BRATTLEBORO — The 15th annual Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, featuring a parade of flower-bedecked heifer calves led by future farmers up Main Street, takes place June 3, 4 and 5. Organizers promise many special surprises for the occasion.
Over the years, Strolling of the Heifers has grown from a one-hour parade into a full weekend packed with family events, and attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Brattleboro.
According to organizers, the mission of Strolling of the Heifers is to connect people with healthy local foods and with the farmers and producers who bring it to them.
In recent years, the mission has expanded to include a year-round set of programs aimed at encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship in farm and food businesses.
The centerpiece of the weekend is the Strolling of the Heifers Parade, which starts promptly at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 4. The signature heifer calves lead the parade and are followed by other farm animals, tractors, bands, floats, and more.
The crowd then follows the parade to the all-day Slow Living Expo to enjoy food, family fun, entertainment, and exhibits. The Expo stretches over 11 acres on the Brattleboro Common and the Brattleboro Retreat grounds.
At the Slow Living Expo, besides meeting the heifers up close, visitors will find makers of many specialty foods including candies, chocolates, condiments, sauces, meats, pizzas and beverages, along with craftspeople, green building and home energy specialists, and healthy living and woodlands exhibitors.
There are three major stages offering entertainment. On the Retreat Grounds, there are the C & S Wholesale Family Entertainment Tent, a fiddlers tent offering an old-fashioned fiddling contest, and on the Common, a variety of traditional and contemporary musical entertainers in the Gazebo.
A crowd favorite at the Expo is the non-stop trapeze artists show by the New England Center for Circus Arts.
Visitors will also enjoy Goat Olympics, featuring goats from Hollyhock Farm in Putney (you can bet on the outcome of their races), and a round-robin human foosball tournament. Human foosball is, as you may guess, played in an enclosed arena with players required to hold on to sliding bars while trying to score goals with the soccer ball.
Here are some of the other highlights of Strolling of the Heifers Weekend:
• Gallery Walk and the finals of the Great New England Bread Baking Competition - Friday, June 3 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The town's Main Street will be shut down for a three-hour party with musicians, clowns, and street vendors.
The Stroll's headquarters, the River Garden, will host the finals of its Great American Bread Recipe competition, including public tasting to determine the People's Choice award winner, and a tasting of spirits and beer from Vermont distillers and brewers.
• Farm Art - an exhibit of farm-themed art Maureen Mansfield, at the River during Stroll Weekend and continuing for the month of June.
• The Famous Farmers Breakfast - Sunday morning, June 5. The Stroll's annual showcase of natural and organic breakfast foods, held at the Marina Restaurant, off Putney Road at the West River.
• The Tour de Heifer - all day, Sunday June 5. Vermont's most challenging dirt road cycling tours, with 15, 30 and 60-mile options, plus a 3-mile hiking option.
• Farm Tour - Sunday, June 5. The Stroll has partnered with five special farms in the Brattleboro area, each with something unique to offer, who will be offering guided tours.
The money raised during Strolling of the Heifers weekend, largely through business sponsorships, supports the Stroll's year round programs at its River Garden headquarters in downtown Brattleboro.
These include a Farm-to-Table Culinary Apprenticeship Program and Windham Grows, a new program to help scale up farm and food enterprises by providing them with mentorship, consulting, services and resources.