|
19th Annual Oakley Almond Festival September 12 -14,
2008
September 12th,13th & 14th 2008 is a "Ben
Toasted" event sponsored by
Oakley Chamber of Commerce,
oakleychamber.com
Saturday September 13th at 9:00
A.M., experience Americana on
parade at Almond Festival
Parade.
Hours:
Friday -- 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
(Carnival only)
Saturday -- 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday -- 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: O'Hara Park is located
at O'Hara Ave & Cypress, Oakley,
CA 94561
Other events include Car Show,
Sports on the Delta & Boat Show,
Diaper Derby, Cooking Contest &
more!
Almond lovers unite! Almonds don't exactly get ignored. But
they don't get the credit they
deserve, either. When we heard
that almonds are a great food
source, our BC staff began
eating them and we found out
there are major differences in
canned almonds, packaged almonds
and really fresh almonds. Really
fresh almonds come off the trees
and into your mouth. And they
come from Oakley and its
surrounding towns. There
are more ways to eat almonds
than raw, unsalted, fresh. But
once you get used to eating them
that way, they are so addictive
that you have to curb your
appetite. At this annual event
that has celebrated almonds for
years, the Ben Toasted character
brings delight to those who have
seen the Oakley event.
But first, where is Oakley. Oakley is a name many of us
beach-goers associate with
sunglasses, not nuts. Oakley is
located in the East Bay, San
Francisco. Not far from
Danville, Brentwood and Antioch,
the hotel accommodations are
pretty slim in this region. So
us tourists who drive there to
experience nuts, are going to go
a little nutty looking for
hotels. Your best bet (since
there's only one hotel to book
in Oakley) is to resign yourself
to staying nearby. It's going to
take your around 30 minutes to
get to Concord where you'll find
more hotels so that's where
we're booking, to play it safe.
Still, you can see from the
photos above supplied by the
Chamber of Commerce, that the
crowds aren't that bad. My
money's on a
room in Concord where
I've stayed before and thought
it was nice...Hilton
that overlooks the Waterworld
USA.
Oakley is located along a delta and the Almond event will
include some boat activities and
water sports reflecting the
local asset, its waterways.
Other fun things where we hope
there isn't too much water
flowing include the Diaper Derby
(how cute!), the Cooking Contest
(this is a big deal and people
take it quite seriously since
there's a prize), and the Car
Show with some totally cool
custom and classic automobiles.
All in all, Oakley Almond
Festival is exactly the type of
event you should attend if you
value the almond, a crop that
has been jeopardized by the
dwindling bee population in
recent times. We'll hope that
whatever is killing the bees
will not destroy them
completely. Bees are essential
for pollination of the trees
that grow almonds.
calsite
|
