Every autumn, people from the shore and beyond venture out into the Pine Barrens to the tiny town of Chatsworth for a beloved celebration of the area’s culture: the Cranberry Festival. What started more than 40 years ago as a tribute to the annual cranberry harvest has grown into a sprawling event with hundreds of artists and small business vendors.
On Oct. 17, thousands of people bundled up and braved the chilly weather for a fall Saturday spent browsing artwork, unique decor and other creations outside the White Horse Inn in Chatsworth. Signs of the season were sprinkled through the festival: Vibrant orange bouquets brightened up the gray scene, and warm cups of apple cider kept freezing fingers toasty. Cranberry lovers snagged freshly harvested berries from local farms and stocked up on jams and baked goods.
Ocean County Artists Represented
Local creators of all kinds see the festival as a meaningful tradition and a space to connect with other creative minds and art lovers.
Under one of hundreds of tents were funky, colorful mugs and dishes boasting intricate botanical designs. Tuckerton-based artist Deb Mastrangelo, who runs D&M Pottery with her husband, Mario, said her designs are the product of a hobby that got “out of control.”
“I started watching the ‘Great Pottery Throwdown,’ and I was like ‘That looks fun, let’s take a class.’ So then we thought, ‘This is fun, let’s get a wheel.’ Then we got a wheel. I said, ‘Well, now we can’t fire anything, so let’s get a kiln,’” she said.
Eventually, the pair put up a shed in their backyard to serve as a makeshift home studio, and the passion for pottery grew. They now sell the pieces mostly because their friends and family could take only so many off their hands, Mastrangelo joked. D&M Pottery pops up at a few festivals in the spring and fall, and has a stall at KC Creations in West Creek.
Many local artists, such as Tuckerton’s D&M Pottery, shared their work at the fest.
For the delicate designs, Mastrangelo carves the pottery, or uses special techniques and materials such as layered stencils and lace. Her husband specializes in glazing.
The pastime is both “fun and challenging,” Mastrangelo said, and those who say it’s relaxing aren’t telling the full truth – at times it’s more frustrating than it seems. But once she gets in a groove, it can be therapeutic.
“It’s just always something to do. And it’s meditational – nobody’s there, nobody’s talking. I’m just in the zone,” she said.
After teaching kindergarten in Stafford Township for more than 30 years, Barnegat resident Cathy Sbailo has taken up a new pastime, and the Cranberry Festival was the first opportunity she had to share her creations as Nana Nature’s Creative Collections.
Sbailo has always been a crafty person, and before she started teaching, she had a small craft business. “So this is kind of me starting again,” she said.
Sbailo’s designs include wreaths, wall decor, plant propagators and more, all inspired by the natural world around her. Sticks and branches are shaped into a moon hanging from twine, adorned with dehydrated orange slices, moss and pine cones. Mermaid-inspired wall hangings feature a fork (or a thingamabob?), fishnet and shells. Most of the materials she utilizes (other than ribbons, twine and some other crafting tools) are foraged.
“I go in my backyard; we go onto the Island – all the shells are from Long Beach Island. The sand is from Barnegat Bay. I make all the wreaths myself – they’re from the big birch tree at my house. Even the sticks are from my hydrangea bushes. I make everything from scratch,” Sbailo said.
Barnegat and the surrounding areas offer so much natural beauty, she said. “It’s nice to be able to bring a little bit of nature back and put it in your house.”
Though it was her first festival, Sbailo said she’d already had a wonderful experience and was able to form relationships with other artists and customers. The best part of the event so far was “connecting with people and being able to have people come in and then say such lovely things about your things,” she said.
Just one booth over, Sbailo’s daughter Kate, who lives in Manahawkin, represented her Forked River-based tattoo shop, Art Gallery Tattoo – an example of the wide range of artforms showcased at the festival.
Locals Look Back
For those who live closer to the Cranberry Festival and grew up around it, it’s less of an event than it is a way of life. Chatsworth resident Tori Klimeczak has helped organize the festival for the past four years, but her memories of the event stretch far beyond that.
“I always came here as a little kid,” she said.
Klimeczak was introduced to the festival as a child by her babysitter, who has helped organize the festival for about 25 years, she said. Her favorite part when she was younger was getting her face painted and enjoying some ice cream, and she still looks forward to getting ice cream at the festival each year.
Organizing the festival each year is no small task. “There’s a lot that goes into it,” Klimeczak said. While there are many returning vendors, just securing the vendors is a long, intense process.
Throughout the festival grounds, people carried autumn-hued bouquets, all provided by Far and Away Flower Farm. Owner Sean Colton has been coming to the Cranberry Festival since his farm, located just down the road in Tabernacle, opened in 2019.
“Here, because we’re local, it’s really the community involvement and getting to see a lot of people I don’t get to see a lot. … I know a lot of people here, so that’s always really nice. We know a lot of the vendors, and people we worked with at other markets,” he said.
Having grown up in the area, Colton was involved in cranberry farming. The history of the actual crop is interesting, and many people have no idea New Jersey is such a hot spot for cranberries, he said.
“I’ve worked cranberries – just about everybody in the area that’s been a farmer or something, we know somebody who has a cranberry farm. So growing up through high school and our early 20s, we’ve all worked the cranberry harvest, for either our friends or as a side job,” Colton said.
The Cranberry Festival is an opportunity to introduce the area’s cranberry bogs and culture to others who may not be familiar with it, he said.
“I think it’s important just for that aspect, just to show that cranberries are a very prevalent thing around here. They’re just tucked in the woods, and no one knows they’re right here,” Colton said.
