World Grits Festival: Not Just for Eating

Hurry and you might be able to dive into grits if you live anywhere close to St. George, South Carolina. This is the weekend of the World Grits Festival. If I had only known sooner… I found out about this grits mania while I was savoring my morning coffee and thumbing through the Sunday paper. There was a grainy photo of a 6-year-old in a mess of grits. The only way I could tell the dot in the photo was a 6-year-old was because the caption said it was–same thing with the grits. It’s hard to tell one is looking at the top view of a large inflatable-type wading pool filled with grits when the photo is black and white and grainy.

Since I like grits and think a trip to the southern states would be lacking without at least one meal with grits served on the side, I immediately hit the internet to see what’s what in the grits world. St. George bills itself as the Grits Capitol of the World, for one thing.

Sure enough, this is a festival that should be included in festivals to see where food is the theme. And like the picture captured, one of the events at the World Grits Festival is jumping into grits. The festival also includes a grit eating contest and some event where participants roll in grits. Of course, you can eat grits all day. And like any decent festival, there’s a midway complete with rides, games and eats. For grits recipes and more photos, check out the website. This particular photo is from last year’s festival.

This year is the 22nd Annual Grits Festival. Perhaps, if you’ve missed this one, you could plan ahead and make it to the 23rd. I wonder if rolling around in grits is good for the skin–like a total body exfoliate experience.