Strawberry pickers turn out in record numbers
Thousands turned out for the Ottawa Farms Strawberry Festival in Bloomingdale over the weekend, beckoned by pony rides, pig races and plump berries ripe for the picking.
The 13th annual event drew an estimated 6,000 people Saturday and another 4,000 on Sunday, easily the largest crowd ever at the fun-filled festival, according to organizers.
"I wish I had a pet pig," 6-year-old Avery Roddenberry of Effingham County exclaimed after one of the swine circuits, contested with plenty of oinks and squeals.
Her aunt, Amanda Stafford, quickly weighed in: "I don't."
Nearby, children marveled as a group of gun-slinging cowboys acted out a brief skit, during which an outlaw nabbed a female hostage only to be interrupted by a pair of angry marshals, out to exact justice in a flurry of gunfire.
The men, part of a group called Southern Gunslingers, wore all the essentials: chaps, spurs and holsters.
"I haven't met a young kid yet that's not fascinated by guns," said Bill Todd, one of the gunslingers. "Especially boys."
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Elsewhere, Civil War re-enactors milled around in Confederate battle garb, vendors hawked arts and crafts, children crammed into a tractor-pulled cart for a farm tour, and parents watched nervously as tykes wheeled around in tricycles.
"It's a nice family outing," observed Shirley Beamon of Savannah, whose 1-year-old granddaughter, Cydney Mitchell, couldn't quite reach the pedals on her tricycle.
The real draw, however, was the bountiful strawberry harvest.
Guests strolled through five lush acres, plucking the ruby-red fruit, filling buckets to the brim and gobbling alfresco.
"They're the best you'll ever taste," promised Letha Brazell, organizer of the festival, adding that this year's crowd doubled the size of 2009.
"We're pleasantly surprised with the turnout, especially with the economy like it is," said Pete Waller, owner of the farm, located off Bloomingdale Road. "Everybody should come visit - if you don't want to pick strawberries just come out and sit on the porch and talk to us."
