The United States is no longer an agricultural nation, but you wouldn't know it from the way we celebrate produce. Garlic, watermelon, lentils, cherries, even the world's biggest mushroom — if you can grow it, someone has built a party around it. So pack your eatin' pants, and plan a trip to one of our favorite foodie festivals this summer.

National Cherry Festival • Traverse City, Mich., through July 10; cherryfestival.org, 1-800-968-3380

This corner of Michigan is one of the nation's top cherry-growing regions, and locals began celebrating with an informal "blossom blessing" festival almost 100 years ago. The idea took off — early promoters baked a 3-foot-wide cherry pie for President Calvin Coolidge — and the state of Michigan decreed it a national festival in 1931. Except for a few years around World War II, it has been celebrated annually ever since, attracting up to half-million visitors each year.

The signature dish is cherry crumb pie, available by the slice or the pie. The Cherries D'Vine culinary event pairs dishes featuring cherries with local wines. The Cherries Grand Buffet features cherry-barbecue pulled pork, cherry chicken croissants, coleslaw with cherry vinaigrette and cherry-infused deli sandwiches.

Kids can don an apron and chef's cap and make miniature cherry crumb pies. Fresh cherries are for sale every day; you can also buy cherry salsa, cherry jam, cherry butter, cherry vinaigrette … well, you get the idea. There are also pie-eating contests and pit-spitting contests — last year's champ hocked one almost 50 feet.

Gilroy Garlic Festival • Gilroy, Calif., July 23-25; gilroygarlicfestival.com, 1-408-842-1625

In 1978, the Italian-American president of the local community college approached a local garlic farm with what was then considered a crazy idea: to celebrate the garlic harvest with a festival raising funds for local charities. The first one, in 1979, attracted 15,000 fairgoers and raised $19,000. Now, the annual event is considered one of the nation's preeminent food festivals and attracts 100,000 happy eaters annually.

Garlic is the star, in dishes you'd expect (fried garlic, garlic calamari, garlic fries, garlic-ginger chicken) and many that you wouldn't (garlic kettle corn, garlic watermelon, garlic frog legs, even garlic chocolate).

This year, Top Chef fan favorite Fabio Viviani will perform cooking demos and host the Garlic Showdown, an Iron Chef-style competition featuring four cheftestants and lots of garlic. During the finals of the Great Garlic Cook-off, eight finalists, chosen from more than 800 submissions, will prepare their specialties for a panel of celebrity judges.

Watermelon Festival • Hope, Ark., Aug. 12-14; hopemelonfest.com, 1-800-777-3640

Local folks say Hope is famous for three things:— native sons Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee, and the world's largest watermelons: A 268.8-pounder was certified as the biggest ever in 2005.

Though the town held watermelon fests as far back as the '20s, the modern festival dates to 1977. They'll serve more than 22 tons of melons at $1.25 a slice during the three-day run, says Mark Keith, director of the Hope Chamber of Commerce.

The various watermelon-eating contests, divided by age, also have a division known as the politically correct watermelon-eating contest, in which politicians vie for bragging rights. There's a seed-spitting contest, a watermelon auction and a display of large specimens, with 200-pounders fairly common. You can buy a copy of what's thought to be the world's only watermelon cookbook, written by an area woman, Keith says. (Sadly, the Watermelon Olympics, in which all events had to be completed while carrying a watermelon, appear to be on hiatus.)

Humungus Fungus Fest • Crystal Falls, Mich., Aug. 12-15; humungusfungusfest.com

In 1988, military researchers came across a giant fungus, covering about 38 acres outside Crystal Falls, a town of about 1,800 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A journal article a few years later made it famous — well, for a fungus. In 1992, townspeople decided that it made a good excuse for a party, and they've been throwing one annually ever since.

Organizers bake and serve a Humungus Fungus pizza — at 10 feet by 10 feet, unofficially the world's biggest mushroom pizza.

Beyond a mushroom cook-off, most of the events are typical small-town festival stuff: a parade, a softball tournament, a pie social and a street dance. That's partly because you can't actually eat, or even see, the humungous fungus, says Kim Olson, an event organizer. The fungus is hidden underground deep in the woods. It does spawn small honey mushrooms, an edible variety, but those don't come out until later in the fall.

National Lentil Festival • Pullman, Wash., Aug. 20-22; lentilfest.com, 1-800-365-6948

One-third of the lentils grown in the United States come from this corner of eastern Washington and neighboring northern Idaho. The festival was started in 1989 to raise the profile of both the legume and the region.

Vendors have come up with such treats as fried noodles with lentils, lentil burritos, even lentil ice cream. (It tasted like spice cake, reports Mary MacDonald of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce.) Organizers cook up about 300 gallons of lentil chili, given away free. Fairgoers can also taste the top six recipes from the Legendary Lentil Cook-off and vote for their favorite; past winners have included lentil-stuffed mushrooms and a lentil-rhubarb crisp.

Other lentil-themed events include a 100K bike ride (the Tour de Lentil) and games in the Lentil Land children's area (a lentil coloring wall, lentil crafts, a lentil sandbox). Lentil beer is sometimes on tap.

Marion Popcorn Festival • Marion, Ohio, Sept. 9-11; popcornfestival.com, 740-387-3378

Local business-owners started the festival in 1981 to draw attention to the fact that the farmland around Marion is one of the biggest popcorn-growing areas in the nation. Aiming for a low-cost, family-friendly atmosphere, they decided that entertainment would be free, a tradition that continues to this day. Blues Traveler and the Kentucky Headhunters are among this year's headliners.

Sweet, salty kettle corn is the biggest seller, probably because it's made fresh on the grounds, and the aroma is irresistible. There's also flavored popcorn in various permutations — vanilla, blueberry, even licorice — and the occasional special treat, like last year's popcorn sundae, made of chocolate-covered popcorn, whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Five Miss and Ms. Popcorn pageants feature contestants from six months to, well, a lot older than that. The recipe contest brings out amateur chefs; entries have included popcorn meatloaf and last year's winner, a caramel-corn apple parfait. You can also tour the town's Wyandot Popcorn Museum, which boasts the largest collection of antique popcorn poppers in the world.

Lenexa Spinach Festival • Lenexa, Kan. (Kansas City area), Sept. 11; lenexa.ks.us/parks/spinachfestival.html, 1-913-477-7100

In the 1930s, Lenexa was known as Spinach Capital of the World, thanks to a group of Belgian farmers who started raising world-class spinach after their other crops had failed. Spinach is no longer grown there commercially in large quantities, but its legacy is remembered in the local historical society's annual fundraiser, launched in the early '80s.

The on-site Spinach Cafe sells spinach balls, spinach quiche, Wimpy burgers and spinach salad, but the real showstopper is the World's Largest Spinach Salad, made with 150 pounds of fresh spinach, 12 jars of bacon bits, 100 cloves of garlic and 600 mushrooms, all tossed together in a kiddie wading pool.

The kids' area is spinach-themed, with a Sweet Pea crawling contest for babies, spinach-can stacking and games like Brutus' Bean Bag Toss; Popeye and Olive Oyl generally make an appearance. On the last day, winners of the recipe contest are announced, illustrating some real culinary creativity. A past winner was spinach coconut chiffon cake, served with spinach ice cream and spinach jus.