A berry, berry tasty time at the 19th Annual Strawberry Festival

The sun was shining down on the crowd that came to partake of the 19th Annual Strawberry Festival at Stanardsville’s Court House Square Saturday.
The event, sponsored by the Stanardsville United Methodist Church, got off to its tasty start shortly before 7 a.m., when the doors opened a few minutes early: folks were lined up to partake of a breakfast that consisted of plates heaped with pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream, sausage and scrambled eggs.
That was just the beginning: “We (had) strawberry shortcake, strawberry crepes, berry slushies, hamburgers, hotdogs and chips,“ said festival Co-chairman Ken Shifflett.
But as in years past, eating wasn’t all the Festival was about: The Hi Horse Cloggers took the stage that had been set up under a tent in the Square at 10 a.m. They were followed by the Clover Leaf Square Dancers, and The Deanes.
There were vintage cars to admire and vendors to shop.
Kids got their face and fingernails painted—even their hair, too. Many of them talked their parents into buying balloons, or they just settled down to play some games.

Mary Sheldon, 6, of Ruckersville got her hair and fingernails painted, and a tattoo to boot.
Two-year-olds Jacob Wayland of Stanardsville and Blaine Jones of Orange cast their plastic rods for plastic fish in a man-made inflatable pond.
While some of the activities were new - the hair painting, for example - the festival itself remained much as it has been in years past, because the intent is to keep it small.
“We don’t want it to become a big, commercial event,“ says Co-chair Marian Durrer. “We want it to keep its hometown appeal.“
That hometown appeal started out with parishioners picking their “own berries and making maybe 10 cakes,“ says Valerie Shifflett. This year,  650 pounds of strawberries were provided by the Jolly Green Giant, and the 120 strawberry pies and 60 strawberry cakes parishioners made were sold out before the morning was over.
Valerie Shifflett, along with her husband Ken, Durrer and others, has been helping with the festival for all of its 19 years.
And that, according to Durrer, makes its presentation a whole lot easier: “All the chairs had to do was (basically) organize,” she said. “Everybody knows what to do.“