Rain Doesn’t Dampen Spirits at the Strawberry Festival
by Deborah Sleeper
Walking into Kimmswick from the parking area just outside of the business district, the first booth to greet visitors was a petting zoo, complete with a camel. There were barbeque stands, drink vendors, and a vast spread of tented arts and craft vendors. Thunder rolled and no one seemed to notice. In spite of the on-and-off rain on Sunday, the festival retained a large attendance.
Jewelry was hot. It was everywhere. Designer Ina Owen of ‘A Glassy Lady’ wire wrapped jewelry explained that her website www.aglassylady.shutterfly.com would need updating after the festival. Owen had sold about sixty pieces when we spoke with her early Sunday afternoon. “Saturday was better than Sunday,” Owen said. At that point she still had a wide selection of wire-wrapped fused and dichroic glass, stones, and even some arrowheads. 
This was Owen’s first year at the Strawberry Festival as a vendor, but she has attended previous years as a visitor. “A few years ago they had this ice cream sandwich,” she said, holding her hands out to indicate that it was huge, “. . . covered in nuts and chocolate.”
One might expect at a strawberry festival to find lots of strawberry-themed items, if not an abundance of actual fresh strawberries. Surprisingly, only a small handful of vendors offered strawberry items. Several booths selling jams, preserves and pie fillings offered strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb varieties. The Blue Owl’s booth sold strawberry cheesecake and their strawberry salad. We spotted a strawberry-print scarf at one booth. Most of the wares and fare seemed to have no relation at all to strawberries.
Chris Leach of Imperial Farmers Market spoke with us about her strawberries. Her stand sold the only fresh strawberries in the entire fair. She sold local berries on Saturday and California berries on Sunday. Imperial Farmers Market has provided strawberries for the fair since its inception. Leach explained that another vendor used to participate, but has since chosen not to sell berries.
Even with the small selection strawberries and related items, visitors excitedly buzzed around the vendor booths, enjoyed barbeque, funnel cakes, and beer from a vendor yelling, “beer on a stick!” while holding up a stick with an inverted cup on top of it. His silly antics worked. A few minutes later men crowded around his stand buying beer. I didn’t see any of them walk away with sticks, though. Some visitors sampled gourmet dip mixes, and some took rides in a horse-drawn carriage. One barbeque vendor referenced the festival’s theme in his sales pitch calling out, “Goes great with strawberries!”
The festival had a lot to offer and the strawberries from Imperial Farmers Market's booth were fresh, ripe, sweet, juicy and delicious!