The neighboring town of Sedro-Woolley was advertising for its upcoming rodeo. A large group of horses and riders included last year's rodeo queen. We thought it was more interesting that the queens from 1953 and 1971 were also in the parade with all their royal finery.
We were rather underwhelmed with the absence of dairy and berries at this festival. There was an agricultural presence in the parade with a display of antique tractors. But the only berries we saw were the high-priced strawberry shortcakes for sale at the visitor center. It would be a stretch to count the whip cream on top as the only dairy we saw.
After the parade, we went through all the booths and tents in search of dairy and berries. We are sad to report that there was none. We did win prizes for our ability to throw bean bags into a hole. Actually, the main reason we include the picture below is to showcase one of Denisa's favorite part of our stop. After bemoaning the terrible haircut she got in Oregon, Mark insisted she get a new cut at a salon our next door neighbor has used for years.
We were sad that we missed the largest festival in this area by a couple months. April's Tulip Festival in Washington's Skagit Valley is attended by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country and the world. With extra moisture this year, it sounds like the 2017 display was spectacular. We knew we were too late, but we visited the RoozenGaarde tulip farm to imagine what we missed.
The four-acre display garden here is planted each fall with a quarter million spring-flowering bulbs. Where the bare soil is today, was a bright maze of tulip color in April. Denisa is holding up a picture of the tulip display that was planted under that tree just a couple months ago.
We got lots of information about tulip farming here in Skagit Valley. They grow more tulips here in this valley than any other place in North America. They also grow twice as many daffodils as their famous tulips. There are many tulip farms, and we visited just one today. During the festival, the RoozenGuarde farm will have 350 acres of tulips, and 450 acres of daffodils blooming. But since they can't replant tulips on those same acres for another five years, they have to farm five times as many acres. They will plant potatoes, clover, or barley to rebuild the soil for those five years to ready it again for the tulips.
The picture above is what is left in June of one of those lovely April tulip fields. The blooms are gone, and the leaves have naturally been allowed to yellow and die. The summer harvest is now underway. Tractors pull implements that dig up the bulbs to be cleaned and shipped out to customers in time for fall planting.
This company also has acres of greenhouses, raising more bulbs all year long to be shipped throughout the country as fresh flowers. If you see a tulip in a bouquet in the winter, it probably came from the greenhouses in Skagit Valley. As we meandered through the country-side to find spent tulip fields, we also noticed a full parking lot at a local plant nursery with banners announcing their "Rose Days." Mark whipped the car in for this impromptu stop. We found ourselves in the middle of a rose-judging competition where participants were vying for the people's choice award.
There were speakers lined up throughout the day to teach the latest techniques for growing roses. But we were most excited about the ice cream social. We got in line for the cones, surprised to find that it was rose-flavored ice cream. It wasn't our favorite flavor, but it was certainly a new experience.
The rose show was hosted by a local nursery, with beautiful displays of flowers inside and out of their greenhouses.
We know the topic of the day was roses, but we were mesmerized by the hanging fuchsia plants. The blooms start as balls, like the ones on the right side of the picture. Then they pop open into brilliant color combinations that are beautiful to behold.
Some of the color contrasts were eye-popping. The flower below reminded us of the red hatters organization for (ahem) mature women. They wear their purple dresses with red hats--just because they can.
We found something new on the back roads of the Skagit Valley. We had to pull over when we saw this "Talking Field" billboard. When we focused our smart phone at the QR code on the sign, it told us about the dairy farm that uses the field in front of us. They are using new technology that allows the cows to determine when they need to be milked, and then has an automatic milker that is available to the cows 24 hours per day. That's something we wouldn't have known from just driving down the road without access to a talking field.
We always enjoy rambling through agricultural areas in a new part of the country. We did see many acres of berries in this valley, as well as a few dairies. So even though we were disappointed with the Berry Dairy Days festival, we felt like we saw and learned much more today.
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