‘Small Town at its Best’: Hundreds of People Turn Out for Crystal Springs Tomato Festival

Hundreds of people took advantage of the warm, sunny weather Saturday to visit the final day of the Crystal Springs Tomato Festival.

Whether you were enjoying a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade, shopping the flea market or stocking up on locally grown tomatoes, chances are you experienced what Mayor Sally Garland says was “small town at its best.”

She said the event seemed to have a larger turnout this year, thanks, in part, to the milder temperatures.

“A few degrees in the weather changes everything,” she said. “People stayed longer, too.”

Garland evidenced that by telling WLBT some vendors were still packing up at 4:30 that afternoon, when, in hotter years, they would be gone by 3.

The larger crowd meant running out of tomatoes early on at the tent set up by Rutledge Farms.

The festival was a positive note for Edward Rutledge, who lost a lot of his tomato crop during the recent severe weather.

“Eighty-mile-per-hour winds blew a lot of tomatoes down, knocked them off. But the hail was worse,” he said. “But God brought us through it, and we just press on, and we got some good produce here today at the festival.”

It also meant that Davin McCarty spent much of the morning helping out at the Rutledge booth, rather than taking in the festival’s attractions.

When he spoke with WLBT, he had only gotten a chance to check out some of the military vehicles set up by the Mississippi National Guard nearby.

“I was working one table and I was working another table,” he said. “So we’ve been busy today… This was the busiest day that I have been working.”

Nicol Sanders-Hemphill had just purchased some tomatoes at another tent selling tomatoes, jams, and preserves.

“We look forward to coming every year, and I came this year with my mom and my friend,” she said. “We’re having such a good time.”

Sanders-Hemphill said one of the things she liked best about the festival was the hospitality. “I like all of the people and the… hospitality everybody’s given us,” she said. “Everybody’s very nice.”

Crystal Springs native Dale Stratton attended the event with his girlfriend. The medical school student said the festival gave him a chance to come home and catch up with old friends.

“That’s what it’s kind of about, you know, you see all the booths and everything. But once you see your friends… that you haven’t seen in a long time, it kind of makes coming back feel a little bit better,” he said.

Lisa Rials, who was fixing fried-green tomato sandwiches, BLTs, and BLTs with fried-green tomatoes at another tent, said the same. “It’s not any one thing. Good people, good food,” she said. “You run into people you haven’t seen in a long time.”

Jordan Boyd, with Boyd Farms in Edwards, said it was the second year for her family to set up, and she’s enjoyed the experience.

“So, we grow red juice. It’s a good-size tomato, really tangy and small-core,” she said. “Some of the best tomatoes out there.”

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens, a lifelong resident of Crystal Springs, was picking up some locally grown tomatoes as well.

He said there are no better tomatoes than the ones grown in his hometown.

“You can take two of the same kind of tomato plant and plant one of them here at Crystal Springs and plant one of them across the river or 50 miles from here and you get a different taste,” he said. “I’ve known this all my life.”

At one point, Crystal Springs was known as the “Tomato Capital of the World.” A quick Google search shows other cities also lay claim to that title, including Jacksonville, Texas.

Garland says regardless of titles, Crystal Springs still has the best-tasting fruit. “We’ve had a contest with them before,” she said, referring to Jacksonville. “The acid in our soil gives it extra flavor. Our taste always wins.”

Source : WLBT