Capay Valley Almond Festival persists through bad weather conditions

Gerardo Zavala

Mar 1

The Capay Valley's businesses and organizations welcomed thousands for the Almond Festival this weekend despite unfortunate weather conditions.

"Our objective was to plan an Almond Festival and we did it rain or shine," Laura Gordon, vice president of the Esparto Regional Chamber of Commerce and an organizer of the Almond Festival, said. "So even if one person had shown up, it would have been a success."

Gordon explained that although last year's festival welcomed roughly 5,000 to the valley, she only estimated that about a third of last year's showing attended the event this year.

She argued that what hurt the event most this year were businesses and vendors choosing to cancel their weekend events due to the weather.

"You'd have to go back and look up when the last time the valley even had snow," she stressed. "The weather impacted the people coming out but the people that were coming out were diehards."

Additionally, she reminded people that the festival is celebrated throughout the Capay Valley in Madison, Esparto, Capay, Brooks, Guinda and Rumsey.

"It's not just Esparto, but there are people waiting for you in every single small town up and down the valley because it's the Capay Valley Almond Festival, not the Esparto Almond Festival," she emphasized.

Gordon said she had a lot of help organizing this year's event, especially from her son, Stephen Gordon, who is now the president of the chamber.

Stephen spent his Almond Festival weekend going back and forth from his farm to his restaurant, Lucy's Cafe, which is located in downtown Esparto.

Lucy's Cafe & Farm Pantry located at 16850 Yolo Ave. was filled throughout the event with people visiting the festival from and around the Capay Valley. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat) — Lucy's Cafe & Farm Pantry, located at 16850 Yolo Ave., was filled throughout the event with people visiting the festival from and around the Capay Valley. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat)

"My loyalty to the chamber is through and through because my grandfather was a chamber member back in the 70s," he explained. "I want to make sure that I'm living up to that."

Stephen said one thing he hopes to accomplish as president of the chamber is to re-establish and reemphasize the relationships that have gotten the Capay Valley to where it is today.

"As the Esparto Regional Chamber of Commerce, we represent the entire valley as far as business opportunity and business growth, and of course the Almond Festival, which is the bread and butter of what we do," he stressed.

This is his third year planning the event and his fifth year being involved, which has shown him how strenuous the planning process can be.

"It's an all-year planning event that comes down to the wire with structure and coordination, but the end result is the biggest day of the year with all the businesses," he stated.

One business that benefits tremendously from the increased business the festival brings is El Torro, located across the street from Esparto Park.

The grocery store opened its kitchen roughly two years ago and had its first Almond Festival experience last year.

"Before we didn't have the kitchen and we had no idea," Micahel Molina, owner of the restaurant, said. "Now that we have the kitchen we need to know how much food to make, how to get people in and out a little faster. With the additional tables and chairs in here, business just continues to evolve and provide more things for the community."

El Torro recently purchased tables and chairs to allow patrons to sit inside. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat)

Molina argued that events like the Almond Festival that bring people to the valley allow restaurants and businesses to let people know about them.

"People know that they can stop by because they'll come in and get something that day," he said. "In the future, they know there's something to eat there and they can swing by to pick something up and go wherever they're going."

He noted that roadwork that has been going on in downtown Esparto for over two years is finally completed and will hopefully add to the excitement of people coming back to the valley after the pandemic.

Additionally, local organizations are able to benefit from the festival because it gives them an opportunity to fundraise while teaching people what they offer the community.

Julia Thomas, president of the Friends of the Esparto Regional Library, said the festival is critical to her nonprofit because it's the biggest fundraiser of the year.

"The more books we sell, the more we can help the library," she explained. "The friends of the library does fundraising to support the programs that the library offers."

The Friends of the Esparto Regional Library held its annual Almond Festival book sale that supports many library programs. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat)

According to Thomas, these programs range from storytimes, ESL classes, digital materials, and programs for all ages.

"We also support the electronic books and audiobooks that the library is able to offer, movie nights and a lot of materials that the library will buy like new books," she added. "We use the money we make through the book sale and other events throughout the year to support the programs and everything that people are able to use at the library."

The library serves the whole Capay Valley all the way up to Rumsey and provides "a great community meeting space" while also serving as the library for the local high school, "which serves all of the Capay Valley too," according to Thomas.

She noted that the Almond Festival book sale is the only sale the nonprofit has during the year but hopes to hold more in the future.

"We have more books than we can even sell, so we should think about having more throughout the year," she stressed.

For more information on the nonprofit, visit ferl. org.

Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Daily Democrat.
Change your email settings at manage subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2023/03/01/capay-valley-almond-festival-persists-through-bad-weather-conditions/