Every year at the end of April and beginning of May, my life gets very busy in catering. Part of this is due to end of the school year activities i.e. commencement, senior receptions, alumni events, board of trustee meetings. Directly after all of this gets pushed through, we immediately go into Tulip Time festival here in Holland.

While it is an insanely busy time; it is also great fun. It’s always a sort of kick off to spring for us here and a herald of our upcoming wedding/conference season. Our students leave only to be replaced by tourists in busses, sports teams at camps, band musicians at camp, religious retreats, weddings and more weddings. Tulip Time is 2 weeks of community celebration of Holland’s heritage here in the New World. It’s also a time for the community to come together and put on a show for the world to come see. For me personally it is a whirlwind. But that is eased by the simple pleasure of driving into work each day down roads lined with tulips of dizzying variety and color.

I can walk out the door to work and find a marching band rehearsing in our loading dock driveway…

Or I can see giant dairy cows, and enormous cans of redi-whip.

Or mini Darth Vader and Luke and Leia

And of course, tulips…..

My favorite local bakery makes deliveries to me the old fashioned way…

Kids of all sizes, shapes and colors become honorary Dutch during Tulip Time.

Kids get time off from school to march in parades. The Kinderparade is one of the most popular parades and draws participants from schools from the surrounding three counties.

And more tulips…

And the famous Holland High Marching Dutchmen….

And I get to wear my traditional Dutch chef’s uniform…

Just kidding, that’s Sinter Klaus visiting us during a well deserved rest from the Christmas holidays.

Next Time:
Cooking for the governor and other culinary adventures during Tulip Time.