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TRISHA MURPHY/Palatka Daily News – Heidi Hockenberry, left, Dawn Rawls, center, and Becky McLemore spent Tuesday at the Bostwick Community Center making pies for Saturday’s Bostwick Blueberry Festival.
The 25th Bostwick Blueberry Festival is set to take place Saturday, and organizers are looking forward to welcoming visitors who have come to love “The Little Town with an Even Bigger Heart.”
“There are so many stories I hear every year,” said Palatka resident Dawn Rawls, the chief pie-maker for the festival for the past three years and muffin-maker for four years. “One husband and wife come every year and buy three pies. They said they don’t eat breakfast because the first pie, they start eating at the festival. The second pie, they eat with friends after church, and the third one, they freeze and take with them on their summer vacation with their parents.”
Pies are only one of the featured items slated to be at the annual festival sponsored by the Bostwick Community Association. Festival hours will be 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Bostwick Community Center, 125-2 Tillman St.
Saturday’s event will showcase the nutritious namesake berry, and there will be plenty of them.
According to Rawls, she and her team of volunteers will make 600 pies this week. They started by baking 200 pies Tuesday, made the same number Wednesday and plan on finishing the final 200 today. On Friday, the crew will make 450 muffins.
The festival will start with the homemade blueberry pancake breakfast from 8 a.m.–noon. The pancake breakfast is $8 per person and includes sausage, pancakes, homemade blueberry syrup, coffee, milk or orange juice.
Other highlights of the day will include activities for kids, the announcement of the Mr. and Miss Blueberry court, arts and crafts, vendors, a plant sale and the S.A.F.E. Pet Rescue pet adoptions. Commemorative Blueberry Festival T-shirts, caps, a cookbook with recipes from area residents, totes and ducks will be available, and there will be live entertainment all day.
Blueberry ice cream and freshly picked berries from Miller Blueberries will also be for sale. There will also be a used book sale at the Bostwick Library, next door to the community center.
For those wondering what kind of numbers are involved in making sure there are enough ingredients to make the 600 pies, wonder no more.
“We will use 160 pounds of sugar, 80 pounds of flour, four restaurant-size jars of cinnamon, six large bottles of lemon juice and 40 pounds of butter,” said Rawls, whose family has been a member of the Bostwick Community Association for about six years. “Besides that, volunteers also cleaned lots and lots of blueberries for the pancakes, syrup, pies and muffins.”
Rawls added the pies, which cost $20 each, usually sell out around 12:30 p.m. from an area in front of the community center.
“We start selling at 8 a.m.,” she said. “The line is long but moves quickly. Last year was the first year we increased the quantity of pies to 600 because the year before, we sold all 300 of them in an hour and a half.”
Linda Bazar has been the main organizer of the festival for more than 15 years. Bazar estimated 4,000 people attended the festival last year.
“Our festival is a small, country, one-day event,” she said. “We have a variety of great vendors. It’s a little bit of something for everyone. … This festival brings our community together and welcomes people from all over. People love the small-town atmosphere.”
Rawls said a lot of hard work goes into making so many pies for the festival, but she finds satisfaction in knowing the money raised from the pies and other goodies goes back into the Bostwick community.
“Most people don’t make pies anymore, and a lot of people talk about how their grandmother used to bake pies,” she said. “And these pies make them think about the times they had with their grandparents. I love to meet so many wonderful people who look forward to them every year.”
Bazar loves bringing the festival to everyone who takes the time to come.
“We have all the things that people have come to love and expect,” she said. “We are consistent. We are happy and enjoy making other people happy.”
*** Bostwick Blueberry Festival Entertainment Lineup ***
8 a.m. – Lorri Gill, national anthem
8:45 a.m.– Lorri Gill, country classics
9 a.m. – Randy Day, original gospel
10 a.m. – John Skidmore Jr., country and classics
11 a.m. – Halfway to Heaven, bluegrass and gospel
Noon – Vince Tranchina, country and classics
1 p.m. – Sweet William Trio, folk and blues
2 p.m. – UnderDawg, bluegrass
