A young pie eating contestant dives face first into the fray at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival in August 2016.
FILE PHOTO — Carly Palmer and her mother Tamie Palmer, both of Lakewood, root on their 10-month-old Dachshund, Bella, during the wiener dog races at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival.
A float featuring a honky tonk band and a beer drinking stuffed raccoon provided lots of laughs at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival parade in 2016. The float was sponsored by the Brown Shack Tavern in Salkum.
Glenn Aldrich, owner of Aldrich Berry Farm and Nursery, drives his blueberry harvester down Main Street during the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival in August 2016.
Steven Tongue raises his arms in triumph in the moments after he was declared victor of the adult blueberry pie eating contest at the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival in August 2016. Tongue said he took second or third place in the event when he was a kid.
The Mossyrock Blueberry Festival will kick off next week on Aug. 4, and organizers are gearing up for what they hope will be the best gathering in years.
“We keep improving on it every year,” said Glenn Aldrich, board chairman for the Mossyrock Area Action League and owner of Aldrich Blueberry Farm. “Parades are always fun to see and that sort of thing, and we’ve got (Chris) Guenther coming back again this year. He’s been real popular, and fireworks on Friday night after his performance. That’s new.”
In addition to the traditional parade and music offerings, Aldrich noted there will be an extra effort to feature the festival’s namesake this year by making blueberries and their byproducts available for purchase.
“We’ve had pies and fresh berries in the past, and this year there’s going to be more of that sort of thing,” said Aldrich, who noted jams and jellies as examples.
When it comes to blueberries, Aldrich certainly knows his stuff. He got his start in the blueberry business in 1944 when he helped his father plant the first blueberry bushes on their acreage. He took over the operation in 1964 with his wife, and just like those bushes, they’ve been rooted there ever since.
Aldrich says Mossyrock’s blueberry heritage originated by a bit of blind luck.
“Originally it came about with my dad looking around for a higher value crop than oats or cattle or pasture. But what we’ve learned over the years is that Mossyrock’s silty loam is ideal for blueberries,” said Aldrich. “It’s not just another crop, but it’s an ideal place to grow them.”
When it comes to picking the perfect blueberry, Aldrich says that bigger is not alway better. First of all it depends on the intended use for the berries and then the rest is up to personal preference.
“If you’re wanting to make pies and muffins a small berry is better. If you’re wanting to make a show in a salad or something then a big berry is more fun to see,” noted Aldrich. He explained that bigger berries are juicier while smaller berries are higher in antioxidants, which are found in the skin of the berries.
“There’s more skin in a pound of small berries than there is in a pound of big berries,” he said.
Aldrich is slightly concerned that this year’s crop of blueberries might not match last year’s bumper crop in total output, but he’s confident that the quality will still be top notch. He noted that berries coming out of Oregon have been smaller this year due to a heatwave during their early development.
“The total number of berries on the bush may not be so big as last year,” said Aldrich, who is selling his berries at $2.20 per pound off of his farm.
While the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival takes its blueberries seriously, there are plenty of other offerings to keep busy with once attendees have had their fill of the sweet round morsels.
“Saturday afternoon is pretty much a full time thing in Klickitat Park,” said Aldrich. Those extra festivities begin immediately following Saturday’s 11 a.m. parade and will include a dog show, a car show, a quilt show, a children's art show, and a set of 5 kilometer and 8 kilometer races. Once attendees have made a little more room in their stomachs, there is also the ever popular blueberry pie eating contest.
The Mossyrock Blueberry Festival will run from Aug. 4-6 with an extensive list of musical acts to buffer all of the blueberry centric shenanigans. Additional information on the Mossyrock Blueberry Festival can be found online at https://www.mossyrockfestivals.org/.
