Home cooks across the Lenexa area can win $100 for their best spinach dish at this year's Spinach Festival recipe contest, and entry is free.
The contest takes place Sept. 12 at the Lion's Shelter at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park, 8801 Greenway Ln. Contestants must deliver their entries between noon and 1 p.m., with judging starting at 1:30 p.m. Winners will be announced at the shelter afterward.
Four categories are up for grabs: appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert. The top entry in each wins $100. Judges will score dishes on creative use of spinach, appearance and taste.
Every entry must include spinach and come with a written copy of the recipe. The contest is open to all ages and experience levels, though kids under 18 need an adult to enter with them.
The recipe contest is one piece of the larger Lenexa Spinach Festival, which runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. that same day. The city's event page describes the festival as drawing approximately 8,000 attendees and more than 80 art, craft and antique vendors. Admission is free. The festival also features live music, hands-on activities, the World's Largest Spinach Salad and a Spinach Dip Showdown where guests vote for their favorite hot and cold dips between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Free satellite parking is available at Lenexa Place Business Park at the southeast corner of 95th Street and Lackman Road, with shuttles running every 10 minutes throughout the day.
The festival traces its roots to 1982, when the Lenexa Historical Society launched what was initially an arts and crafts event. A spinach focus was added the following year, nodding to the city's agricultural past. By 1934, the Kansas City Star had dubbed Lenexa the "Spinach Capital of the World," a title it held into the early 1940s thanks to nitrogen-rich soil and a train depot that shipped crops east.
"We still celebrate the fact that there was a period in time where Lenexa was the world's capital of something, and it happened to be spinach," Lenexa Historical Society president Bruce Daniel told Kansas City Magazine in August 2019.
Questions about the recipe contest can be directed to Susanne Neely with Lenexa Parks & Recreation at [email protected]. Full details and the entry application are available on the city's contest page.
Coming up
- Saturday, Sept. 12: Lenexa Spinach Festival, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park. Recipe contest entries due noon to 1 p.m. at the Lion's Shelter.
- Saturday, Sept. 12: Spinach Dip Showdown, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Vendors contact Hailey Tassone at [email protected].
