St. Matthew’s in June
Each year around the middle of June the fields in Sugar Hill put on a spectacular display of bloom and color. The Lupine Festival draws visitors from all over the northeast, signalling the beginning of summer and heralding the reopening of St. Matthew’s a few weeks later.
The genus Lupinus belongs to the pea family, with palmately compound leaves and racemes of white, rose, yellow, or blue flowers. The flowers give way to pods containing beanlike seeds around the time that St. Matthew’s summer season is in full swing.
Although loved by the local residents and summer visitors to the area, lupine is not universally appreciated by farmers depending on a bountiful hay crop from the fields. It has a quite invasive side to its personality.