Annual Sweet Potato Festival

VARDAMAN, Miss. (WCBI)- Downtown Vardaman was a sea of humanity. This annual event, which is now in its 46th year, could be the biggest festival in Northeast Mississippi.

“Not really sure why it’s so big. I mean, we just have more vendors that anybody usually has. We’ve got about 260 vendors here. And we had a crowd estimated of about 20-thousand last year and by the looks of it maybe about that much again this year,” said Terry Dauzat.

“The sweet potato is one of the most nutritious foods that you could consume. And of course, with the cooks that we’ve had around here and the recipes you know where they add to them makes it a delicious dish also,” said Mayor James Casey.

And the mayor says these are not Idaho potatoes.

“Idaho is the mash potato capital of the world. We’re the sweet potato capital of the world. Of course, that’s self-proclaimed. A little town out in Texas challenges us, so we had to add the self-proclaimed even though they didn’t have near as many sweet potatoes as we do,” said Casey.

One of the reasons Vardaman brags about being the sweet potato capital is because of places like the Tater shed, run by Andy Clark and his family.

“It’s a full-time job. Love what you do and its blessing farming sweet potatoes. We just have great soil around here. All around Vardaman is just a really good area, really good soil, just makes them sweeter than anywhere else,” said Clark.

And the next generation of Vardaman sweet potato farmers were practicing their marketing skills. Members of the Vardaman High School Future Farmers of America Club. Amanda Taylor is their advisor.

“We do have quite a few kids that wind up going into the Sweet Potato industry. Some of the kids involved have been in families that have been farmers for years, and they go through our program. Some of them go to school at Mississippi State or to Northwest or somewhere, and they wind up coming back home and working, which is ultimately our goal is to raise good citizens, and hopefully, they’ll come back and help our community,” said Taylor.