French Camp plans for October Harvest Festival

The word "hospitality" automatically brings to mind "Southern." The two just go together. In French Camp, the word "harvest" automatically brings to mind, "festival."

Planting the Crop

For 58 years, French Camp, MS has been celebrating "The Lord's Acre Harvest Festival."

The first Harvest Festival, held on October 25, 1952, was so successful that the Men's Club and the Women's Club (later, the French Camp Community Club) proposed it as an annual event.

The First Harvest

From that small beginning, Harvest Festival has grown into an event that brings together people from all over the country. Families and friends plan their reunions around it. French Camp Academy alumni hold it as a time to reunite and visit their alma mater. Over the years, it has become a special time at a special place.

A Bountiful Supply

Just as we say Southern hospitality, and Harvest Festival, we can't think of Harvest Festival without the "auction." Held in the Cain-Patterson Gymnasium of French Camp Academy, the items are designated to raise funds for the Academy and community churches. It is a great opportunity to contribute to French Camp Academy and take home some wonderful handmade items.

Ring the Dinner Bell

The dinner-on-the-grounds starts at 12 noon on the lawn outside the Hull dining hall. Sample recipes of your friends and neighbors and bring a dish to share. If you can't bring a dish, there will be boxes on the tables for donations.

Harvest Festival Schedule at the Gym:

9:30 Welcome and Music

10:00 Auction Begins

Noon Dinner-on-the-grounds

1:00 Auction Resumes/Tours Begin

4:00 Auction Ends/Door Prize Drawing

Events in the Historic Area:

Sorghum is ground and cooked in the morning. Lunch from the Council House CafŽ is available. The Log Cabin Gift Shop is open. The Alumni Museum is open. Other activities continue until 5:00 p.m.

Heirlooms, History, and Hospitality

For about 200 years, French Camp has been a place for rest, food, and hospitality. In his book "A Way Through the Wilderness," historian William C. Davis documented 1809 - 1810 as the date Louis LeFleur settled the area now known as French Camp.

Come for a day or stay the night at the Bed and Breakfast Inn. Lunch and Dinner are served in the Council House CafŽ, Monday - Saturday. The Log Cabin Gift Shop offers unique goods from local artists and craftsmen.

Harvest Festival 2009

Join in the celebrating of Harvest Festival. Enjoy the auction, wander the grounds of French Camp Academy, tour the Natchez Trace historic area, and watch the molasses making. Whether you go home with sorghum molasses, an heirloom quilt, or just celebrate the success of the harvest, you will be glad you came to Harvest Festival 2009, Saturday, October 10.

For information call (662) 547-6482 or visit our website www.frenchcamp.org