Blairsville spends the last weekend of July celebrating the lowly green bean. There were varieties from rattlesnake beans to wax beans to royal burgundy.  The only variety I didn’t see was haricots verts. But a French-green-beans-and-nutty-fruit-bread recipe won honorable mention in last year’s recipe contest, so the French variety is around. An old-fashioned method of preserving green beans is to dry them on a string. They're called "leather britches."   

Booths were set up around the historic courthouse on the square and festival-goers flocked to the arts and crafts and the dollar-a-slice watermelon  tent. I saw people buying bags of fresh green beans, mountain-grown corn and tomatoes. There was a beauty contest, a 5K run, a bike ride and of course a parade. I didn’t get there in time for the green bean pizza-eating contest, but I did try a slice. In spite of how it sounds, it was good (plenty of cheese, peppers and onions besides the green beans) but left me too full to try the green bean cole slaw that I saw advertised at another booth.

Blairsville is near the top of Georgia, close to both Tennessee and North Carolina. Surrounded by mountains, it is the source of much outdoor recreation, including water sports on lakes Nottely and Winfield Scott and fishing and rafting on the Nottely River. Just driving up is beautiful – highway 129 comes up from Cleveland, passing the Walasi-Yi Center at Neel’s Gap on Blood Mountain and the Byron Herbert Reece Interpretive Center.  I took highways 348 and 180, the Richard B. Russell Scenic highway – Georgia’s only National Scenic Byway. It runs along the top of the ridge so pull-offs on both sides open to scenic vistas of the mountains. Both 129 and Richard B. Russell are curvy and steep, popular with motorcyclists and bicyclists and not much fun for anyone who gets motion sickness easily.

If you don’t want to wait until next July  - Blairsville holds its annual Sorghum Festival in October. Similar to molasses but not quite as strong, sorghum has an unusually high level of antioxidants and may be the next super food. You’ll have to visit the festival to see if they have a sorghum-pizza eating contest.