North Georgia Festivals Feature Unique Cultures
Fall Treats Include Kettle Corn, Fried Pies, Apple Cider and Wurst
Sep 6, 2008
There’s a lot more to Northern Georgia Festivals than eating, but the annual fall events at the foot of the Appalachian mountains offer plenty of unique food for families and children to enjoy.
Most of the festival food is described as homemade or country cooking. Columnist Jim Leeds may or may not be joking when he writes in 400 Edition Magazine that these country fairs offer "wonderful gourmet foods such as Polish sausage and corn dogs."
From Apple Festival to Sorghum Festival
The numerous annual events, an hour or two above, Atlanta include:
- Cherokee County’s Riverfest in Canton, which is celebrated on the banks of the Etowah River the last weekend in September;
- The Prater’s Mill Country Fair, which is conducted in the second week of October around an 1855 gristmill near Dalton, GA;
- The Georgia Marble Festival which extends from Lee Newton Park in Jasper to the Georgia Marble Company in nearby Tate, GA, on the first weekend in October;
- The Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA, where an estimated 300 vendors and about 50,000 visitors gather to celebrate the annual harvest;
- The annual Mountain Marketplace Heritage Festival in Blairsville, GA, usually on Labor Day weekend;
- The Georgia Sorghum Festival, also in Blairsville, the first weekend in October;
- The Octoberfest in Helen, where folks gather annually to celebrate the area’s German heritage with lots of wurst and beer.
According to the August - September 2008 400Edition and North Georgia Living (September 2008) magazines, there are at least a dozen more festivals and fairs in north Georgia each fall.
Homemade Preserves and "Biskits"
They offer a wide variety of food, varying from what is described as "international" to what is labeled "authentic Southern dishes." At Blairsville, for instance, they sell canned goods, homemade preserves and locally made honey during the Marketplace Heritage Festival. Then in October they feature what they call a "Biskit Eatin" contest.
In Helen, they offer a variety of German beers and "fresh-cooked wursts" to make the September-through-October Octoberfest more enjoyable.
Fried Apple Pies and Funnel Cakes
At the Indian Summer Festival in Suches in the first week of October, folks partake of barbeque pork, boiled peanuts, fried apple pies, funnel cakes, homemade preserves, hamburgers and hot dogs.
Vendors at the Riverfest in Cherokee County offer homemade fudge, barbecue and kettle corn, among other things.
Freshly Churned Ice Cream and Cornbread
At the Prater’s Mill Country Fair in the second week of October, visitors can enjoy freshly churned ice cream, apple cider, pit-cooked barbecue and fried apple pies.
Folks attending the Cherry Log Festival on October weekends can try home made jellies, cornbread, jams, pickles and home baked treats.
Admission to most of the festivals is either free for everyone or $5 for adults. Most of the events are conducted by civic, church, charitable or historic groups as fund raisers for local causes.
References:
- 400Edition Magazine, August-September 2008
- North Georgia Living Magazine, September 2008
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