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By MIKE COOK
Las Cruces Bulletin
The Town of Mesilla is hoping 5,000 to 8,000 people will attend its first ever Pecan Festival, which will be held Friday through Sunday, Oct. 7 through 9 in Las Cruces and Mesilla.
The event, which is sponsored by the Town of Mesilla and Legacy Pecans, begins on Friday, Oct. 7 at Pecan Grill and Brewery, 500 S. Telshor Blvd., with an evening of food and music and includes a kids’ zone. It begins at 3 p.m. and continues until 10 p.m.
Events will be held in Mesilla from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8 and from noon to 7 p.m.
on Sunday, Oct. 9, and will include the Run Like A Nut 5K race, a hot-air balloon send off (at Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park), the Pecan Ball, a pecan pie competition, wine and beer tastings, a tractor and car show, face painting, a dunking booth, a food-truck competition and the works of local and regional artists and craftsmen.
Food and alcohol vendors will participate. There will also be live entertainment during the festival, along with a free gala dance on the plaza.
There will be free park and ride shuttle service to and from the event with pedi-cabs to make it easy to get around Mesilla, plus Safe Ride cab services as needed.
“Fabian Garcia, the first director of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, planted some of New Mexico’s first pecan trees in the Mesilla Valley in 1913,” according to http://aces.
nmsu.edu/ces/pecans/ pecan-history.html.
“Many of these original trees are still standing at New Mexico State University’s Fabian Garcia Horticultural Science Center.”
Legacy Pecans is owned by the Salopek family, which came to the United States in 1923 from Croatia, Austria-Hungary, according to www.legacypecans. com. “In 1955 the Salopek family planted their first pecan tree.
Today, the Salopek family farms over 6,000 acres of pecans in the fertile Rio Grande Valley, making it the largest family-owned pecan farm in the world,” the website said.
For information, call 575-652-6561. Visit www.
newmexicopecanfestival. com. Find them on Facebook at New Mexico Pecan Festival.
Lace up your sneakers for the Run Like A Nut 5K race, part of the Town of Mesilla’s first ever Pecan Festival.
Play games such as corn hole during the festival, which will be held Friday through Sunday, Oct. 7 through 9 in Las Cruces and Mesilla.
