LEMON CAKE, lemon pudding, lemonade, lemontinis, lemon-flavored everything? It is a perfect fruit that can easily move beyond the dessert/beverage end of the menu. Examples? Many a fish fan likes their salmon filets to be loaded with citrus slices, or at least well-blanketed, and there are those people who prefer a whole lot of lemon squeeze-a-tude in their guacamole, rather than the more traditional lime. It is, in short, a juicy icon that covers all of the bases, from appetizers to entrees to the final sweet bite, and taking a day out to honor it seems like a perfectly spring-sweet thing to do. Of course, if you really like lemons, taking three days out is probably the better route, one that that Upland has followed for years. After all, it is home to the annual Lemon Festival, a party which is returning to the town's charming downtown area over the final weekend in April. That's Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29, and the whole shebang is...
FREE, FREE, FREE, admission-wise, and that free feeling is so sweet one could compare it to sipping a lemon slushie on a sunshiny day. There are, of course, pie-eating contests to join — one guess as to what the central ingredient is — and an exhibit focused on the beauty and art of crate labels further brings the lemony liveliness to the happening. Tribute bands, Upland's Got Talent, and plenty of street-fair-esque goings-on will fill out the schedule. Oh yes, and food for sale, which will include lemon sorbet, lemon chicken gyros, gourmet lemon fries, lemon garlic burgers, lemon kettle corn, funnel cakes topped with lemon-yum goodness, and deep-friend corn on the cob with lemon butter, but there is so much more to ponder, too. How to possibly choose, if you're a lifelong lemon head? Best go all three days, and eat your lemon-lovely fill, from beginning to end, and back again.
