Boysenberry Festival Fun

Have you ever been to Knott's Berry Farm's Boysenberry Festival?  Even though I live and work close to Knott's, I have never been to their festival, but after seeing some friends' posts on Instagram, I thought it would be a fun theme to have for our April monthly dinner. Only challenge....grocery stores do not sell boysenberries!  This meant I had to purchase from Knott's directly which was quite expensive, but definitely tasty.

Invitation: I designed the invitation to match Knott's posters advertising the festival and kept it simple.

Decorations:  Knott's is a very country feel, so I wanted to replicate that in my table setting.  I used a white tablecloth with purple accents throughout.  

For the centerpiece, I used a wooden box I found 50% off at Michaels.  Inside the box, I placed jars, cans, and bottles of Knott's boysenberry products I was using for my menu.  The cans of boysenberries were emptied and used as vases; the cobbler mix was taken out to use and replaced with tissue paper.  A friend of mine had 2 bottles of boysenberry win that she let me borrow to place in the centerpiece. I bought baby's breath instead of flowers to fill the vases as well as some boysenberry looking fake flowers I found at Michaels.  I borrowed a friend's lanyard from her trip to the festival to lay across the front of the box.

On each side of the box I placed greenery in white vases that I already owned.  I wrapped a Knott's Boysenberry Festival lanyard around the vase and secured it in the back for added decor.

I had some fun with the placecard.  I modeled it after the lanyard card Knott's gives festival goers, and just added each guest's name.  I altered the text at the bottom with my party date as that valid date.  Since my guests and I are all well over 21, I changed the text to let guests know they did not have to show ID since "we know we're old already." The QR code on my placecard was a working QR code that brought guests to an image of my menu when scanned.  The guest got a kick out of this.

I designed a simple napkin wrap for my purple napkins with the logo/theme that matched the invitation.

Another friend loaned me her Knott's cups and bag from the festival, so I used these for decor above my beverage table.  I printed a large boysenberry to place over the O on my HOME sign.

Although I served a tasting of Boysenberry Wine, I also had chardonnay and a red blend for guests to enjoy.  I designed wine labels to match the colors of the party with some berry sayings.  The "Berry Best Blend" Wine & Friends for my red wine and **** for the chardonnay.

I kept the wine charms simple and just used the same boysenberry clipart as the invitation.  I added the first initial of each guest attending the party, printed them out, and added them to the glasses.

Menu: The QR code on my placecard brought guests to the above image of my menu when they scanned it. For this evening, I served 7 tastings including beverages.

Tasting #1 - The first tasting was champagne with a small skewer or boysenberry cotton candy.  When the cotton candy is dropped into the champagne it adds even more flavor to the champagne.  Some guests ate the cotton candy separately (it was delicious!).

Tasting #2 - Cream cheese with Knott's Boysenberry Salsa was the appetizer.  I served this with black and white tortilla chips.  The salsa is super tasty and has a nice kick to it.  The guests gobbled this appetizer up as it was so popular.

Tasting #3 - Boysenberry wine.  This Boysenberry wine is very tasty, but it is 11 percent alcohol.  We had just a small tasting because of this.

Tasting #4 - Market Salad with Knott's Boysenberry Vinaigrette Dressing.  For this salad, I used spinach, Feta cheese, candied pecans, and whole blackberries.  Blackberries because they were all I could find at the grocery, and they look close enough to boysenberries.

Tasting #5 - Boysenberry Balsamic Chicken Thighs with Mashed Potatoes.  I used the Knott's Boysenberry Balsamic Grilling Glaze to brush over chicken thighs before baking them.  Normally I would have grilled them, but I wanted to be inside with the guests rather than stuck outside and thighs are so easy to cook in an oven.  I made mashed potatoes to serve along with the thighs.  This glaze was delicious and a big hit with the guests.

Tasting #6 - Elote with Boysenberry Butter and Cotija Cheese.  I made small ears of corn for my sixth tasting.  I mixed some softened butter with the juice and some smaller berries from the can of Knott's Boysenberries I was using for dessert.  The corn was cooked briefly on the grill, brushed with this boysenberry butter, and sprinkled with cotija cheese.  Quite of few of my guests are not mayonnaise fans, so I left that out of a normal elote recipe.

Tasting #7 - For dessert, I served boysenberry cobbler made with Knott's boysenberry cobbler mix and a can of boysenberries.  It is super easy to make and tastes delicious.  Along with the warm cobbler, guests received a scoop of boysenberry ice cream.  I bought a half gallon of plain vanilla ice cream, let it soften a little, then added some of the boysenberry juice and berries from the can I opened for the elote. and mixed these together.  Once it tasted like it had enough boysenberries in it, I put the ice cream back in the freezer to harden up until time to serve.

Favor: I purchased some bags of Knott's Boysenberry Shortbread cookies to use as my party favor.  Made a quick little thank you "berry much" tag and attached it.  Super simple.

I really enjoyed hosting a party with this theme.  From the decor to the yummy food, we all had a great time creating our own Knott's Boysenberry Festival in house!

*Knott's did not sponsor this post nor provide any free or discounted projects.  All opinions are my own.