Mead Hall berry fest is Saturday

Volunteers are keeping busy with cooking, baking, crafting, pricing and organizing as the 2009 Mead Hall Strawberry Festival approaches.

Festival organizers are working with Gurosik's Berry Plantation in North Augusta and have collected loads of fresh berries, according to event co-chair and PTO President Lisa Toole.

"Bell Farms was doing it with us, but they lost everything, their whole crop, in the hailstorm last week; all their strawberries and their peaches," Toole said.

"We just bought 20 gallons of strawberries," said PTO treasurer and volunteer Denise Musick.

Added volunteer Janelle Janssen, "We use about 35 to 40 gallons total just for desserts, and for fresh strawberry sales we buy as many as we can get. Carloads. Last year was a hard year for strawberries because it was so cold that crops were down. We sold out of fresh strawberries."

The PTO discovered last year that fresh strawberries were as big a draw for the festival as the bake sale of strawberry concoctions, according to Toole.

"We found people were calling us looking for more strawberries, and we hadn't realized the demand was there," she said. "This year, we're thinking of doubling, or even tripling what we get for those sales."

Janssen herself is the master of the fresh homemade strawberry ice cream for the festival. Last year's Strawberry Festival sold out of all 14 gallons of her ice cream, and she's filling the freezer with batches of the creamy concoction.

Strawberry shortcake using fresh berries and homemade pound cake is another festival classic, Janssen said, and intrepid eaters can have their shortcake "all the way," with berries, pound cake, homemade ice cream and whipped cream, in another festival favorite.

"All these things, the ice cream and the pound cake, they're recipes that we've had for years that get passed down to whoever's doing the organizing. I don't know where they came from originally," Janssen said.

"It takes about 45 minutes to make, and it's a very simple recipe, just whipping cream, evaporated milk, whole milk, sugar, vanilla and pureed strawberries. It's not heavy, it's light and fluffy with a lot of strawberry flavor, and it freezes but it doesn't hard-freeze like what you buy at the grocery store."

The bake sale and frozen casserole sale are also big attractions for the Strawberry Festival, and this year there will be a strawberry pie eating contest, with trophies given to winners in several age divisions.

There will also be a used book sale, a Beanie Baby collection for sale, a silent auction featuring themed gift baskets and a Mead Hall Idol talent competition.

The Aiken SPCA will have a pet adoption fair and Shelter Dog at Mead Hall Saturday, and Karen's Party Ponies will provide a petting zoo and pony rides. The Aiken Carriage Company will provide carriage rides through downtown again this year.

Arts and crafts vendors will be on hand at Mead Hall, with unique items including Aiken logo products, jewelry, tie dye shirts, custom clay handprints, decorated hand sanitizer pumps, yard art, handmade pottery and many other handcrafts.

There will be inflatables from Giggleworks and a mechanical bull from Air Fun Rentals.

Organizers will also provide children's games, hair coloring and face painting.

The Mead Hall Strawberry Festival takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the schoolyard, on the 100 block of Greenville Street behind Mead Hall and St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church. The festival is free and open to the public.

For more information about the festival or to register an act for Mead Hall Idol, call Lisa Toole at 215-5869.

Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com.

Want to Go?

What? Mead Hall Strawberry Festival

When? Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where? Mead Hall and St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church, 100 block of Greenville Street