Emphasis will be on food with return of festival; visit master gardeners at The Farm
The Farm features dozens of crops grown in California as well as the Insect Pavilion and the UCCE Sacramento County master gardeners' booth. Photo courtesy California State Fair
What’s happening down on The Farm? Find out when the California State Fair and Food Festival returns Friday for its annual agricultural celebration of the Golden State.
From July 14 through 30, the fair will fill Cal Expo with such traditional favorites as nightly concerts and livestock exhibitions. With an emphasis on food, dozens of creative food vendors will participate in the fest, which includes a competition for Best Fair Food. (The 2022 Best of Fair winner: Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls’ Caramel Crunch Cinnamon Roll.) In addition, cooking challenges and demonstrations will be held daily.
Also back this summer is the 3-1/2-acre California State Fair Farm, a growing display of California’s top crops. More than 70 California-grown crops are featured along with water-wise tips and gardening advice.
Once again, the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Sacramento County will be stationed at a booth in the middle of The Farm to answer patrons’ questions.
Our expected heat this weekend has already taken a toll on the State Fair’s schedule. The State Fair’s thoroughbred horse racing meet, a fair staple for generations, was supposed to open Friday afternoon. But with an excessive heat watch in effect through Monday night, racing for Friday, Saturday and Sunday has been canceled. Instead, racing will start on July 21.
Friday’s high temperature is expected to be 106 degrees, says the National Weather Service. Saturday’s forecast high is 110 degrees; Sunday, 108.
Cal Expo is located at 1600 Exposition Blvd., Sacramento. Fair hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. Online advance admission tickets are $16. Senior admission (age 62 and up) is $12. Youth admission (ages 5-12) is $10. Children age 4 and younger admitted free. Parking: $15.
Details and advance admission tickets: https://calexpostatefair.com/
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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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