A peachy keen festival
20th annual Marysville Peach Festival offers tradition, delicious food and plenty of peaches
A two-day celebration of all things peachy continues today, filling the streets of downtown Marysville.
Friday afternoon, taking a stroll along a D Street filled with booths, Nancy Culpepper ate peach cobbler as friends, Holland Merrill and Connor Hadden ate deep fried vegetables during the 20th annual festival.
“I love peaches,” Culpepper said. “I told them, ‘as long as there are peaches, I’m going.’”
Hadden recently moved from Marysville to Sacra
mento and said, “I love the atmosphere here.”
“The fact that they offer vegan options is great,” Merrill said.
Yuba City residents Kathy and Bill Stapleton came for the first time and tasted some peachflavored ribs from The Silver Dollar Saloon.
“I love it here,” Kathy Stapleton said. “We’ve lived here 20 years and finally we don’t have to work and can come here to check it out.”
The festival was the brainchild of Jody Sodaro who was on hand Friday to show her love of the stone fruit that her family has grown for years.
“It’s been a love affair and we come every year,” she said. “All my children worked out at the fruit stand and I love the feel of Marysville – it’s like an old farm city.”
She said her husband, John’s parents started growing peaches in the ‘60s and the farm stand opened in 1978.
“We still have the original log book and we’ve had people come from as far away as London, Asia and Germany,” she said. “It’s amazing to hear about the places that people came from to visit our little town.”
Longtime Marysville resident Shannon Mcgrath said she ventures to the farm stands for her produce and loves the festival offerings.
“I live by Marysville High and go up to Sodaro all the time to buy peaches,” she said. “I come here for the peach cobbler and I like the new format of the festival with the booths at the center of the street and all the local arts and crafts.”
Sodaro’s daughter, Sara Sodaro-baggett said they made 800 cobblers this year with some help from a local organization.
“We got help making the cobbler through a partnership with QUEST for the second year,” she said.