🌾 Celebrate Homegrown Excellence at the 2026 National Peanut Festival!
From freshly harvested crops to time-honored family recipes, the Field Crop Exhibits and Food Preservation Competition celebrate the skill, dedication and agricultural traditions of the Wiregrass. Show off your best harvest or fill the shelves with your finest homemade preserves!
🥫 Food Preservation Competition
Categories include canned vegetables and fruits, preserves, jellies, jams, sweet and dill pickles, relishes, pepper sauces, miscellaneous pickled items, homemade peanut butter and canned boiled peanuts.
📅 Pre-registration deadline: Friday, October 16, 2026
📍 Entry drop-off: Thursday, October 29, from 4:00–6:00 PM
🏢 Location: Premium Exhibits area in Summerford Building No. 3
⚖️ Judging: Friday, October 30
All jars must be properly sealed with rings, and standard jars and lids are required except for pepper sauces. Decorated or personally labeled jars will not be judged. Entries are evaluated on quality and appearance, with jellies, jams, peanut butter and canned boiled peanuts also judged on taste.
🏆 Food Preservation Awards
First Place: $25
• Second Place: $20
• Third Place: $15
• Class Grand Prizes: Rosette and $30
• Overall Grand Prize winners receive a silver tray
Questions about Food Preservation? Contact Angie Pynes at angiepynes1@gmail.com.
🌽 Field Crop Exhibits
Bring your finest peanuts, corn, hay, soybeans, cotton, grain sorghum, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, sugarcane, pecans, satsuma oranges and other qualifying fruits and vegetables.
📅 Registration deadline: Thursday, October 29, 2026
📍 Entry drop-off: Wednesday, November 4, from 4:00–6:00 PM
🏢 Location: Field Crop display area in the ALFA Commercial Building
Each division has specific quantity and presentation requirements. Peanut entries, for example, must feature plants harvested from a three- to four-foot section of a single row and arranged in a bouquet with the vines tied and taproots clipped.
🏆 Field Crop Awards
Cash premiums vary by division, including a $150 first-place award for the Best Peanut Arrangement and a $100 first-place award for Giant Pumpkins. Rosettes will be presented for Best of Show in Peanuts and Best of Show Overall among all crops.
All entries must remain on display throughout the Festival. Entries, prizes and premium checks may be picked up Monday, November 16, from 4:00–6:00 PM.
Questions about Field Crop Exhibits? Contact William Birdsong at (334) 723-6299.
🌐 Online registration and complete competition rules are available at www.nationalpeanutfestival.com.
Whether you grow it, harvest it, can it or preserve it, we want to see the best of the Wiregrass at the 2026 National Peanut Festival!