The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Boysenberries ON THE BRAIN
Chefs never stop thinking about variations for the fruit's yearly fest
“How lucky are we that the boysenberry is so very versatile? It can go in drinks and with savory or sweet. You name it.”
Knott’s Berry Farm sources 300,000 pounds of boysenberries every year from Chile, New Zealand and Oregon to feed festivalgoers who feast on more than 80 food and beverage items at the annual Boysenberry Festival.
The fest will run daily through April 7, then Fridays through Sundays from April 12 through 28 at Knott’s Berry Farm.
Knott’s Vice President of Food & Beverage Laura Brubaker never stops thinking about boysenberrys.
The boysenberry possibilities were seemingly endless when Brubaker attended the annual Las Vegas food show.
“You walk down the aisles and you’re like, oh, I can put boysenberry in the middle of that,” Brubaker said during a video interview.
During a recent girls weekend, Brubaker’s friends offered to help her brainstorm and started firing off Boysenberry Festival ideas.
“They said, ‘Did you try this or that?’ ” Brubaker recalled with a laugh. “I said, ‘Yup, we’ve done that.’ ”
Brubaker thinks about boysenberries in the shower and even dreams about the berry that started it all at Knott’s Berry Farm.
“Trust me, I could find a way to instill boysenberry in anything,” Brubaker said.
Brubaker will start planning next year’s Boysenberry Festival during this year’s event. She’s already got five items for the 2025 menu — mostly things that couldn’t be produced in time for 2024.
“You can’t start from scratch,” Brubaker said. “It’s too hard.”
The Boysenberry Festival has grown from about 15 items in 2018 to more than 80 this year — which may be the limit.
“This is probably a good number for me,” she said.
Over the years, Brubaker has tried to add variety to the food offerings and introduced more boysenberry beverage and booze items. The most recent change has been to expand beyond the temporary festival booths and introduce more boysenberry items at the park’s brick-and-mortar restaurants.
The Boysenberry Festival tasting card has more than 50 items, mostly offered at food booths and restaurants in Ghost Town.
This year, the festival menu will once again be broken into two parts — tasting card and a la carte. Last year’s massive combo menu was too confusing for visitors, Brubaker said.
The $55 tasting card serves as a mini dining plan that encourages people to sample festival fare and return to the park for another visit.
“I do want our customers to have variety to the point where they’re like, ‘Honey, we’ve got to come back. We’ve got to get another card,’ ” Brubaker said.
Brubaker never runs out of ways to use boysenberries.
“How lucky are we that the boysenberry is so very versatile?” Brubaker said. “It can go in drinks and with savory or sweet. You name it.”
Boysenberry ingredients coming soon to the festival menu include sauerkraut slaw, bourbon honey, hot honey and balsamic vinegar.
Brubaker’s boysenberry wish list includes a corncake and galette pastry that she hasn’t yet found a vendor to make. As one of the world’s biggest consumers of boysenberries, Knott’s often has to supply vendors with the fruit so they can make food and drinks for the festival.
This year’s festival will be broken into two parts — with a daily run during the first half before switching to weekends only during the second half.
Last year’s festival had a few dates washed out by rain. Knott’s added a few weekends to the end of the run in 2023 and decided to make the temporary extension part of the schedule this year. Boysenberry a la carte items will still be available weekdays when the festival switches to weekends-only mode.
Boysenberry sushi was among the most popular items at past festivals. This year, Knott’s chefs will add a new sushi twist: Spam musubi.
“I am in love with the Spam musubi,” Brubaker said. “I will tell you, I don’t eat Spam, but I’m a Spam lover now.”
— Laura Brubaker, Knott’s vice president of food & beverage