Summertime means fresh peaches, especially in small towns like Berlin where peaches are abundant and steeped in the town’s history. In honor of all things peach, the Town of Berlin will celebrate the 6th Annual Berlin Peach Festival on August 2. Loved by locals up and down the Eastern Shore, it’s a tasty local event that all of us look forward to. Berlin has such a colorful history and the peach festival serves as a reminder of where America’s Coolest Small Town truly comes from… (And gives us an excuse to eat copious amounts of peach pie, #noshame).
Each year during the first weekend of August, locals and tourists flock to the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum and Main Street to celebrate Berlin’s heritage. According to Taylor House Museum curator Susan Taylor, the idea for the event was born as they were tossing around ideas for events to host at the Taylor House Museum. After discovering some old Harrison Nursery pamphlets, they discovered that annual peach festivals were once quite popular in the area. This year the festival is scheduled for August 2nd from 11AM to 4PM with a rain date of August 3rd. The Taylor House Museum is proud to announce that they will have over 33 vendors this year with 19 of them selling crafts, 8 of them offering foods and baked goods, and 6 demonstration vendors, which will add a different “DIY” aspect to the festival this year.
Some of the newer vendors are Lovebird Soaps, sculptors from the local area, Terry and Rayna Pazmimo, who are potters, and some returning favorites like Longridge Gardens, local jewelers, St. Martins Church, St. Martins Church Foundation and Bungalow Love. Most of the vendors sell specialty items that go along with the summer/peach theme. As for entertainment, Carlos the Juggler is returning along with Mickey Justice, local favorite singer.
Our favorite part though… the food. And boy is there a lot of it! Buckingham Presbyterian Church is making their famous peach pies, as in years past. Stephens United Methodist Church is selling crab cake sandwiches, Berlin Coffee Shop is making peach bread and peach snoodles, Worcester County Development Center is making peach salsa and the Berlin Lioness Club is brewing their famous peach tea. Baked Dessert Café will be on the scene again this year with their irresistible peach dumplings. Of course though, we can’t forget the dozens of local fruit stands that will be selling fresh, right off the tree peaches.
Local businesses throughout the Town of Berlin will celebrate as well by offering specialty peach drinks with food specials at the local restaurants, which makes our peach celebration last well past 4PM (again, we’re not complaining). Each year the Atlantic Hotel offers a special cocktail menu that features peach bellinis, peach mojitos, peach martinis… you get the point. So head down to Berlin next Saturday and enjoy all things peach!
