By Charly SHELTON

Back in 1932, berry farmer Walter Knott was introduced to a new berry hybrid by his friend Rudolph Boysen. It was part red raspberry, part blackberry and part loganberry. The notoriously hard-to-grow berry plant was dying under Boysen’s care, so Knott took it back to his berry farm in Buena Park where it was planted and subsequently thrived. Walter called it the boysenberry after his friend who created it.

The history of Knott’s Berry Farm as an amusement park has more to do with Walter’s wife, Cordelia, and her chicken dinner restaurant but the original attraction to the roadside stand, even before the chicken, was the little boysenberry plant, which Walter sold clippings of and boxes upon boxes of cultivated boysenberries. Now, 87 years later, the theme park that bears his name is still paying homage to Walter and the berry that started it all. Each spring, Knott’s Berry Farm hosts the Boysenberry Festival to delight guests with the many applications of boysenberry in different foods, giving twists to old favorites and making new dishes a little more “boysen-flair-ry.”

This festival changes from year to year as the dishes offered are cycled out, with some good, some bad and some just plain odd. Gone are the alligator nuggets with boysenberry aioli dipping sauce from two years ago. Here to stay is the boysenberry sausage with boysenberry relish, boysenberry mustard and boysenberry ketchup, introduced the same year and resurrected for each festival. Some dishes are a toss-up as to whether they will remain as they are the odd combinations that take diners aback with their descriptions but end up tasting great. Take, for example, my favorite dish from this year’s fest: boysenberry dry rubbed flank steak with a boysenberry cream cheese topping. That sounds weird but it was incredible. It was a game changer for me when I discovered the pairing of juicy grilled flank steak and cool, sweet cream cheese goes so well together. It’s not something I would have thought to try on my own, but I don’t think I’ll be able to eat flank steak without cream cheese from now on. That being said, I don’t know if enough guests will take the risk to try something weird like that and make it a favorite, ensuring its return next year.

Honorable mention for delectable dishes goes to the boysenberry pot roast with boysenberry mashed potatoes. It’s literally just mashed potatoes with boysenberries in them, but that added sweetness makes the dish. And for something sweet – a Dole Whip float with boysenberry and pineapple juices. Dole Whip is the classic pineapple soft serve that’s not quite ice cream, not quite sorbet, not quite frozen juice, and famous for being a Disneyland exclusive for many years. It is now available anywhere and Knott’s has capitalized on it. Dole Whip and Dole Whip Floats – a cup of pineapple juice topped with a swirl of Dole Whip – are available in the park now and, for the Boysenberry Fest, boysenberry juice is added to the float, giving the soft yellow swirl a distinct purple haze.

The Boysenberry Festival runs now through April 28. This is the best time of year to go to Knott’s. For those who will only go once this year, make the trip down for Boysenberry Fest. And be sure to grab a tasting card – for $35, guests get to try eight foods from the festival. This will save a few bucks as most tasters are $6 each. Definitely worth the price for a very nice lunch that will leave diners stuffed and satisfied. For more information, visit Knotts.com.

  Charly Shelton