Popular event features tons of fresh fruit and more
Placer-grown fresh mandarins are plentiful this year. Buy them in bags or gift baskets. Photo courtesy Mountain Mandarin Festival
Here’s an annual event with plenty of local zest: The Mountain Mandarin Festival.
Starting Friday, enjoy the three-day citrus celebration at the 29th Mountain Mandarin Festival at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn.
“Live and in person,” proclaim the festival’s organizers. The popular event returned in 2021 after a year off due to Covid precautions. In 2019, the festival attracted more than 30,000 patrons over its three-day run and a similar crowd is expected this weekend.
“Placer County growers will sell thousands of pounds of fresh mandarin oranges and gift baskets, accompanied by all the free samples you like,” say the organizers. “Join in the fun with food, artisan crafts, and activities featuring the mandarin orange and music!”
This year, there will be plenty of fruit to enjoy. Tons of fresh Placer-grown mandarins are ready for the event as well as countless mandarin-related products.
Scores of farmers and other vendors will be on hand, offering their locally grown fruit and other products. Snack on mandarin-flavored treats. Enjoy live music and performances at the main stage.
“Thousands of filled orange mesh bags (of mandarins) await and jams, jellies, infused olive oils, balsamic vinegar, barbecue sauces and body care products are all available for purchase,” say the organizers. “Visitors are delighted to discover that the food vendors offer everything from mandarin pizza to mandarin glazed wings, mandarin doughnuts and mandarin pulled pork, just to name a few.”
In addition, Placer County master gardeners will staff a booth on Saturday and Sunday. Get your 2023 garden guide!
Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18; 9 a.m. to 5 pm. Saturday, Nov. 19; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20.
General admission is $10; children age 11 and younger are admitted free. Seniors: $7. Friday discount admission: $5.
Gold Country Fairgrounds is located at 209 Fairgate Road, Auburn.
For tickets and details: www.mandarinfestival.com.
-- Debbie Arrington
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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