Saturday, June 28, 2008

Tomato Festival

Saturday we excitedly headed over to a neighboring town to the annual Tomato Festival that we had been hearing so much about recently. Apparently, this is the event of the summer for our county and we were eager to experience it first hand!


Having formerly been famed as the "Tomato Capital of the World" this town celebrates the last weekend of June with a festival that includes vendors of local crafts and produce, musical performances in the center of town, delicacies such as chicken on a stick and funnel cake, a 5k race, and the crowning of the tomato queen.

We were not disappointed by the festival! The center of the town was closed off from traffic and was a bustle with life and activity, which sadly is not a regular site in these dying southern towns.


We walked along the street and observed the great sense of pride that the town obviously holds for its history of great produce.


We enjoyed perusing the wares of local vendors and even came away with a few jars of pepper jelly!

Recently we were served pepper jelly poured over cream cheese and served with pita chips...Delicious! We purchased some peach pepper jelly to share with friends and family over the 4th and then some bright green pepper jelly to save for a Christmas treat!

It was a fun Saturday outing and I only wish the next one wasn't a year away!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The food looks good. You didn't mention fried green tomatoes. I bet they were serving them somewhere since I saw the green ones in your picture. This southern delicacy has been adopted as having a special place in the culture of this cosmopolitan city where one of you grew up. They have been around forever but became more popular after Fanny Flag's book and movie. She did after all come from around here.

Pop

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures! I'm excited about your new blog. I would love to see that picture from your post office on here!

Amanda

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

You like pepper jelly?! Amazing... you'll have to serve it to me your way and then maybe I'll like it.

Fun outing! Don't you love taking in the local flavor?

Unknown said...

Great pictures and descriptions. I have many several fond memories of the tomato festival! Keep up the good work with the blog and all the other things y'all are doing south of Jackson. Take care!

Nathan