The 38th Mississippi Pecan Festival wrapped up Sunday after bringing thousands of people to Fulmer’s Farmstead for a weekend of traditional farm demonstrations, crafts and family activities.
Over the years, the festival has grown from a small event into a gathering that draws visitors from across the region. Through that growth, the Fulmer family has worked to preserve the traditions that helped get it started.
“I really honestly think that people crave being able to show their children and show their grandchildren the way that things used to be,” said event organizer Marie Fulmer.
Visitors could experience those traditions through demonstrations of corn grinding, broom binding and biscuit making, said Lacey Westbrook, an employee at Fulmer’s Farmstead.
Westbrook said those activities reflect life at the working farmstead throughout the year.
“I think the focus is on the nostalgia of it, a different way of life, trying to remember more traditional ways,” Westbrook said. “Because this is a living farmstead on a daily basis anyway.”
For older visitors, Westbrook said, the demonstrations can bring back memories of growing up. Younger visitors may encounter those ways of life for the first time.
For some vendors, returning to the festival has become a tradition of its own.
Dallas Arnold with Aunt Polly’s Farm said the blueberry farm has participated for about 18 consecutive years. Good sales help bring the farm back, he said, but so does the festival’s atmosphere.
“It’s a lot of the old classic-style festivals, the simplicity of it all,” Arnold said. “It’s really nice to get away from the fast electronic stuff and get back to the little pony rides and petting the zoo animals.”
That atmosphere reflects the vision of Jeanette and Ken Fulmer and their sons, who started the festival after traveling to other craft festivals and deciding to bring something similar home to Perry County.
For the family, continuing that tradition has taken on greater meaning since Jeanette Fulmer, Marie’s mother-in-law, died last year.
“It’s just important for us to continue the vision that she had,” Fulmer said.
For Fulmer, carrying that vision forward also means making visitors feel welcome on the family’s farm.
“We want them to feel like they’re at home,” Fulmer said. “It’s very special to have everybody kind of come home to the farm and experience that here with us.”
