bottomley of North Attleborough, is making the bogs organic, and both organic and non-organic cranberries will be for sale. Visitors can watch the farmer wet harvest the bogs. 
Also featured is a display of live bees and the role they play in fertilizing the bogs.
There are fun and educational activities for children and adults, including face painting, fortune telling, dancing, arts and crafts for sale, craft demonstrations, historical displays on early farming, animals, books, masks, kites, cranberry jewelry, create-your-own holiday decorations, and creating a mini-bog in a cup. Artists will be on hand, and visitors will be able to watch them paint the bogs. The Falmouth Fiddlers will perform lively fiddle tunes; Carol Sykes’s Suzuki violin students will play, and there will be Cajun music as well.