Boysenberries, Food and Wine

OC theme park food festivals are underway this spring. 

Knott’s Berry Farm was just a farm and roadside restaurant for hungry travelers between L.A. and San Diego when Betty Boysen first appeared. 

Her cheery purple smile welcomed folks to stop and try the unique treats Cordelia Knott was making with their unique crop, the boysenberry. Eighty years later, the berry is still here, and Betty’s making a comeback. 

“She’s going to be one of the official characters of the Boysenberry Festival,” says Karl Busche, merchandise manager for Knott’s, who’s putting her on various items for the festival’s 10th anniversary. “She started in 1945 as a roadside sign out on Beach Boulevard,” and then disappeared for decades. Busche recently rediscovered her in an old photo and made a decision. “This is our history. But we said, ‘Wait a minute, what is this?’ Nobody knows who created the sign. Back in the ‘40s, Mr. Knott had so many people on payroll, so who knows? We don’t know the backstory and that’s the weird thing. But Betty was out there, now she’s a piece of it. We’ve leaned heavy into Betty Boysen.”

The annual spring foodie fest celebrating the berry runs March 28 through April 27 and features dozens of new items this year, with some popular comfort food items returning. 

“Our theme is just to take the boysenberry and push it as far as we can,” says Director of Food and Beverage Wilf Seymour. “We’ve got some items here you wouldn’t necessarily think would go with boysenberry, but they actually go quite well.”

A few miles down the 5 Freeway, Disneyland Resort is cooking up their own annual foodie event, the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, from Feb. 28 through April 21. The mix of new and returning items includes the sirloin Gruyére mac-and-cheese, café de olla tres leches cake, the Mickey-shaped macaron and the esquites-loaded chips. 

“Food and Wine for our chefs is sort of like our Super Bowl,” says Chef Duke Brown. “We get together. We get the best ingredients, bring the team together and showcase our stories. Our food. Our heritage. And of course, all the wonderful cuisine here in Southern California.”

And like Walt Disney once said about his park, the Food & Wine Festival will never be finished as well. The chefs haven’t settled for a fixed menu of predictable theme park fare. Instead, they continue to experiment with various styles and flavors. 

“It is one of those things where you try to find things that are new and exciting,” Brown says. “As a chef, I have a lot of insight on food, but to learn new things, I have to go and talk to people and try their food. One thing that’s taught me a lot is different cultures. Learning those techniques, learning those foods, also learning about those cultures and the history behind them just inspires you to see how you can, not only represent it in a traditional and cultural way, but how we can vary it and make it our own. I walk around and talk to everybody and you’d be surprised how many people have suggestions. It’s a learning experience every single day for us.”

Both Knott’s and California Adventure offer family budget-friendly ways to sample as many of the event foods as possible via the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival Sip and Savor Pass for $32-$63, and Knott’s Boysenberry Festival Tasting Card for $55. 

By Shawn Price