Attendees can pick favorite pecan pie

For the first time in its 25-year history, the Pecan & Wine Festival in Camp Verde will allow attendees to taste — and help judge — the pecan pie contest.

While traditional judging will still take place, Camp Verde worked with the state’s health department to allow pie entrees to be publicly tasted.

“Everybody that enters the contest brings one pie,” Camp Verde Parks & Recreation Manager Shawna Figy said. “Our judges generally only use one slice of the pie, … so we’ll be able to utilize the rest of the pie for the People’s Choice.”

The free festival will take place rain or shine on Saturday, March 21, from11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, March 22, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The town will rent a large tent to cover the wineries and vendors and will have live blues music throughout the weekend.

The event overall includes 16 wineries — all members of the Verde Valley Wine Consortium — one beer brewery, Verde Brewing Co. — 112 other food and craft vendors and live music.

Lineup

The Pecan and Wine Festival will take place at the Community Center Field, located at 75 E. Hollman St. in Camp Verde. The event will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 22. Blues and folk music was organized by the Roots Music Hall of Fame Revue.
Saturday:

• 11 a.m.: Creekside
• 12:45 p.m.: Jim and Joy Ride
• 2:45 p.m.: Tommy Dukes Band
• 4:30 p.m.: Swamp Poets Duo

Sunday:

• 11 a.m.: Sabina Sandoval & Kristi Minkx Duo
• 1:30 p.m.: The Verde Valley Rhythm & Roots All Star Band, with guests

The Pecan Pie Bake Off will also take place on Sunday at noon in Room 204. Register at campverde.sports.com/player. Pies must be delivered to the Camp Verde Parks and Rec tent between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Wine

The consortium “is a trade organization that represents all the wineries in the Verde Valley,” consortium President Paula Woolsey said. “Then a few wineries that come from down south that we call ‘associate members.’”

Woolsey, who teaches viticulture at Yavapai College’s Southwest Wine Center in Clarkdale, said many of the wineries in attendance, which will include the Southwest Wine Center, were founded by graduates of the program.

In past years, the festival has only had one pecan vendor, Figy said. This year, it will have three, all Camp Verde based.

“We also put under our tent a few vendors that kind of correlate or go along with wine,” Woolsey said. “Like we have a cheese vendor, we’ve got people selling cutting boards, we’ve got chocolate.”

The event is very well attended, Figy said.

“There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to put on a big event,” she said. “And so it’s nice to see people hanging out and enjoying the environment and the event that you put all the work into.”

The VVWC hosts several wine-themed festivals a year, with the Verde Valley Wine Festival in May.

“The consortium got involved in Pecan and Wine in like 2010, back when it was called Pecan and Antique” Woolsey said. “A couple years later, they changed it to ‘Pecan, Wine and Antique,’ and then a couple of years after that, they changed it to ‘Pecan and Wine’ and dropped the ‘Antique’ and opened it up to all kinds of vendors. So the consortium represents these wineries.”

The organization will be selling merchandise at the festival and will host a wine pull.

“We asked the wineries to donate a couple bottles of wine,” Woolsey said. “We have a wine pull, which is you pick a number and you get a bottle and you open it. It’s a $25 charge to do the wine pull, but you’re going to get a bottle of wine that’s worth at least $25 up to $50.”

License Plates

The Verde Valley Wine Trail, which is an organization of area wineries, will also be at the festival, advertising the wine trail license plates. Woolsey said more than 600 license plates have been sold since its availability began at the end of November. Her goal for this calendar year is 5,000 plates sold.

“Every time you register a car, the trail gets $17, and then every time somebody has to renew their thing, we get another $17,” she said. The registration fee for the plate is $25, with the same cost for renewal.