calendar up & coming

MCCOMB pikeinfo.com mccombarts.com mcrrmuseum.com

FB: McComb Farmers Market

Every Thursday in July & August

Farmers Market

113 North Railroad Blvd.

7 am-1 pm 410.693.7701

July 8 & August 12

BTC Market

2nd Saturday

Belhaven Town Center 800 Manship

July 23-28

JXN Film Festival Jackson Convention Complex visitjackson.com

August 19

Mississippi Book Festival Mississippi State Capitol Downtown

9 am-5 pm 769.717.2648 msbookfestival.com

August 29

Broadway in Jackson & Jackson Live Thalia Mara Hall Downtown jacksonbroadway.com

MADISON/RIDGELAND visitridgeland.com madisonthecity.com ardenland.net mscrafts.org

Every Tuesday in July

Except July 4 Farmers Market Main St. @ Caboose 3:30-6:30

July 3

Fireworks Show Liberty Park

Food Trucks 5pm

Live Bands 6 pm Fireworks 9 pm madisonthecity.com

July 20-23

Assassins: An American Musical Pike County Little Theatre

Thurs, Fri & Sat 7:30 pm Sun 2:30 pm $10 adv. / $12 at door pcltmccomb.org

MEADVILLE meadvillems.com

NATCHEZ visitnatchez.org/full-eventcalendar visitnatchez.org kreweofphoenixnatchez.com natchezpilgrimage.com thetowersofnatchez.com natchezgardenclub.org natchezlittletheatre.com

FB: Downtown Natchez Farmers Market

Every Saturday in July & August

Natchez Farmers Market

Downtown 300 N. Broadway

8:30 am-Noon

July 1 & 2

The Reunion Murder Mystery Dinner Glenburnie

6:30 pm / 7 pm

$79

601.442.1002

July 4 Live @ 5 on the 4th Bluff Park @ Gazebo/ Bandstand

5 pm / Fireworks 9 pm Free

601.818.4862

July 6, 8 & 9

The Rocky Horror Show Auditions

Natchez Little Theatre

Thurs 6 pm Sat & Sun 2 pm

601.442.2233 thenatchezlittletheatre.com

July 8

Celebrate the Blooms

Farmers Market

Cruise the Crepes Tours

8:30-10 am natchezdna.org/crepe-myrtlefestival

July 15

Christmas in July Downtown

FB: Downtown Natchez Alliance

July 27-29

Natchez Food & Wine Festival

Downtown 601.445.4611 natchezchamber.com

August 4-5

This Bard’s For You Natchez Little Theatre Fri 7:30 pm Sat 2 pm

601.442.2233 thenatchezlittletheatre.com

PORT GIBSON

FB: portgibson.chamber msculturalcrossroads.org

SUMMIT pikeinfo.com

July 1-2

160th Anniversary of the Surrender of Vicksburg

Old Court House Museum

8:30 pm 601.636.0741

July 4

Independence Day

Fireworks Celebration

Downtown Vicksburg

Washington St. between Jackson & Grove Sts. Music by the Chill

9 pm fireworks 601.630.2929

August 1

Milestone Branch Boys

Vicksburg City Auditorium

5:30 pm

704.790.9690

August 4

Vicksburg National Military Park Fee Free Day

Vicksburg National Military Park

601.636.0583

August 11

A Taste of Vicksburg

Vicksburg Convention Center

Featuring Jordan Rushing

$15 / Noon-1:30 pm

601.630.2929

August 12

2nd Saturday

Downtown FB: VicksburgSecondSaturday

WESSON

VICKSBURG southernculture.org visitvicksburg.com vicksburgartassociation.org tarawildlife.com vicksburgtheatreguild.com downtownvicksburg.org

July 1

Movies on the Lawn Levee Street Warehouse

Tickets available

7-10 pm 601.618.0811

July 8

2nd Saturday Downtown

FB: VicksburgSecondSaturday

July 13 & 27

Movie Night by the Pool Mulberry Vicksburg

7:30 pm

601.301.2500

July 14-16

The Little Mermaid

Vicksburg Theatre Guild

Fri & Sat 7:30 pm

Sun 2 pm $10 / Tickets: showelix.com

July 20

10th Ritz on the River

Vicksburg Convention Center

6 pm dinner / 8 pm music

601.630.2929

July 28

A Taste of Vicksburg

Vicksburg Convention Center

Featuring Charles Pendleton $15 / Noon-1:30 pm

601.630.2929

FB: Wesson Chamber _______________________

WOODVILLE woodvillems.org woodvillemainstreet.org

FB Woodville/Wilkinson County Main Street Association ____________________

Be sure to confirm details of the events should changes have occurred since events were submitted.

The Beckonings of Berry Season

ARTICLE | Alma M. Womack

If there is one thing I love in this world, it is summer dewberries and blackberries. Pies, cobblers, dumplings, jams, and jellies— wonderful things can be made from these berries provided by nature.

When I was a little girl, there used to be berry vines all over Smithland. Mama, Nub, Doug, and I, usually accompanied by some of the women who lived here, would head to the berry vines with buckets and an honestto-goodness metal washtub to fill up with the sweet blackberries. The berries were so plentiful that we never had a problem filling up all of our containers. We would head home with purple fingers and purple tongues, briars in our fingers and arms, and burning up hot but happy with all the berries we were bringing home. Mama made so many good things from the berries, and we loved them all.

After I was grown and married, I still searched out the berries in June to fix treats for my own family. Trouble is, farming changed a goodly bit from the 1950s to the 1970s; and the changes were not kind to the berry vines. There were still some berries; but they got harder to find each year because fences were taken down, wooded areas were cleared, and what vines survived often succumbed to the chemical death of Roundup.

It got to the point that I had to look for berries elsewhere. Different friends would allow me to pick on their property, but the vines were never plentiful on their places either, so I would scrap what I could. If I was lucky, I might manage to get enough for a pie or two and enough for a gallon of juice to put in the freezer when it would be jellymaking time.

Last year, a dry May kept the berries about the size of English peas, so I didn’t pick any. This year, same story, bitty berries. There were some vines between a slough and Grassy Lake, but their berries never turned black or filled out. I just gave up and figured maybe next year.

Then I had a conversation with my neighbor Dr. Bobby Field, and he told me about all the berries he had found back in his woods and said that I was welcome to pick all I wanted. Oh, happy day for ol’ Alma, berries awaiting!

Mike Duncan, JG, and I got our buckets the next morning and headed up the road to Field’s Point where the Field family has lived for five generations. Bobby met us at the entrance to the woods, telling us he had unlocked chains and telling us just where the berries were. We thanked him, he left, and we went into the woods.

And we went past some landmarks he had pointed out, doing fine; then I forgot where to turn next. So we went a ways, decided that was wrong, went back to a deer stand that we were to use as a guide, and I called Bobby. He patiently explained again where to turn, and turn, and turn; and I got lost again. So I called again. He decided he’d just come show us by being the lead truck going into the woods except he was in town and had to go to the bank. We had no problem waiting for him.

When he came to find us again, we got behind him and followed him more deeply into the woods where there were many berry vines. Except...they were all red and the size of English peas. By going slowly, we did find a few to pick; but we didn’t fill up our buckets.

We were able to follow his tracks back out to the highway without having to pester him again. JG suggested I go to the grocery store and buy some berries to make a pie, but I was too aggravated at myself for staying lost half of the morning, so we just came home.

We thanked Bobby for being a generous and patient neighbor, friend, and woods guide to a person who can get lost anywhere, anytime. The woods that he knows every foot of were just a maze to me, but he rescued us, and we were grateful for that kindness, too.

I hear that a person can buy jelly in the grocery store; but, honestly, where is the adventure in buying storebought jelly when there are mayhaws and muscadines and possum grapes in the woods just waiting to be picked up. And next year, maybe there’ll be some fat, ripe dewberries and blackberries to tempt me into the woods again.

Alma M. Womack lives on Smithland Plantation on Black River, south of Jonesville, Louisiana. In addition to her duties as maitresse des maison, she is the keeper of the lawn, the lane, and the pecan orchard at Smithland.

Announce your special engagement or wedding in our January Wedding Edition of Bluffs & Bayous magazine.

Submission Guidelines

• Wedding coverage includes up to ten photographs and a wedding story. Engagement coverage includes one photograph and engagement information.

• Submit your formal wedding announcement of up to 850 words or your engagement announcement of up to 250 words in a Word document only. Editorial staff may make slight changes to the wording but will not compose the announcement from information submitted in lists.

• Submit up to 10 wedding photographs from which the editorial staff will choose the number relative to the length of your announcement. Photographs must be provided as jpeg files at 300 d.p.i resolution, sized at 3x5” or larger.

Packages

• Engagement Only - $250

• Wedding Only - $350

• Wedding & Engagement Package - $450 (Package includes engagement and wedding coverage.)

Contact us for availability at bluffsmag@gmail.com.