Ashland Strawberry Faire

This festival is well worth the 20 min drive out to Ashland… you can smell the strawberries as soon as you get out of your car. It’s also the largest festival I’ve seen in Richmond, so get there early and wear some sunscreen and a hat. I didn’t do that when I went, and I regret it now…
The faire has almost 300 booths, selling everything from homemade relishes to flats of strawberries. When I was there I got some really awesome vidalia onion mustard from a farmer who drove almost 2 hours to be there… and of course I got a ton of strawberries, which were AMAZING and which I shamelessly asked my husband to carry around while I browsed.
As you can imagine, with so many vendors you can get just about anything you want to eat– we got hot dogs and snow cones, typical festival food. I actually didn’t make it around to all the vendors because I didn’t realize how big it was before I went, and I wasn’t prepared for the heat or the crowd. But I was sad to have to leave before I covered the whole fair because there were some really unique booths– one guy was making wooden chairs, and there were some great local photographers represented. Next year I am planning on bringing way more cash or my checkbook, and looking for some investment pieces for our house. While you can definitely go there with just a few dollars in your pocket, some of the vendors are true artists and their work is a bit more than what I usually carry in my wallet.