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Bethlehem history heats up with return of Blueberry Festival & Market To Go (PHOTOS)
July 13th, 2024 | In The News
Written by Kurt Bresswein for Lehigh Valley Live
Ken Smith, from Ken Smith’s Backyard Tin Shop in Kutztown, demonstrates shaping tin with the stake-and-hammer method from pre-1820 beside an 1840s-era hand-cranked machine that made the job more efficient, as Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites opens its two-day Blueberry Festival & Market To Go on Saturday, July 13, 2024, that continues Sunday at Burnside Plantation.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
Ken Smith’s period-clothing shirt was about soaked through with sweat as he demonstrated “tin-smithing” Saturday beneath a white tent barely blocking the July heat as muggy air temperatures surpassed 90 degrees.
But the craftsman was expecting some relief as he watched the shadows grow longer from the tree line behind him, and he had some 19th-century technology to help him cut and shape tin — also known as poor man’s silver — into dinnerware and other products.
Smith, no relation to the Bethlehem mayor of the same name from 1988 to ‘97, was among several folks demonstrating bygone trades and techniques of daily living as Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites hosted the first of two days of its Blueberry Festival & Market To Go.
The event continues Sunday.
The nonprofit’s Burnside Plantation, at 1461 Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem, is the setting for the annual celebration of history and, yes, plenty of blueberries.
It draws an estimated 4,000 attendees and helps support Historic Bethlehem’s mission to interpret and maintain 20 historic buildings and some 65,000 artifacts. In addition, the group provides local educational programming that brings three centuries of history to life.
Numerous crafters and vendors are set up around the grounds of Burnside Plantation, 1461 Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem, as Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites opens its two-day Blueberry Festival & Market To Go on Saturday, July 13, 2024. It continues Sunday.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
“We are thrilled to host the Blueberry Fest for its 37th year,” said Lindsey Jancay, Historic Bethlehem’s interim vice president and managing director. “This event has been a great way to promote local vendors, showcase the Burnside Historic Farm, and enjoy some fresh blueberries!”
LoriAnn Wukitsch, the Historic Bethlehem president and CEO, emceed the children’s and adult hands-free blueberry pie-eating contests and culinary challenge.
Various staff members and volunteers manned the “Dessert Tent” and other attractions. Contestant Isabel Holland, of Bethlehem, who just started baking this past year, whipped up some blueberry cinnamon rolls as her entry.
Anna Corby, a volunteer with Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, stands ready to offer tours of James Burnside’s 1748 home as the nonprofit opens its two-day Blueberry Festival & Market To Go on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at Burnside Plantation. It continues Sunday.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
From the porch of James Burnside’s 1748 home, Anna Corby stood ready to lead tours of the first privately-owned Moravian home in Bethlehem.
Historic Bethlehem intern Andy McLeod told visitors about exhibits planned on early Moravian industries, in the works for spring 2025 at the 1782/1832 Grist Miller’s House under renovation beside the 1869 Luckenbach Mill in Bethlehem’s Colonial Industrial Quarter near Main and Spring streets.
As an example befitting the blue theme of the festival, McLeod — a student at Bucks County Community College — said Bethlehem’s Moravian settlers got creative because they couldn’t import indigo. Thus, they developed a new method of dyeing items blue by using woad from a flowering plant, said McLeod.
Nolan Russo from Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites hydrates amid muggy conditions in the Lehigh Valley 250 tent ahead of the national semiquincentennial in 2026 as the nonprofit hosts the first of two days of its Blueberry Festival & Market To Go on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at Burnside Plantation.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
Nolan Russo from Historic Bethlehem chugged water in his tent stocked with literature about plans to celebrate Lehigh Valley 250 as part of the national semiquincentennial in 2026. Several observations and celebrations are in the works through partner organizations Lafayette College and its Art Galleries, the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and the Lehigh Valley Passport to History.
Keith Sten, Historic Bethlehem’s museum sites and education manager, stocked drinks on ice to help cool off those in attendance. Nearby, Olivia Caleca, a volunteer from Easton, cut servings of blueberry pie. Hilary Brown, of Bethlehem, took hers with ice cream and fresh blueberries.
Hilary Brown, of Bethlehem, couldn’t resist the blueberry pie with ice cream and fresh blueberries as Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites hosts the first of two days of its Blueberry Festival & Market To Go on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at Burnside Plantation.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
The festival runs until 7 p.m. Saturday and resumes 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12 for adults, $5 for children 4 to 17. Parking is free at the nearby Moravian University “X-lot,” 1150 Mauch Chunk Road, and at Nitschmann Middle School, 1002 W. Union Blvd., with shuttle buses running on a continuous loop.
No dogs are permitted on the buses, and the buses are not accessible to people with disabilities.
Visit historicbethlehem.org for the schedule of events and full details.
