A Creative Community Shows Off at the Heath Fair

  • Post published:08/23/2012
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Our creative community got to display its imagination and skill at the 95th Annual Heath Fair from August 17-19. The Hall exhibits range from flowers, flower arrangements, vegetables and fruits on a plate or in jars, cookies, bread, maple confections, eggs, ciders, honey, quilts, knitted or crocheted hats, sweater and scarves, lego constructions, photography, art of every sort - and all categories are organized by age. Ribbons and money can be won by everyone! I spent a lot…

Heath Fair 2011

  • Post published:09/03/2011
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We moved to Heath in the fall of 1979 and attended our first Heath Fair in 1980. However, we had heard about the Fair years before when we were living on Grinnell Street in Greenfield. Deb Porter of Heath was visiting her friend (and my temporary boarder) Wendy Roberts in my kitchen, but she had to cut the visit short that day in order to race back to Heath and bake pies for the Fair. Deb still works…

Another Heath Fair is Past

  • Post published:08/22/2011
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I spent a lot of time working, one way and another, in the Friends of the Heath Free Public Library Book tent. This book sale and raffle is our big fund raiser of the year. The Book Tent is a good place to read, and eat homemade pie a la mode, and to visit. But there is a lot to see at the Fair. Food preservation is a hot topic in the general culture these days, but canning…

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

  • Post published:08/19/2011
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This morning dawned cool and misty. A walk through the garden was so quiet and peaceful. A glorious morning indeed. And we look forward to a glorious day at the Heath Fair. Yesterday was all energetic activity. We had scores of boxes of books to bring to the Fair for the Annual Friends of the Heath Free Public Library book sale. $1 for hardcovers! This is our big fundraiser for the year. After loading up the books, we…

Fair Anxiety

  • Post published:08/18/2011
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The week before the Heath Fair is full of activity and anxiety. Rory wanted to enter pickles this year - as he did last year. Last year we somehow got the sugar and the salt mixed up, but the good news is that the judges don't taste the pickles, they just look at the jars. Consistency is paramount.  It takes a lot of slicing to make bread and butter pickles. Fortunately, I was once given a really fancy…

Heath Fair Report

  • Post published:08/23/2010
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The Heath Fair begins for me on Thursday when a loyal crew sets up the Friends of  the  Heath Library tent, after which we bring in our exhibits. This year I was in charge of bringing in exhibits for Anthony and Drew, and Tynan, as well as my own. Talk about hectic. When we arrived at the Fair on a sunny Saturday morning we found we had lots of winners. All the boys had won ribbons and Rory's…

The Thrill of the Pop!

  • Post published:08/19/2010
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My 14 year old grandson Rory has been visiting this week and we are busy, especially now getting exhibits ready for the Heath Fair. The other day we made bread and butter pickles, but the jar seals didn't take. You can only imagine our anticipation when we took today's batch out of the hot water bath. Even as I lifted one jar we heard that POP!  Then we waited, and didn't touch the jars. But soon, Pop, Pop,…

Heath Fair 2009

  • Post published:09/10/2009
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              Pulling Together was the theme for this year’s Heath Fair. After such a cool, wet summer when it was hard to get a good hay crop in and Late Blight hit local farmers, as well as local gardeners who mourned over lost tomato and potato crops, it felt like we were all doing some heavy hauling.             It takes a lot of people pulling together to prepare the for the Fair, from the vision and energy…

Pulling Together

  • Post published:08/25/2009
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Pulling Together was the theme of this year's Annual Heath Fair organized by the Heath Agricultural Society and supported one way or another by just about every one of the town's 800 residents so that thousands of area people can enjoy a day in the country and gain a sense of the abundance around us - even in these hard times. It would not be pushing a metaphor too hard to say that it takes a lot of people …