Starting Thursday, May 14 thru Sunday, May 17, the famous jumping frogs return to Calaveras County as the unique featured attraction of the Calaveras County Fair. With one of the richest heritages of any county fair anywhere, the Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee dates back to the 1800's and the days of the California Gold Rush. The stature of this event was cemented in 1865 when a frequent visitor to the region, one Samuel Clemens, published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain."
During the four-day run of the fair, jumping frog competitions will be held throughout the day, as amphibian competitors and their handlers attempt to capture first prize and perhaps beat the 23-year old record of 21 feet, 5 3/4 inches set in 1976 by Rosie the Ribbeter. Don't have your own frog? No problem, as they are available for rent for any interested competitor.
And it's not as if the wines of Calaveras County have been forgotten. This year, there will be two wine areas at the fair - the wine pavilion where there will be daily demonstrations by local winery owners and winemakers (I'll be there representing Solomon at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday), as well as wines available for sale by the bottle or by the glass. New this year will be the Wine Garden, a picnic area just inside the fairgrounds where just-announced award winners from this year's Sierra Foothills wine competition will also be available for purchase by the glass or by the bottle.
So come up and taste some award-winning Calaveras wines while watching (or participating in) the frog jumping competition. Just the perfect jumping-off (ouch!) point for the Foothills Summer.
Responses to Postings #1: Diving back into the archives, I received a response to my blog about "comfort wines" from Nanette Tanner of Tanner Vineyards in (strangely enough) Calaveras County. Her comments:
"You may not see through the magical blog airwaves, but for this reader, your Comfort Wine blog was definitely an affirmative, yes nodding article! I found myself nodding yes...that's true...yes, good point.,...yes....absolutely, yes...hey I have to send this guy a post!
An affirmative nod that yes, for those of us wine lovers in Calaveras County and our surrounding Sierra Foothills, comfort is certainly 'close to the home hearth' both for food and for wine. Not that a dash of tantalizing, unknown, uncharted territory of new and different (wine) is unmentionable or unwarranted; for us it is not only "can be," it actually is downright mesmerizing! To be fair to our foreign counterparts, who many times are unmercifully regulated (by tradition and by law) in our region, we do find comfort in our deliciously familiar "for sure" wines that we can always count on. Still, we are also continually being spoiled by the adventure of our favorite local winemakers! Over and over again we take comfort in discovering what new muse our winemakers have waiting for us when we visit the familiar haunts of our delightfully familiar wine tasting rooms! It has become part of our region's wine tasting experience check-off list. I think I am seeing an affirmative nod here! yes, we adventure-loving wine drinkers always feel that sense of excitement when, in the bag, next to our 'for sures,' we have the special bottle of something new and tantalizing that we can't wait to share with our friends at our next little friend-laden wine-fest on our own familiar, backyard, comfort-zoned patios! Isn't comfort delicious?"
Care to comment on this - or any - of my blog (or guest blog - thanks, Nanette) entries? Just drop me an email at paladiin.mod@gmail.com and I promise to respond to all emails and publish those that seem appropriate.
During the four-day run of the fair, jumping frog competitions will be held throughout the day, as amphibian competitors and their handlers attempt to capture first prize and perhaps beat the 23-year old record of 21 feet, 5 3/4 inches set in 1976 by Rosie the Ribbeter. Don't have your own frog? No problem, as they are available for rent for any interested competitor.
And it's not as if the wines of Calaveras County have been forgotten. This year, there will be two wine areas at the fair - the wine pavilion where there will be daily demonstrations by local winery owners and winemakers (I'll be there representing Solomon at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday), as well as wines available for sale by the bottle or by the glass. New this year will be the Wine Garden, a picnic area just inside the fairgrounds where just-announced award winners from this year's Sierra Foothills wine competition will also be available for purchase by the glass or by the bottle.
So come up and taste some award-winning Calaveras wines while watching (or participating in) the frog jumping competition. Just the perfect jumping-off (ouch!) point for the Foothills Summer.
Responses to Postings #1: Diving back into the archives, I received a response to my blog about "comfort wines" from Nanette Tanner of Tanner Vineyards in (strangely enough) Calaveras County. Her comments:
"You may not see through the magical blog airwaves, but for this reader, your Comfort Wine blog was definitely an affirmative, yes nodding article! I found myself nodding yes...that's true...yes, good point.,...yes....absolutely, yes...hey I have to send this guy a post!
An affirmative nod that yes, for those of us wine lovers in Calaveras County and our surrounding Sierra Foothills, comfort is certainly 'close to the home hearth' both for food and for wine. Not that a dash of tantalizing, unknown, uncharted territory of new and different (wine) is unmentionable or unwarranted; for us it is not only "can be," it actually is downright mesmerizing! To be fair to our foreign counterparts, who many times are unmercifully regulated (by tradition and by law) in our region, we do find comfort in our deliciously familiar "for sure" wines that we can always count on. Still, we are also continually being spoiled by the adventure of our favorite local winemakers! Over and over again we take comfort in discovering what new muse our winemakers have waiting for us when we visit the familiar haunts of our delightfully familiar wine tasting rooms! It has become part of our region's wine tasting experience check-off list. I think I am seeing an affirmative nod here! yes, we adventure-loving wine drinkers always feel that sense of excitement when, in the bag, next to our 'for sures,' we have the special bottle of something new and tantalizing that we can't wait to share with our friends at our next little friend-laden wine-fest on our own familiar, backyard, comfort-zoned patios! Isn't comfort delicious?"
Care to comment on this - or any - of my blog (or guest blog - thanks, Nanette) entries? Just drop me an email at paladiin.mod@gmail.com and I promise to respond to all emails and publish those that seem appropriate.