Local & State Headlines

Grits fest down-home good time

• The National Grits Festival in Warwick is still going strong in its 11th year.

J.D. Sumner

WARWICK — Nestled on the banks of Lake Blackshear, this normally quiet Worth County town is perhaps the only place in the world where, on a cool spring day, one can peruse the finest in homemade sand sculptures encased in what was most likely a Coca-cola bottle in a past life, while munching on the ever-delectable deep fried gator-on-a-stick, all before propping up in a lawn chair to comfortably watch some of the greatest grits-diving ever seen.

Welcome to Warwick, the home of the National Grits Festival and the undisputed Grits Capital of Georgia.

Enough with the fluff, its time to get down to the nitty-gritty.

Saturday, people from around the area flocked to this south Georgia town to pay homage to the most sacred of southern delicacies — that grainy, course, white food known throughout the South as the only true side dish for eggs and catfish alike.

Now in its 11th year, the National Grits Festival attracts thousands to a town whose population normally hovers around 500.

Saturday, sporadic rains moving through the area threatened to wash out the ceremonies, but thanks to the tenacity and, yes, the true grit of its fans, the festival carried on.

Allen Clark, a retired Air Force veteran, brought his whole family out to Warwick from nearby Cordele looking for a little fun and a slice of Southern living.

“It’s just something fun,” Clark said. “A grits festival is definitely something original.”

After spending some time wandering from vendor tent to vendor tent, the Clarks were forced to take a minute to suit up in their rain gear to repel the drizzles of precipitation.

But while vendors of every orientation were set up on the Warwick City Square — seriously, gator-on-a-stick — the main attraction for this show is one that always seems to get a little messy.

Around 1:30, the Grits Queens, all eight of them, took the ceremonial plunge into a kiddie-pool filled with luke-warm instant grits, paving the way for the “Roll in the Quaker Instant Grits Event.”

“It doesn’t really taste like grits,” 14-year-old Makayla Lindsey said after taking a gentle smack from her friend and fellow queen Destiny Allen. “More like cream corn.”

According to the festival’s official web site, www.gritsfest.com, the festival has its roots steeped in ancient custom, dating back to when Native Americans first served cracked maize porridge to European settlers.

In a proclamation designating Warwick as the “Grits Capital of the World,” Governor Sonny Perdue wrote that while grits may be a well-known staple of any Georgian’s diet, some outsiders often find the course grain confusing.

“...it may be a source of confusion to newly arrived visitors, especially those who have been told that grits grow on grits trees,” the proclamation reads. “But...the use and consumption of grits promote Georgia’s vital agricultural economy.”

The festival included a grits breakfast followed by a grits cook-off and a corn shelling contest.

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