Celebrating an abundance of peaches, the June 4 Earth’s Bounty Festival will introduce two new events—a peach recipe cook-off and a peach-eating contest for kids.
For the “That’s Just Peachy” cook-off, chefs should submit their favorite peach recipe to Patty Swearingen at the Lauderdale County Extension Service no later than 5 p.m. on May 25. Contestants need to include, along with the recipe, their name, address and contact phone numbers. Submit entries to p.swearingen@msstate.edu. The only requirement is that all dishes must include fresh peaches. Recipes will be judged by a local expert, and the top five chefs will be selected to cook their dishes and bring them to Earth’s Bounty on June 4 for final judging.
At the festival, a panel of judges will sample each peachy dish and judge it based on taste, creativity and presentation. The prize-winning first-place entry will be featured on the Earth’s Bounty and Meridian Main Street Facebook pages. The judging begins at 11 a.m.
Kids can sign up the morning of the festival for the Peach-Eating Contest. Contestants in two categories—6-11 year olds and 12-16 year olds—will compete to see who can eat the most peaches—down to a squeaky clean pit—in three minutes. Peaches will be provided by Mathis Peaches and Produce. The winner in each category will get a $20 gift certificate, and the second-place finishers will get baskets of Mathis Peaches. The contests will be at 10:15 a.m. for the younger group and 10:30 a.m. for the older group.
Earth’s Bounty’s Everything’s Peachy on June 4 will be held from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at Singing Brakeman Park next to Union Station on Front Street in downtown Meridian.
For more information, contact Laura Carmichael, Cultural Affairs Coordinator for the City of Meridian 601-485-1944 or 601-480-2614.
