& Flower Arrangements
What a perfect day to celebrate local food, if the economics and health benefits aren’t enough, the taste certainly makes the difference!
This year’s salsa competition was a smashing hit and the passport sold out almost before the festival even began.
It was hours of food fun!
Five food trucks
3 goats
Sidewalk chalk art
Music in Carlisle Pavilion
Expanded Ashtabula Farmers Market
Vendors
6 Restaurants/shops participated in the tasting Passport
Flower competition and
Salsa Competition at Riverbend Hotel
Flower Competition: locally grown flowers! People’s choice and Judges’ choice: Tom Roberts of Capitina’s
Salsa Competition: 10 participants!
Winner of Judged Competition: Three Sisters Cafe
Winner of People’s Choice: Kevin Vencill
Three Judges: Debra Grim of Fitzgerald on Bridge Street, Maria Jukic – running for US House of Reps 14th and Paris Wolfe of Cleveland.com
Calling all salsa makers and tasters! A salsa contest needs two kinds of people: the brave ones who show up with a cooler and something to prove, and the rest of us, who show up with a chip!
The Ashtabula Local Food Festival is a celebration of the 100+ farms and growers working across this county, and salsa might be the most direct way to taste what they do. Everything in the bowl comes from somewhere close, right here on Ashtabula County soil.
If you make salsa —
Bring your best batch to the Riverbend Hotel on Sunday, September 6 at 10am. One rule: most of your ingredients have to come from Ashtabula County. That is not a hard ask this time of the year. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, corn, all of it is coming out of local gardens and farm stands right now. (Check the Ashtabula Local Food Guide at AshtabulaLocalFood.org if you need a grower)!
Mild, hot, fruity, smoky, green, chunky, or so thin you can drink it. Family recipe or something you invented Tuesday. Bring it and let the community decide!
The winner gets a half day in the treehouse Kosicek Vineyards! Cozy, elevated, tucked in the trees, built for a small group to sit back, sip, and unwind in total seclusion with the vines rolling out below. Not a bad payoff for a bowl of tomatoes…
If you eat salsa —
Show up. That is the entire job description! We will have a People’s Choice award alongside our esteemed panel of Judges taste testing. Cups, bowls, napkins, and chips are provided. Bring an appetite!
Date and time: Sunday, September 6 at 10am
Location: Riverbend Hotel
Sign up to compete: https://bit.ly/LocalFoodFestival2026
Only $15 to enter the competition!
Somebody in this county makes the best salsa in it… let’s find out who!
