Article submitted by Darla Huffman: Pumpkin versus Sweet Potato.

A yearly decision unless you have already determined which you will have for your fall feast; maybe a family tradition, maybe a compromise, maybe you switch back and forth, or maybe you have both. Bring your best to the market and enter the contest. You can enter either the Pumpkin category or the Sweet Potato category or you can enter both, increasing your chances of winning a prize. It’s easy to enter. Just bring your entry, a dessert or other sweet using either pumpkin or sweet potato with a list of the ingredients to the market by 9:30; no fee to enter. The crowd can begin to taste samples of all the entries at 10:00 for a $1 donation to local charities and then vote for their favorite.

Sweet potatoes were very much in evidence at the market this Saturday with Frank Mullinax having a trailer full. They were heritage red sweet potatoes and some were huge, weighing as much as six pounds. He planted the last of the slips on June 24, much later than the recommended date, but he said that next year he would wait until July to plant some of them to see if he could have more small ones, since they were the most popular.

The End of the Season Party will be held on October 25 with free food to thank all of the vendors and customers. You can come out and say goodbye to some of the regulars but some of them will be right back for the Winter Season which begins on November 8 for four alternating Saturdays, November 22, December 5 and 20. There will be fall vegetables and holiday shopping.

The location will be the same but the hours will be from 8:00am to 12 noon.

The Jasper Farmers Market is held on Saturday morning (April through October) from 7:30 am to 12 noon and from November 8 through December 20 on alternating Saturday mornings from 8:00am to 12 noon in the Park n Ride lot at Lee Newton Park on Hwy 53 in Jasper and is a project of the Pickens County Master Gardeners. See www.pickensmg.org for more information and complete vendor rules or call the County Extension Office at 706 253 8840.