Thousands Turn Out for Annual Peach Festival

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — If it can be made with a peach, it can be found at the Gilbert Community Park every year during the peach festival. Things like the peach slush and the peach delight, which are crowd favorites, but what goes into them? Let’s start with the the peach slush. “A little bit of limeade, about a teaspoon of limeade, a teaspoon of lemonade, you have a couple of peaches and then a cup of sugar,” says, Colden Harman, who works at the stand. Colden has been coming to the peach festival all his life and he’s been working at peach slush stand for much of that time. He says the current recipe isn’t the one that started at the festival. “Before my Mom started working at this stand, we had an old lady who would run the stand and she passed away and took the recipe to the grave, so my mom had to come up with a new one,” says Harman. So far, it’s a crowd pleaser. Another favorite, the peach zip. “It’s a concoction of fresh peaches, peach juice, lemon juice, lime juice, pineapple juice and iced tea,” says Dianne Mosher, who came up with the recipe. But what about the peach delight? “We have peach ice cream, we have fresh peaches topped with whip cream and a cherry,” says Linda Ashley, who was working at the peach delight stand. It too is a crowd favorite. “This is the first time we haven’t had a line all day,” says Ashley. Besides the food, there’s also entertainment, but for this town it’s more than a festival, it’s a tradition. “The community is just a very close knit family, a lot of pride, small town America,” says Johnny Muller, member of the Gilbert Ruritan Club Today this town shares its big day with America’s. “July 4th is freedom and it’s all about America and good family fun,” says Tim Taylor, avid festival attendant. With plenty of peaches to go around.