The best sweet potatoes grown anywhere in the world will be available throughout the area over the next few weeks thanks to the Wesson Lions Club.
For the ninth consecutive year, the club has brought a truckload of Landreth Farms-produced sweet potatoes from the Vardaman area in north central Mississippi -- the "Sweet Potato Capital of the World" -- to sell at a bargain basement prices and raise funds, in the process, for the international and local charities it helps support.
Wesson Lions Club members will sell them and continue to offer them until their supply runs out through October.
This year, the Lions Club's inventory includes 350 forty-pound boxes of regular sweet potatoes, which it will sell for $20 per box, or 50 cents per pound. In addition to individuals, area restaurants look forward to stocking up on the quality sweet potatoes during the Lions Club's annual fundraising effort.
Landreth Farms officials say it's the loamy soil – along with timely early rains – in the Vardaman area that make their potato crops sweet and special. Landreth plants sweet potatoes on 750 acres, among Mississippi farmers, who raise sweet potatoes on more than 18,400 acres across the state. The farm sells commercially to national food stores, such as Kroger and Wal-Mart; and canners, like Gerber; and produces a line of pre-wrapped sweet potatoes for microwave cooking.
The annual sweet potato sale is among three major fundraising activities of the Wesson Lions Club. The Club also has an annual pancake breakfast, sells peanuts at Co-Lin football games and collects money on Highway 51 from motorists to support sight charities. It disburses some $10,000 every year to assist deaf and blind persons through the International Lions Club and to support local organizations and causes related to community improvement, children and youth, veterans, hospice care and other issues and concerns.
For information and to order sweet potatoes, contact Randy Davis (601-754-4832) or Hubert Greer (601-757-8973).
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