The Choctaw Plaindealer

(cutline) During the festival the sorghum mill is cranked up to make fresh molasses throughout the day.

Plans for the 2006 Harvest Festival are already brewing in French Camp, as the festival is only a few weeks away.

On Saturday, October 14, the Town of French Camp will kick off its annual festival, which is open to the public. FCA alumni are especially invited to enjoy the event. Events will get started at 9:30 a.m. with a musical presentation by the FCA chorus.

An all-day-long quilt and craft auctions in the FCA gymnasioum follow the musical performance and is set to begin at 10 a.m.

French Camp's Harvest Festival is famous for the auction and the multitude of hand-stitched quilts sold at the auction. The quilts are made by Mississippi Quilters and other groups.

Another popular and famous event from the festival is the old fashioned "Dinner-on the-Grounds" Picnic. It is the largest scale potluck style dinner in Choctaw County. Festival organizers welcome and encourage those attending the festival to bring their favorite covered dish to add to the menu.

The picnic line begins at the steps leading up to the cafeteria, but according to organizers, at lunch it will stretch out into the parking lot and is easy to find.

While the auction and picnic are a big part of the day's events, there will be plenty more to enjoy at the festival. French Camp's Historic District will be alive with dulcimer music, story telling, sorghum making, horseback riding, wood working and a variety of craft making.

Several crafters will set up booths at the festival and have their crafts for sale.

The French Camp Community Club plans to have an area set up in the gymnasium along with the auction where it will sell anything from cakes, cookies, the famous homemade bread baked at the welcome center, jams, and jellies, to a variety of crafts.

In addition to all the activities for those attending the festival to participate in, the historical sites at French Camp will be open to the public, including the Col. James Drane Antebellum Home, Bed & Breakfast Inn, Greenwood Leflore's Carriage, and several historical church buildings in the French Camp area.

The Harvest Festival became an annual event in 1950 with local churches and community leaders coming together to promote the newly established Community Club, an organization designed to promote economic growth in the French Camp area.

Proceeds from the auction benefit French Camp Academy and other Community Club members including Berea, Covenant, Bethsaida, French Camp Baptist Churches and French Camp and Huntsville Presbyterian Churches.

If you have any questions about the upcoming Harvest Festival please contact Lance Ragsdale, French Camp Academy Director of Development at 662-547-9464 or lragsdale@frenchcamp.org.