If you can't stand the heat of the kitchen, you might find yourself left out of the chance to win prizes ranging from T-shirts to $150 cash at the Oxnard Salsa Festival. Also coming up: the best-lemon-marmalade competition at the Santa Paula Citrus Festival, followed by the Ventura County Fair and its assortment of bake-offs and food-judging entry days.

Hot, hot, hot

July 15 is the deadline to pre-register for the Oxnard Salsa Festival's amateur recipe contest. Then, you wait: The contest itself will take place July 27, when competitors are asked to bring their salsas to the tasting tent at 9 a.m. Judging starts at 11 a.m., followed by the announcement of winners at 1 p.m. The $25-per-entry fee automatically gets you a festival T-shirt. Additional prizes range from plaques to $150. For important tips and details (each official entry consists of a 16-ounce sample of your recipe; salsa must be transported in a cooler so as not to give the judges food poisoning, etc.), call 247-0197. Or go to http://www.oxnardsalsafestival.com.

Pucker up

Now in its 41st year, the Santa Paula Citrus Festival will take place July 18-20 in Harding Park. Activities include rides, concerts and arts and crafts displays, along with the culinary contests that are of more likely interest to competitive cooks. On July 19, contests for best guacamole, most creative avocado dish and best lemon dessert will take place at 1:30 p.m. On July 20, contests for best orange dessert and best orange/lemon marmalade (in addition to biggest lemon, biggest avocado and biggest orange) will take place at 2 p.m. On each day, entries can be taken to the festival pavilion up until the time of the competition itself. Some of the contests will culminate with the awarding of a blue ribbon; others involve $100 cash prizes. For specifics, call 933-4200 or visit http://www.santapaulafestival.org.

Blue ribbon event

Emblazoned with a "Meet Me at the Fair" theme, the Ventura County Fair will take place July 30 to Aug. 10 at Seaside Park — also known simply as "the fairgrounds" in Ventura. But the entry deadlines for food-related competitions actually are much sooner. For example: Preserved foods such as butters, canned fruits, dried foods and jams, jellies and preserves will be accepted for judging from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 18-20. Likewise, baked foods and confections — including Division 354, aka Ventura County Grown Vegetable Quick Bread — will be accepted from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 28. And those timed, onstage cooking contests for best pasta dish (Aug. 2), best enchilada (Aug. 3), best cookie (Aug. 5) and best chicken dish (Aug. 9)? They each require submitting a letter of intent to the home arts department office on or by July 15. For more, call 648-3376 or visit http://www.venturacountyfair.org.