Usually late May or early JuneA long-standing, good-tasting tradition in Buckhannon, W.Va., the center of a strawberry-growing region. The festival began in 1936, was suspended during World War II, and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1991 with a block-long strawberry shortcake. Visitors, who numbered about 100,000, got free samples.
The festival focuses on what can be done culinarily to the strawberry: there are pancake breakfasts with strawberry jam, strawberry syrup, and fresh strawberries. There's a strawberry recipe contest, with recipes for such delights as strawberry cakes, pies, and cookies, kiwi-and-strawberry pizza, chicken glazed with strawberries, and strawberry stirring sticks (take drinking straws and fill with strawberries). The festival includes the coronation of a king and queen, a Strawberry Party Gras (a street festival of music and dancing), strawberry auctions, the sweetest strawberry tasting contest, an antique car show, and contests and parades.
CONTACTS:
The West Virginia Strawberry Festival Association Inc.
P.O. Box 117
Buckhannon, WV 26201
304-472-9036; fax: 304-472-9037
www.wvstrawberryfestival.com