It’s polite to take your hat off when you step inside the door of the Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis, where the annual Cowpoke Fall Gathering attracts the best known cowboy comedians and poets to a California Gold Rush town set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains 25 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The land of fruits (see upcoming Mandarin Festival in nearby Auburn) and wine is a comfort zone of down home cooking with farm fresh ingredients, and entertainment taking you back to the Old West era in which cowboys were prominent fixtures in the local the landscape.

Today Loomis is comprised of the old-timers, retirees from big cities, and younger generations seeking to live a wholesome, affordable life out in the country. Nearby Lincoln recently ranked as the fastest growing city in the U.S., which means that the region is growing and becoming more like the big city nearby (Sacramento). For visitors, the good news is that it’s only a half hour drive from Sacramento to Loomis, where you can be out in the country enjoying REAL California culture that still exists.

Go grab your Stetson and head for Loomis for a fun-filled weekend of yodeling, strumming and story-telling in an event that provides one of the town’s biggest fund raisers for their pride & joy–the historic Blue Goose Fruit Shed. Event is held November 10 – 13, 2011.