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By Bob Kretschman
 | A parade, demonstrations by local chefs, a recipe contest and, of course, plenty of peach eating will take place during the festival.
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How many ways can you eat a tasty Colorado peach?
After helping organize the annual Palisade Peach Festival Recipe Contest for the past two decades, Dixie Burmeister has seen her share of creative peach cuisine. But every year, new surprises emerge.
"We get the most awesome entries," Burmeister says. "We have fabulous pies, cakes, cheesecakes – recipes that people put tremendous work into."
The recipe contest is just a small part of the Palisade Peach Festival, an annual celebration that takes place at the peak of the harvest. Palisade, at the base of Grand Mesa about 10 miles east of Grand Junction, is surrounded by lush orchards that produce some of the nation's best fresh peaches – plump, juicy, tree-ripened beauties that fruit lovers throughout Colorado and several surrounding states eagerly seek every summer.
The 2008 Peach Festival is scheduled for Aug. 14 -  | Festival activities for children include "Kids Jammin' for Peaches," during which kids can make a small jar of jam for $1.
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17, continuing a tradition of peach-related harvest festivals that dates back at least a century. The first peach trees were planted in the Palisade area in the 1880s, and the region's mild micro-climate provided ideal conditions for a thriving industry to grow. A perfect combination of heat-absorbing sandstone cliffs surrounding the valley and the "million-dollar breeze" that wafts into the Palisade area from De Beque Canyon prevents early-spring frosts from destroying most of the sensitive peach blossoms, improving chances for a good harvest year after year.
This year's celebration begins on Thursday evening, Aug. 14, with an ice cream social, street dance and "passing of the torch" from the outgoing to the incoming Town Grouch. In addition to festival events at Riverbend Park, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy a genuine Palisade experience throughout weekend − from guided orchard tours and historical walking tours, to self-guided biking and rafting trips and the Sunday Farmers Market.
For more information about the Palisade Peach Festival, visit www.palisadepeachfest.com.
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