Media Contact:
Karen Spencer
916 663-3723,  Fax: 663-2932 
email: Karen.spencer@ncbb.net

Mountain Mandarin Festival Celebrates the Start of Holiday Harvest

November 17 and 18, 2007
Saturday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm; Sunday: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Gold Country Fairgrounds, 1273 High St., Auburn, CA
Free admission, parking $5, some street parking available
Public information: 916 663-1918 or www.mandarinfestival.com

When autumn days in the Placer County foothills are warm and the nights are cold, mandarin orange growers anxiously await the first blush of color on their fruit. Just before Thanksgiving, samples are eagerly tasted for sweetness and then long hours are spent hand-snipping each stem to bring in the first crop of the season for the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn, California, November 17 and 18.

The sweet and tangy citrus scent of Mandarin oranges permeates the crisp November air during the two-day Mountain Mandarin Festival held at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn, California. The Sierra Foothills, long-known for the discovery of gold in California, are also known for their golden treasure, the Mandarin orange. The Festival celebrates the start of their harvest. The Mountain Mandarin Festival attracts 30,000 visitors who savor the juicy fruit, which is available only late November through January. Most growers offer the seedless Owari Satsuma variety, often called the zipper fruit because it is so easy to peel.

Thanks to conducive weather patterns this year, 2007 is expected to be a bountiful harvest and nearly 20 local growers will bring thousands of familiar, 10-pound, orange-mesh bags of the fruit, ready for travel home to friends and family. Mandarins should be plentiful, however it’s a good idea to get your bags early and then enjoy the festival. Vendors offer a multitude of foods enhanced with mandarin oranges including beverages, salads, pulled pork and BBQ sauce, ice-creams, glazed nuts, chocolate-dipped mandarins, fudge, jams, jellies, olive oils, marinades and syrups. Many of the growers offer home made treats and gift baskets. Quality hand-crafted items are also for sale just in time for holiday giving and home trimming at more than 150 booths.

Cooking demonstrations throughout the festival, with Mandarins as an ingredient, will feature regionally known chefs, while the popular Mandarin Recipe Contest on Sunday attracts amateur cooks who bring their prepared dish to be judged. Day-long activities include free crafts and contests for children in the Mini Mandarin Grove, and live entertainment on three stages. The Mountain Mandarin Mercantile will offer logo’d t-shirts, aprons, posters, totebags and a number of mandarin food and body care products. The Mountain Mandarin Festival cookbook will be available for $10 featuring festival favorites, growers own family recipes, and dishes developed by professional chefs, along with a newly published insert.

Hop aboard the train for a tour of the Festival and when you buy your bags of mandarins and all those gifts, help will be available to get them to you car.

Admission to the Mountain Mandarin Festival is free, parking is $5. Hours Saturday are 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. For more information visit www.mandarinfestival.com or call 916 663-1918.