Lynden Annual Raspberry Festival
Lynden, WA - The annual Raspberry Festival was held this past weekend in Lynden, Washington. The raspberry festival is held every year on the third weekend in July. Much of Front Street was closed for the annual event, which featured a popular three-on-three basketball tournament, vintage vehicles, local vendors and plenty of Whatcom County’s tasty raspberries.
Local raspberry farmers in the Lynden area produce approximately 65 percent of all the raspberries grown in the United States — According to the Washington Red Raspberry Commission, also headquarters in Lynden, WA.
It’s truly amazing to travel the country sides of north Whatcom County and see hundreds of acres, row after row of fresh raspberries growing on neatly formed rows. Driving thru any of the back roads of Lynden, during the month of July when raspberries are in season, with your window down, and you can literally smell the fresh berries.
Washington is surely known for its apple crops in Wenatchee, but slowly the word is getting out about Whatcom County’s Berry production as well.
The festival attracts hundreds of people each year including folks that drive up from Seattle and from over the border in British Columbia as well. While over at the busy McPhail Berry Farm, west of Lynden, I saw at least 10-15 vehicles that were from out of the area.
McPhails Berry Farm is a good place to enjoy the festival and get a feel for raspberry country. Every year the festival organizers provide a free shuttle from downtown Lynden to McPhails Berry farm, where there is live music and plenty of raspberry-related desserts. McPhails Farm also has plenty of varieties of raspberries, black raspberries, currants, and at least 10 other berries to pick fresh from their family farm. Bring the kids as well to enjoy the goats, chickens, ducks and play areas in a fun atmosphere. They also have a wonderful farm kitchen to buy full pies, slices of pie with ice cream, and jams with an eating area inside and out.
A sign advertising those desserts is what attracted Blaine resident Linda Fox, who was enjoying the music with her husband, Walt Fox, a lifelong county resident who worked picking berries and other agricultural products as a young man. Linda Fox said she’s glad parts of the county still have the charm of an agricultural atmosphere.
“If you lose the agriculture, you lose the quaintness and all the local products,” Fox said. “You can only do so much developing on agricultural land.”
Chris Limbach, a Bellingham resident, said he and his family often pick raspberries themselves and freeze them for future use.
“Raspberries are one of those things that you have to have fresh,” Limbach said. “It changes the taste when they’re not fresh. Plus they’re so expensive when you buy them from the store.”
Next years three-on-three basketball tournament will honor legendary raspberry grower Curt Maberry by naming the tournament the Curt Maberry Memorial Classic. The Maberry family is one of the largest raspberry growers in the world. Jake Maberry, another legend in Lynden for his Lynden High School Basketball, teams that won four state titles, makes up the other half of Maberry & Maberry Berry Associates or MMBA.
I’ve been picking raspberries, black-raspberries, blueberries, black currants, and many others for over twenty years now. In Whatcom County the first berry crop of the season are the strawberries and are usually ready to be picked during the first week of June and can run to the end of July. Raspberries are usually ready during the last week of June and all of July. All the black-raspberries which include loganberry, marionberry, boysenberry, TayBerry, and others vary, but most are ready during the whole month of July. Blueberries are available to pick from about mid July to mid August…it just depends on the plant and the amount of sunshine they receive. Finally…there are the wild blackberries, which seem to be everywhere, and are available from July through September even. I hope this helps all the readers wanting to know when berry’s ripen in Whatcom County WA.
Goto the local Lynden real estate site for Lynden WA area real estate and information.
Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Lynden WA Real Estate