Posted by Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
, June 25, 2009 19:44
The peaches that hang from the trees in north-central Louisiana orchards are ripe and ready to eat from mid-June through mid-July. Some of these locally grown peaches are peeled and cut up by volunteers. Then the Louisiana Tech Dairy incorporates them into the locally beloved peach ice cream that is only produced for the three days of the Louisiana Peach Festival in Ruston (the flavor is too labor-intensive for year-round production). As we see it, that’s reason enough to attend the festival which takes place Friday through Sunday, June 26th through 28th. But, of course, there’s so much more!
The first Louisiana Peach Festival was held in 1951, with Justin Wilson (yes, the same gentleman that decades later hosted the popular cooking show) serving as MC for the beauty pageant and Louisiana Senator LeBlanc (inventor of the patent “medicine,” especially popular in dry counties, known as Hadacol) presenting the pageant crown. The 2009 festival will be the 59th.
Friday at 10 am there will be a Peach Cookery Contest. Sunday at 5:30 pm you can compete in the Peach Eating Contest: two minutes of peach gorging. And it’s free to enter! Among the non-peachy events the highlight is Saturday night’s Peach Jam featuring bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs. Tickets are just $10. There are a bazillion other events scheduled; here’s just a small sample: a kids fishing tournament, rodeos, pony rides, a parade, sidewalk sales, a downtown food court… Check out the festival website for all the details. Festival admission is $5, less for young kids; free on Sunday.
