Maxton’s James Locklear took home the top prize for his Collards at the Maxton Collard Festival held on Saturday. His largest bundle measured at 4 ft. 6 inches.
Tomeka Sinclair | The Laurinburg Exchange
MAXTON — Despite the name, more than collards were featured at the Annual Maxton Collard Festival held over the weekend.
This year’s festival, set at Beachum Park, was bigger than previous years with more food, more entertainment, but fewer entries in the annual collard competition due to a less-than-ideal growing season, which included an unseasonably warm weather, a couple of hurricanes and a drought.
“The first storm we got too much rain, the second storm we got too much rain and it stunted the collards and then after that, it got dry,” said James Locklear, a Maxton farmer. “We’ve been in a drought for the last month in a half. I’ve been watering every day for a month and a half.”
Locklear said the ideal weather for growing collards is between 40 and 50 degrees.
“Anything over that, they don’t want to grow,” Locklear said. “Collards a cold-weather plant. The colder it is on the collards, the better it is, the more growth that it gets.”
Locklear began growing his collards on Aug. 15 and every year he tries to enter some of his harvest into the local competition and this year was no different.
Despite the rough growing season, Locklear still pulled out a win in the Maxton Collard Festival competition. His largest bundle of the bitter green measured at about 4 ft. 6 inches, significantly lower than what he as entered years prior but noteworthy, according to judges who were sold on the size and appearance, overall health and quality of the plant, and fullness of the leaves.
Johnny McQueen placed second.
“It’s small compared to what I have brung. I’ve brung them out here with 62 inches across,” Locklear said.
Locklear said winning the top prize let him know that his work “didn’t go in vain.”
“It made me feel good … I like to have something to bring every year even if I don’t win but I try to win,” Locklear said.
Anyone looking for some collards this Thanksgiving can reach Locklear at 910-729-2520. Locklear’s farm is located on Old Baker Road in Maxton.
In addition to the collard competition, festival goers had dozens of vendors to choose from offering fried chicken, ice cream, blooming onions and the regionally well-known collard sandwiches.
“Vendors have everything from fried bread, chitterlings to collard wraps — a little bit of everything,” said Jamie Smith, of the Maxton Recreation Department. “In total, there are 45 vendors. All of the vendors are well-known in the community.”
Each vendor had the opportunity to participate in A Taste of Maxton which pits the top collard dish against each other.
Besides the food, a draw to the festival was the checker competition.
“A lot of people came from 3 to 4 hours away,” Smith said.
Live entertainment included the Robeson Rockers, the I.E. Johnson Steppers and music Bingo. The festival concluded with a fireworks show.