Turley Publications photo by Ruth M. Lyon

The dwarf goats from Overlook Farm, the Heifer Project farm in Rutland, MA were a runaway attraction. (They ran away.) Here, Steven Porch rescues one of the two-week-old beauties.

Asparagus Festival hailed as ‘Greatest Ever’

By Ruth M. Lyon

Turley Publications Reporter

WEST BROOKFIELD - What could be finer on a glorious, breezy sunshiny day than to spend it on what may be the finest common in Massachusetts, enjoying festive food, music, flowers, girls dancing a traditional rite of spring, artists and artisans all meeting in a joyous celebration of West Brookfield in what may be its gayest, most frivolous hour?

The historic West Brookfield was there. The Quaboag Plantation 350^th committee attracted thousands of visitors to their space, where they handed out information, sold some special souvenir items and invited folks to stay for the auction in the town hall at the end of the day.

Agricultural West Brookfield was there as well. The common bloomed with plants, flowers, bulbs and so on, all arranged to rouse the desire of formerly sedentary people to go out and get dirty and dig.

There’s the artistic West Brookfield, well represented by the manner in which even the most prosaic of items were displayed, and in actual art work to be had – this town has its share of those who paint and pot and otherwise dabble and daub.

Then, there’s gourmet West Brookfield, and well, what can one say? A town which annually holds a special day to celebrate asparagus holds the crown, so to speak, for that.

As most everyone from anywhere knows by now, Deiderick Leertouwer brought asparagus to America, and he was kind enough to bring it to West Brookfield from his native Holland, back when the town had just begun to find its place in history.

When the town’s historical society, in a flight of fancy, decided to celebrate that fact, little did they know that, eight years later, Deiderick’s name would carry a cachet formerly earned only by justly famous folk such as George Washington, who may have slept at Ye Olde Tavern, and Jedediah Foster, who wrote the Massachusetts constitution at his home on Foster Hill?

Dick and Barbara Rossman, who live a stone’s throw from the storied location of Deiderick’s asparagus patch – they’ve “stalked the stalks” they say – have been involved with the springtime celebration since its relatively quiet beginning. “We love West Brookfield and we’re involved in a lot that goes on here, but this has to be the best event, the most fun, the most talked about, the most that’s just West Brookfield, of anything,” they agreed.

Amy Dugas, equally involved, has assumed the role of the person to go to if you want to rent a space on the green on that special day. Her husband, Jeff Robbins, is in charge of the frog jumping contest. Despite the responsibilities, they both love the day, the mix of people, animals and nature’s bounty.

“It’s a day when everyone smiles at everyone else,” says Bill Jankins, who lives in a home bordering the village green, has lived his whole life in West Brookfield, is the town’s historian and is currently serving as chairman of the Quaboag Plantation 350^th celebration.

And so it was, on May 15. One hundred vendors arranged flower-bedecked spaces around the green. In the center, chairs and tables were arranged about the tents wherein rested the main attraction – asparagus. In the now-famous chowder made at the nearby Congregational Church, in wraps and in butter, crisply fried, grilled, however it could be had, asparagus ruled the day. People gathered around tables, they rested upon hay bales, they wheeled their babies and grandparents, strolled with their well-behaved dogs, and watched the Maypole dancers weave the ribbons, enticed the frogs to jump, watched a child help a blacksmith hammer a nail and stamp it with is initials. They petted the adorable goats, watched the stately alpacas and watched a weaver work her wonders with their wool. Children rode on ponies, played free games, romped among the hay bales and rode the safari train. They gazed upon spreading displays of plants, flowerful, flavorful, fragrant, and the honeys and herbals and soaps created with them.

Rossman said it’s difficult to impossible to know how many visitors came this year; he’d guess maybe 5,000, maybe more.

In other parts of town, there were places to visit, including the Quaboag Historical Society Museum and a special quilt show at the senior center.

It was a special day in West Brookfield, all agree. The committee, Rossman assures us, never a group to rest upon its triumphs, is already looking forward to next year. In the meantime, they issue a reminder- there will be a croquet social on the common beginning at noon on June 13, played with antique croquet sets, and they’re hoping attendees will wear period costume. Free refreshments will be served. That event will be followed by a banjo-fiddle contest, to begin at 4 p.m. The Congregational Church, directly across route 67 from the common, will serve a dinner that evening.

For information about these or other upcoming events, watch the Quaboag Current each week, online or in your mailbox, or go to Quaboag350.com.