Strawberry festival brings some sweetness to Salem Memorial Day parade
Salem — In the 1980s, the Salem Historical Society held a strawberry festival to raise money for renovations to its building on the town green on Route 85.
More than 30 years later, the festival and specifically its strawberry shortcakes are a Salem staple.
"People come to get the strawberry shortcake," historical society member Evelyn Cunningham said. "If we didn't have them, then I don't know what would happen."
The festival is held in conjunction with the town's Memorial Day parade.
The festival starts at 9 a.m. Monday. Route 85 closes between the roundabout and Rattlesnake Ledge Road at 9:45 a.m., and the parade starts with bell tolls from the Congregational Church of Salem at 10 a.m.
Sales of strawberry shortcakes and sundaes, other baked goods and coffee start at 9 a.m., and they stop only for opening ceremonies and when they sell out.
Cunningham has been helping run the festival almost as long as it has been going on, and she said the all-volunteer effort is a tradition in Salem.
All members of the historical society used to be recruited to bake biscuits for the festival, and female members would either pick strawberries fresh or purchase them from local farmers markets.
Cunningham said the volunteers switched to frozen strawberries because the farmers markets didn't have any strawberries one year, and preparing the 80-plus pounds of strawberries needed every year was easier when they already were cut up and frozen.
The volunteers sell almost 200 shortcakes and more than 60 sundaes during the three-hour sale, she said.
The strawberry sundaes feature ice cream from Salem Valley Farms on Darling Road.
The historical society building, which was once a church in Norwich that was moved down to Salem, is open to visitors during the festival and parade.
Historical society President Dave Wordell said the money raised by the strawberry festival supports the museum on the town green, but he feels the festival is more of a service to the town rather than a fundraiser for the society.
Residents come every year for the strawberry treats, and he said he is happy that Cunningham and other volunteers continue to put the festival together.
Wordell said the society is hoping to raise additional money to construct two museums on the former Music Vale Seminary property to preserve the musical legacy left by a school that once brought students from around the United States and abroad to become music teachers.
Cunningham used to serve as one of the town's registrars of voters, and she said the parade was a good time to hold voter registration drives because residents were already in a patriotic mood.
"It's a small-town, nice parade," she said. "Even in the rain, everybody comes."
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