With a hairnet on her head and a yellow poncho draped over her to catch the meringue, Jade Dean dove face first into a lemon meringue pie alongside her sister, Amber Dean, as dozens of people cheered them on at the Goleta Lemon Festival.
The sisters had something to prove: that after years of not competing in pie eating contests, they could still beat everyone else, just like they did when they were kids.
“Growing up, we would do pie eating contests at Knott’s Berry Farm and the Orange County Fair, and we were actually just talking about those for strategy before we got up there,” Jade Dean said. “We would smoke people every single time.”
Saturday’s contest was no exception.
The judges, consisting of Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte, Councilwoman Luz Reyes-Martín, Councilman James Kyriaco, and Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch, couldn’t decide between the two sisters and ruled the contest a tie.
“It felt good,” Dean said. “It felt like we have more pie eating contests in the future.”
Compared to the other pies consumed in their previous contests, Dean said the lemon meringue pie is very “slurpable.” She said the key was eating all the meringue so she could get to the actual pie.
“I think we both have a lot of meringue in our sinuses right now,” Dean said.
While Jade and Amber were the winners of the over-12-years-old category, Phoenix, 8, claimed the prize in the 12-and-under group.
Outside of the pie-eating contest, the lemon festival was full of music, rides and booths selling ceramics, jewelry and numerous other items.
And of course there was plenty of food and drinks, including lemon bars, lemon beer, hot dogs, corn, Dippin’ Dots, and more.
Hayli Krasowski, who doesn’t typically like beer, said she enjoyed the lemon beer, but her drink of choice was the chardonnay.
Krasowski has been to the festival before and enjoys going for the food. This year she brought her boyfriend, Tim O’Callaghan, who was sipping on his own lemon beer.
“The theme, the whole thing is lemon based — I love that,” O’Callaghan said.
Besides drinks, O’Callaghan got a gyro and Krasowski enjoyed some corn while they watched the pie-eating contest together.
As the sun shined just as bright as the lemon theme, Krasowski and O’Callaghan thought it was a perfect way to send off summer.
“It’s still warm and sunny out, everyone’s out here smiling,” O’Callaghan said. “Everyone’s in shorts and t-shirts. It’s wonderful.”
The festival also includes the classic car show, providing a look into the past, showcasing classic Corvettes, Camaros and trucks.
The car show is what brought Diana Thomas, a retired San Marcos High School and Santa Barbara City College teacher, to the festival because she used to own a 1962 356 B Porsche.
“I don’t see any Porsches here, but I’m very much still involved in admiring and loving the classic cars,” Thomas said.
After seeing the cars, Thomas planned to go check out the lemon pies and enjoy the rest of the festival.
“I just think it’s a great way for people to come together in a local community,” Thomas said. “It’s kind of an expanded arts and crafts and foods and entertainment that’s all local. I don’t think it gets better than that.”
Goleta’s Lemon Festival continues on Sunday at Girsh Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
