By Isabella Susino | Adirondack Harvest Program Lead

The 2025 Adirondack Harvest Festival was a great success, bringing together farms, food producers, and community members from across the region. We are grateful to everyone who joined us to celebrate local agriculture and connect with the people who grow and make our food.

We saw over 3,000 visitors this year, getting back to beating the previous festival attendance records. The event was made incredible by the 80 vendors, local businesses and organizations, the 56 volunteers we had on-site, and 10 CCE staff members. We want to recognize Laurie Davis – who took over as the Adirondack Harvest Festival planning team and coordinated the 2025 event! Also, a big thank you to the rest of the CCE Essex Team for their many days of hard work and support.

From first years to many more

This year’s event was a few of our staff’s first Adirondack Harvest Festival. New additions that were made included unique workshops like “From Milling Grain To Cooking It,” to “Growing Wild Rice in Essex County,” new vendors and food trucks, and a hands-on tomato seed harvesting demonstration.

A new mural was also added, where attendees could write down where they came from for the festival. We had people from all over the U.S. and visitors from our Northern neighbor’s largest province, Quebec. Some of the farthest reaches were from Kauai, Hawaii; Irvine and Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; Yarmouth, Maine; New Haven, Vermont; Hartford, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and even Cuba! 

Most of the hand-written hellos were from our beloved Adirondack Park, where people from rural and small towns came together in celebration of Adirondack agriculture: Schroon Lake, Lake Luzerne, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Johnsburg, Brown Tract Pond, Paul Smith’s, Elizabethtown, North Hudson, Ticonderoga, Minerva, and of course, Westport. Even some folks from around New York State were able to enjoy the festival: Troy, Albany, Ballston Spa, Glens Falls, Berlin, Schenectady, Lewiston, Rochester, NYC, Long Island (on bicycle!), and Buffalo.

Feedback and photo submissions

Did you have a great time at the Adirondack Harvest Festival? Do you have funny stories to share? Fill out our 2025 feedback survey! If you found our 2025 photo challenge, or you just took a lot of pictures, we’d love to see them!

Give your feedback here Submit your photos

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the farmers, producers, volunteers, and community organizations who made this event possible. Your contributions created an event that highlighted the diversity and strength of our local food system.
To our sponsors: we appreciate your support in making the 2025 festival happen.

Much appreciation to Essex County DPW, Buildings & Grounds, and especially fairgrounds manager Glenn Williams for his excellent troubleshooting capabilities.

Special thanks to Jacob and his bucket truck from Chazy Westport Communications.

We look forward to building on this year’s success and hope you’ll join us again in 2026. In the meantime, please continue to support local farms, markets, and producers across the Adirondacks.