Once every 365 days a huge festival happens in Grand Junction Tn., Aka, the middle of No-where. This is the gold standard of Festivals for me and every other festival is judged by it. The Ames Plantation Heritage Festival!First the Food then the Fun.
Every festival has burgers, hot dogs and some kind of Nacho, but I have to find the Good food. Ames has A CHUCK WAGON! They cook like a real chuck wagon , serve food like a real chuck wagon, look like a real chuck wagon, and they are a real chuck wagon! I tried the beef stew which was flavored by Beef. Yum! Huge hunks of carrots and huge chunks of onions and huge chunks of beef. Also I had a favorite Corn Dodgers!! Fried corn meal, crispy, fried, hot...yum! Her Pots are Hug! The strangest part is when we went back for a second plate she was almost out. Did I mention she also made hot dogs, chicken and dumplings, pinto beans and ham and cobbler, well she does. They had a demonstration on hog butchering, not for the faint of heart! I don't like anatomy and blood, so it was a bit creepy. However, I got to try the fresh sausage they made out of that HOG and it was tasty; very ,very tasty. there was only one problem they were not selling it so I could not take any home. The nice lady did give me a bunch of samples. I now want to try and make my own sausage too.
I had some Amish ice cream that was just so yummy. Made from cream and turned by an old fashion engine. it was worth the rather long line. It was not really the best thing there- that was the sausage but it was a great cool treat right before I had to leave.
The Fun-
They always plant a field of Cotton so you can pick your own bag right from the brush and then take it over to the Cotton gin and catch your seeds and gather your lint. How cool is that! this year they had heirloom rust color cotton and Green color cotton and some traditional white cotton. I did gather a whole bag of only green and I got myself some really green cotton. You could have a nice lady spin your lint into string! My brown and green looked cool together.
I found the blacksmith shop and he made a skewer and he answered all of my questions. it was cool. He had a huge bellow, and a hot coal fire. At the end of the day he let me back into the smith area and I got to make a horse shoe into a fish. I used the bellows. I had a lot of fun with him doing the blacksmithing. 
They had a group of Alpacas which were very very fuzzy! So cute and soft! they had alpaca balls that you put in the dryer to help it dry faster and dewrinkle your clothes. I did not get any but I sure wanted to.
Here are some other things we got to do and see
Civil war renacting, flint knapping, goat milking, early farm house cooking, the Stencil house, archeological dig, leaf pounding, story telling, music, vintage engines, horse shoeing, bee keeping, candle making, tobacco harvesting, brick making, and just a bunch more- the gold standard of festivals!
See ya next year!Love the Cabbage,
Leaf
