The fourth annual Hockinson Blueberry Festival returns to the Hockinson Community Center parking lot at the corner of 159th and 182nd avenues on Saturday, July 15, and runs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“It was established four years ago, really as an effort by the Hockinson Main Street Team to establish a sense of place, and the blueberry farms are a large part of the agricultural economic driver out here,” Kelsey Chappelle, with the Hockinson Main Street Team, told The Reflector.
The event will highlight the community’s blueberry farms and small businesses. Blueberry sales are set to begin at 9 a.m. with live music, a kids area, concessions and local vendors with shaded seating beginning at 11 a.m. and concluding at 2 p.m.
Along with live music and other activities, the festival will include blueberry pie baking and pie eating contests.
Vendors will have a wide range of blueberry-inspired food and beverages available for purchase, including the festival favorite blueberry milkshake from the Hockinson Market. The blueberry milkshake is only available once a year.
“The Hockinson Main Street Team is using this event to unveil our Hockinson Home Grown Highway Farm Map,” Chappelle said.
The map will be similar to the popular “Fruit Loop” of the Hood River area in Oregon.
“We’re not impacted by the fact that it’s Harvest Days for Battle Ground. People are coming intently out for blueberries or they’re adding it to their existing loop of hitting harvest days,” Chappelle said. “It kind of compliments all the great things going on in the area this weekend.”
Participating vendors include:
• Majestic Farms Blueberries (fresh blueberries)
• Prairie Berry Farm (fresh blueberries)
• Amelia’s Exquisite Mexican Dining (food cart)
• Good Year Farms (native plants)
• Hockinson Market (blueberry milkshakes)
• Heirloom Family Micro Farm (produce)
• Coop De Lavender (lavender bouquets)
• Clark Cowlitz Farm Bureau (ag cooperative)
• Kona Ice (shave ice)
• Lan Cellars (wine tasting)
• Cedar Planters by Nate (planter boxes)
• Mayflaures (flower bouquets)
For more information, visit the Hockinson Main Street Team Facebook page or email info@hockmainstreet.com.