Mandarins galore as crowds flock to annual festival

Thousands of bags of mandarin oranges were sold, crowds lined up for mandarin shakes and the ultra-popular mandarin pepper sauce sold out before we could even get a picture of it; these were just some of the scenes at this year's 32nd annual Mountain Mandarin Festival in Roseville. The three-day event was held in Roseville @the Grounds from Friday through Sunday, and unlike last year, was graced with perfect holiday season weather. The marquee event of the festival is, of course, the various mandarin farmers from the region selling their delectable bite-sized citrus fruits, but there was also a slew of other attractions, such as live music and a huge array of vendors selling arts and crafts, food items (such as beef jerky) and health-related products from red light therapy to skin care. This event was held in Auburn for 22 years, but last year moved to Roseville. Vendors said they were quite happy with the new venue and event. "It's been a really, really great festival," said Jamie Wharton with Newcastle Mandarin Ranch. "There's been a ton of people and everyone's really happy." Like all the mandarin farmers at the festival, by the third and final day of the event, Wharton said they sold out their 5-pound bags of mandarins but still had 10-pound bags left. While mandarins are the main attraction, Wharton said the item that garnered a huge interest is their mandarin pepper sauce, which sold out quickly. "You can pour it over cream cheese, eat it with crackers, put it on pork loin in the Crock-Pot," explained Wharton. "We have a lady that buys a case every year and she marinates her shrimp in it and they do shrimp tacos for Christmas Eve dinner. My dad poured it over chocolate ice cream. It's a super versatile sauce." While who grew the "best" or "tastiest" mandarin is always subjective, the festival does award a farmer with that coveted honor. This year, the award went to Traylor Ranch in Loomis. Owner Bill Traylor was humble over the honor. "It's nice, it's real nice," said Traylor. Traylor said he couldn't say for sure why his mandarins received the award, but he does know he likes his mandarins. "I like the way our mandarins taste, and I don't know why I like them but I like them," said Traylor. "Normally, ours are very sweet, and I think it's because we always put mulch on the bottom, we fertilize a little bit, a kind of natural fertilizer." Over the course of the three-day festival, Traylor estimated he sold thousands of bags of mandarins. One of the big attractions of the festival is always the mandarin shakes, a delightful concoction of mandarin oranges and vanilla ice cream. The taste is reminiscent of an Orange Julius, a beloved frothy orange drink that was created in 1926 and rose to huge popularity in the 1970s. And then there was Flo the Clown, whose job was to simply ride around the festival on her clown car or trike, spreading mandarin cheer. "I go around and I just talk with people and try to make them happy!" exclaimed Flo. Flo said she had been a part of the festival for many years but more recently worked in an office role. She returned to her clown suit last weekend and rode around from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and said she couldn't be happier with the job. "I'm very blessed to meet a lot of nice people," said Flo. One perk of Flo's job: lots of mandarins to snack on. "They're good this year, very very good this year," Flo said with a smile before she rode off to greet more guests. While the focus of the festival is to offer a wide range of entertainment and fun for visitors, festival Executive Director Gary Gilligan said the other mission of the event is to raise appreciation and awareness for local mandarin farmers and the agriculture industry as a whole. There are 80 registered mandarin farmers in Placer County, according to Gilligan. "If you buy some in the grocery store and then you get some of the Placer County mandarins, it's night and day, the flavor and everything," said Gilligan. Over the course of its long history in the region, the festival, which is a non-profit, has sold some 1.9 million bags of fruit and returned about $2 million to their community partners, such as student scholarships and non-profits that help them during the festival. This year's proceeds will add to those numbers. If you missed this year's festival, locally grown mandarins are still in season; growers expect them to be available until around Christmas.