Apricot, prune and cherry orchards once covered much of the valley floor. Every spring, millions of blossoms filled the valley with color.

"It was called the Valley of the Heart's Delight because it was so beautiful," Phylis Ballingall said.

Ballingall, a member of the Saratoga Historical Foundation, is helping to organize the fifth annual Mustard Walk, Feb. 5 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Heritage Orchard in Central Park and at the Warner Hutton House, 13777A Fruitvale Ave.

"The main purpose of the Mustard Walk is to inform and remind Saratogans of our agrarian past," she said.

Docent-led tours are a main feature of the Mustard Walk. The tours start at the Warren Hutton House, a restored orchard house, and continue through the Heritage Orchard. The fruit trees of the Heritage Orchard are in full bloom this time of year, and yellow mustard flowers cover the orchard floor.

Donkey cart rides, a petting zoo, face painting, art displays and antique autos and farm machinery are all part of the event. The Butter Paddle will be offering mustard sampling and mustard recipes.

An ensemble from the Saratoga Community Band will be part of the entertainment, as well as the Saratoga Taiko Drummers, Lee Ann Welch's fiddle students and the Country-Western group the Skillet Likkers.

The Conrado Company is underwriting the event in cooperation with the city of Saratoga. "I think the Mustard Walk is a really good thing for the city," Paul Conrado, president of the Conrado Company, said. "We have this wonderful Heritage Orchard. There's not that many left around."

Conrado and several of his winemaking friends plan to serve up their best wines. "For the guys who make wine, it's our only outlet to get some kind of public reaction to the wine we're making," he said.

Conrado and his friends may be hobbyists, but he invites everyone to give their wines a try. "It's surprisingly good," he said, "and free."

"It's a good way to start Super Bowl Sunday," he continued. "People can spend a day with the family, taste some wine and make it home in time for kickoff."

The Mustard Walk this year will have an additional attraction. A Lunar New Year celebration, sponsored by the Saratoga Rotary Club's Building Bridges project, will be held concurrently from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Saratoga Community Center next to the Warren Hutton House. Cynthia Chang, an organizer of the event, said she would like to extend an invitation to the community to help see out the Year of the Rooster and welcome in the Year of the Dog.

The Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays of the year in East Asia, Chang explained. Families come together to honor their ancestors and hope for good fortune and prosperity in the new year. "It's a celebration that signifies a new beginning and welcomes in the spring," Chang said.

Chang said the idea to hold the Lunar New Year Celebration along with the Mustard Walk came about in order to help bring together the different cultures that live side by side in Saratoga. "We want to build a bridge and get people connected," she said.

Arts and crafts stations, mahjong games, traditional music and dance, tai chi, kung fu, Chinese yo-yo and calligraphy demonstrations and Chinese food will be part of the Lunar New Year Celebration.

Participants are encouraged to walk back and forth between the Lunar New Year Celebration and the Mustard Walk.

Ballingall has her fingers crossed that the weather this year will be as good as in the past. The Mustard Walk has yet to be rained out, she said. "This is the first event of Saratoga's 50th year. I don't think it will rain on our parade. It should be a wonderful opportunity for whole families to come out and enjoy the weather."