Festival Serves Up Smiles by the Pint
The Ferris wheel and Winky the Whale, as well as the handcrafted-jewelry vendors and the cotton candy, were all worthwhile attractions, but “I’m heading directly to the strawberries,” said Cathy Nesheim of San Clemente.
She and her husband, Gene, were attending their first Garden Grove Strawberry Festival on Saturday, and discovered strawberry royales, a sinful concoction of big, red strawberries, strawberry bread (pound cake, really) and whipped cream.
Charles Johanson, a volunteer at the counter selling the royales, tarts and loaves of the bread, estimates that during the Memorial Day weekend, the nonprofit group will dish up 6,900 pints of strawberries, 780 cans of whipped cream and 2,000 loaves of bread.
“We don’t do shortcake, we do royales!” said Kevin Cochran of Long Beach, another volunteer at the concession stand.
Cochran brushed aside a query about the number of calories in a royale. “It’s festival time,” he said. “It doesn’t count.”
Behind the scenes, more than 200 volunteers keep the supply of fresh strawberries flowing to the assembly area.
“It’s hard, but it’s worth it,” said Brad Markell of Westminster, using a small grated spoon to remove strawberry stems with daughters Sarah, 6, and Emily, 10. “We’re giving back to the community and helping the Grove Theater Center,” a local theater group, he said.
Like an assembly line, rows of plastic bowls filled with clean, glistening fresh strawberries atop bread, and awaiting the whipped-cream topping, were stacked in holders. Along the walls of the booth and in just about every nook and cranny, stacks of strawberry flats were at the ready.
The 46th annual festival, which began Friday and concludes Monday at Village Green Park at Main and Euclid streets, is expected to draw more than 250,000 people. After a Memorial Day service Monday to honor fallen servicemen and -women, contests for the Berry Berry Beautiful Baby and Red-Head Roundup will be held.
The festival, which benefits local groups and institutions -- including Garden Grove schools, support services and scholarship funds -- has raised more than $4.1 million since its inception in 1958.
The festival is a tradition for Flor Espinoza. She came with her mother when she was growing up, and now with her husband, Guillermo, and sons Elijah, 1, and Izia, 2, the family tradition has grown.
“Corndogs, Polish dogs and corn on the cob,” Flor said. And for dessert? “We had a bowl of strawberries with whipped cream.” Ah, tradition.
Past and present Olympic athletes served as grand marshals of the Saturday parade, which highlighted the festival’s theme, “A Salute to the Olympic Spirit.”
Scheduled to appear were Robert Balk, a paralympian in the pentathlon, javelin and cross-country skiing; Kim Rhode, winner of gold and bronze medals in trap shooting; Cathy Marino Bradford, kayaker and president of the Southern California Olympians Assn.; Sammy Lee, winner of gold medals in diving in 1948 and 1952; Bruce Furniss, winner of two gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle and freestyle relay in 1976; Cliff Meidl, who won gold, silver and bronze in 1995 in sprint kayaking; Chuck Bittick, a world record holder in swimming and a member of the 1960 U.S. water polo team; and Bruce Ibbetson, a silver medal winner in rowing in 1984.
The Times is among the festival’s sponsors.