Strawberry Shortcake Forever!

You know it's really summer when all the festivals roll round.

I don't go to many summer festivals.  In fact, despite the fact there seems to be one on just about every weekend throughout the summer, I only go to one a year, and that's the Wolcott, NY Strawberry Festival, and I go despite the fact I absolutely despise strawberries.

Wolcott is a charming little village near Lake Ontario.  (Near being 5-6 miles.)  It's sorta near Sodus Bay and Port Bay (and Fair Haven) NY.  The festival is always the third Saturday in June (unless there's a monsoon, like last year, and it got canceled--that's last year's sign.  But as mentioned, it wasn't postponed, it was canceled.  Bah--Humbug)

The local school band plays.  There's always a martial arts demonstration (this year one of the participants had a split in his pants, and every time he tumbled on the mats you could see his white underwear under this black martial arts outfit--and it wasn't the guy in this picture).  Usually these martial arts demonstrations are kid heavy.  But this year there were four adult (males) and four children (two boys, two girls) and an enthusiastic contingent rooting for them.  (Wisely parked under the trees, sucking up the shade.  Man, it was HOT AND HUMID.)  Some of those guys have been going after their black belts (in various degrees) for between 17-27 years.  Whoa!  And I thought waiting 11 years to get published was a L-O-N-G time.

We always seem to time our arrival (around noon) in time for this demonstration, and this year was no different.

But that's not why we go.  We go for the food.  I always have the same thing:  salt potatoes and fried dough.   I posted about it on Facebook and was shocked to find out that a lot of my FB chums had no idea what salt potatoes OR fried dough was.  The festivals in their neck of the woods don't feature these delights.  Go figure! 
In case you're from another part of the country, I'll explain.  Salt potatoes are small, and round, and are boiled with lots of salt.  (Except these weren't.  I guess they're taking the Surgeon General's suggestion to limit salt intake seriously, because I, who am very sensitive to overly salted food, couldn't even taste ANY salt on these potatoes).  They're smothered in something that's supposed to be butter, but probably isn't, and they go well with clam bakes.  I like a LOT of pepper on my food, so I not only took my own pepper to the festival, I took my own fork.  It can be difficult to cut these little guys, and I knew a metal fork would do a better job than a plastic one.

And for dessert, delicious (and utterly un-nutritious) fried dough.  It's just what the name suggests.  Fried bread dough, dipped in cinnamon sugar.  Ooh!  Yum!

On the other hand, hubby goes for the Strawberry Shortcake.  It's a long story as to why I loathe strawberries (but in a nutshell:  childhood illness, strawberry Jello, and prodigious amounts of vomit).  Even the smell of them gives me the heebie-jeebies. But there sure were lots of folks chowing down on dessert and enjoying every bite.

The festival also features a raffle by the Historical Society (we visited their yard sale and I bought a Betty Crocker Pie and Pastry cookbook for a buck), some kind of bouncy (blown-up) thing kids enter (no shoes) and jump up and down in; wreck a car for a buck (yup--they give you a sledge hammer and you can bash away to your heart's content) crafters (heavy on jewelry and light on customers), baked food sale, and voter registration booth, with a demonstration on the new voting
machines.  (I passed on that.)  You can also buy everything you need (okay, maybe not the whipped cream or THE WORKS--ice cream--for your own strawberry shortcakes at home.  (Ick.)

All in all, it took about an hour.

I can't wait until next year's festival.