There were more farmers and more patrons than last year at the Red, White and Blueberry Festival in Ocean Springs, but fewer blueberries.
Pat Schrimsher of PJ Farms told The Mississippi Press that Saturday's crowd was huge, but she thinks many people were disappointed that late freezes hurt the blueberry crop. She says farmers just have to work with nature.
The Ocean Springs Fresh Market is held most Saturdays in The Depot parking lot. It partnered this year with the Red, White & Blueberry Festival, also held there.
Festival organizer and Fresh Market founder Diane Claughton tells the Sun Herald that a Mississippi-Louisiana co-op sold 4 million pounds of blueberries in 2012, but growers expect this year's crop to total about a half-million pounds.
