Yesterday afternoon, Andrew and I drove out to the Gold Country Fairgrounds to get our daily dose of Vitamin C (plus some!) at the 19th annual Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn.
I had the chance to speak with Joanne Neft, the festival's founder, back when we did a profile on her for Sactown's April/May issue, and since then, I've been wanting to attend the festival -- especially since it's practically in my backyard of Grass Valley and I've never gone! The fairgrounds were filled with vendors selling everything from handmade crafts to homemade toffee and from mandarin milkshakes to hefty 10 lb. bags of mandarin oranges grown in the area. Fun farming fact: warm days and cool nights in the Sierra foothills make it a prime growing climate for mandarins, hence the yearly festival. :)
We wandered and snacked on free samples and then dug into a delicious pizza from the portable wood-fired oven of Bella Familia Pizza topped with bacon and, yes, mandarin slices. Delicious...
Placer County was glowing with fall colors and we couldn't help get a bit carried away before we headed home toting our own 10 lb. bag of yummy, bright little citrus orbs...
No comments:
Post a Comment