RALEIGH NOW SPOTLIGHT: Blackberry Festival

courtesy The Well Fed Community Garden

THE SWEETER THE JUICE
Blackberry Festival

by Jessie Ammons

You can celebrate summer this month at Well Fed Community Garden’s first-ever blackberry festival June 24. The one-and-a-half-acre plot in west Raleigh, managed by Irregardless Cafe, has been growing organic seasonal produce and herbs for five years. Much of the bounty is used at the downtown eatery, and a portion of it is donated to volunteers and neighbors. The restaurant says outreach is an important part of its garden’s mission, too. Well Fed reguarly holds public tours, workdays, and workshops.

Summer on the farm, though, warrants a fête.

There will be live music and activities for every age, including games, arts-and-crafts, and planting and cultivating sessions. The festival will also include cooking demos and mini-seminars about topics like healthy soil maintenance; pollinator gardens; and beekeeping. Irregardless will also put on a spread: Its garden pizza oven will be put to use, and salads and blackberry cobbler will round out the menu. If you’re lucky, there may even be a few berries left on the bushes to pick and bring home as a tasty souvenir. 

4 – 8 p.m.; $20 adults and $7.50 children
irregardless.com/events