Quark Festival to Double As (Temporary) Farewell To Brookford Farm

It’s not quite yogurt. It’s not quite cream cheese. But its roots run just as deep.

Next Sunday, Rollinsford’s Brookford Farm will play host to Second Annual Brookford Farm Quark Festival. Named in honor of the traditional German cheese, the event will showcase a variety of autumn quark recipes, each prepared by its own local chef in an “Iron Chef-style” competitive showcase.

Coordinated by Brookford Farm, the festival will be held in conjunction with numerous community partners, including several area elementary schools, local celebrity chefs, non-profit organizations, artisans, and small businesses.

On the heels of a well-attended inaugural event last fall, Mary Brower, Director of Community Programs for Brookford, expects an even more impressive turnout this time around.

“Last year we had around 1,000 people show up, and this year we’re hoping to have twice that,” Brower says. “We were completely astonished by the turnout last year, and we’re hoping to be just as pleasantly surprised this time around.

Guests will be invited to sample delicious localvore cuisine from a growing list of Quark Fest participants, including Pepperland Café, The Kitchen, Flatbread, White Heron Tea, Meaghan’s Chocolates, and Henry’s Market of Newcastle – not to mention the finest local, organic, delicious festival fare anywhere, including Brookford Farm’s own storied pastured meats, grass-fed dairy, and organic vegetables.

Meanwhile, kids of all ages will be encouraged to play cow-pie bingo, carve pumpkins, bob for kohlrabi, participate in a cake walk, run through a hay-maze, take hay-rides through beautiful countryside, as well as a Quark Queen pageant.

Live entertainment will include musical artists the Mill City Ramblers, as well as Deep Hole Road, the Freedom Rangers, the Fiddling Thomsons, and more. “Farm theater”, documentary filmmakers, storytellers, photographers, food workshops, and puppeteers will help round out the day’s entertainment cadre.

The day will be a bittersweet one for Brookford, who at the end of March will have to find a new home for their expanding, multi-faceted operation. Ideally, Brower says, Brookford will eventually find a large enough swath of organic land to make the transition more seamless.

“We’re treating it as sort of a goodbye party,” she says. “But we want it to be a positive community happening, and we’re going to do our best to turn the challenge we have ahead of us into an opportunity, and this event I think can help us do that.”

Stop by Brookford Farm next Saturday, enjoy a gorgeous fall day of great, local food, music, and entertainment, and – perhaps most importantly – show your appreciation for one of the Seacoast’s most beloved totems to what it truly means to be local.