Watsonville's Strawberry Festival by Ewingjr98
The Monterey Strawberry Festival in Watsonville is an annual event to celebrate the region's bountiful strawberry crop. California produces some 88 percent of the nation's strawberries, and in Santa Cruz County strawberries are the number two crop, behind only marijuana.The Starawberry Festival is held in late July/early August each year, and it has carnival rides, live music, food an beverage booths (but no alcohol), and a variety of booths selling carny odds and ends like chamois and herbal remedies. The best part of the this festival is the local Mexican food and the Hispanic music that plays throughout the day. The worst part is that the festival is pretty lame compare to the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the Castroville Artichoke Festival, the Monterey County Fair, and numerous other local events.
The highlight of the festival for me was the food. We started at a local Mexican food stand, called Mexican Food Garcia from Watsonville, where the workers barley spoke a word of English, but their deep fried qeusadillas were some of the best I can remember--and three of us ate great meals for about $11. Later we moved on to the disappointingly small Strawberry Lane booth where they had about five different strawberry desserts for a few dollars each. I was amazed that this strawberry fest had hardly anything strawberry related...maybe they should check out the garlic festival for ideas. Would strawberry ice cream or shortcake be a stretch?