UNION —Blueberry spitting: yes it’s a thing.

The Union Fair hosted a friendly competition on Friday, August 24 to see who could turn a blueberry into a projectile that traveled the furthest.

Coinciding with the fair’s annual Maine Wild Blueberry Festival Day, more than a dozen participants ranging from age three to 75 participated in the event. Hosting the event were three lovely ladies: The 2018 Maine Wild Blueberry Queen Whitney Dow of Waldoboro, Crown Princess Sierra Beal of Tenants Harbor and Miss Congeniality Jordan Bracket of Owls Head. (All three took their turn at the end as well.)

A plastic mat marked up to 25 feet had been laid out on the grass in Sherman Park as onlookers watched each participant get up on the last stair of the gazebo and give it all they had. Techniques ranged from bending backwards and giving the blueberry a forceful hurl to standing and letting the blueberry plop out of one’s mouth as if having  just experienced a bad clam.

Volunteers then took a tape measure to the mat to estimate how far it traveled.

The first place winner this year with a 25+-range was Bob Kostelok of Bernardsville, New Jersey. “So proud,” he said. Asked how, if from New Jersey, he knew how to spit a Maine blueberry so well, he replied, “I don’t know. I think it’s genetic. I’ve always been able to spit really far.”

Check out our other gallery: Old fashioned rides and snacks at the Union Fair

Photos by Kay Stephens

 Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com