Pecan Festival
Gonna be anywhere near central Louisiana next weekend, Road Trips Foodies?
The Pecan Festival in Colfax, Louisiana (map) takes place November 2 through 4, 2012.
Why celebrate the pecan? Here’s how the festival organizers explain it: “Well, for one thing, many area farmers grow the crop, and pecans were native to the area. Pecans were staples of the diets of the local Native Americans, and when the settlers began arriving here from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, large plantations grew pecans along with their other crops. Wild pecans were grafted and new varieties cultivated, and soon the crop flourished in the rich river land soils. Local homesteaders also benefited because almost every yard had one or two trees that produced enough pecans to “keep some and sell the rest”, providing them a small money crop in the fall.”
If you go, you’ll find plenty of homemade pecan pies and pralines along with the usual accoutrements of a down-home fest (including the Pecan Queen and the Louisiana Pecanettes).
