FRANKLIN — On a perfect fall day, why walk down Main Street to taste deep-fried butter and Milky Ways when you can pedal a surrey or even a bicycle built for two?

That was the sentiment of those who attended the 10th annual Harvest Moon Festival Saturday, deemed the biggest and best one yet by organizers and festival-goers.

Surreys, or covered, carriage-like quadricycles pedaled by either two or four people, were one of several first-time attractions at this year’s celebration put on every year to promote St. Mary Parish merchants.

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The surrey rides were thanks to Morgan City resident Debbie Carter, who started the part-time surrey business in July.

Carter said a trip to Destin, Fla., last year sparked the idea. While vacationing in Destin, she noticed the popularity of scooter rentals and thought of what scooters could bring to Morgan City.

While surfing the Internet trying to find scooters, Carter came across a Web site that offered surreys and two-person bicycles.

Residents rent them throughout the week, while Lake End Park in Morgan City is home to the surreys on weekends.

“People can just ride them around and enjoy them as a family,” she said. “It’s been very popular so far. People love it.”

Cities like Galveston, Texas, and Orlando, Fla., boast surry rentals, but Carter said “now a tiny town in Louisiana has them, too.”

Among the countless food and craft booths set up along Main Street were first-time Harvest Moon vendors Eileen and Russell Richard of Crowley.

The two were busy in their cart preparing deep-fried butter and deep-fried candy bars. Both delicacies are past winners of the Texas State Fair food contest, which typically “sets the trends” for new festival and fair foods to offer, said Eileen Richard.

Fried butter is made by mixing butter, sugar, cream cheese and jam, then battering the ingredients in funnel cake mix and dropping the concoction in grease.

The couple travel to various festivals around South Louisiana, and also sell deep-fried Snickers and Milky Way candy bars.

“People are very curious about them,” Eileen Richard said. “Once they try it, they love it. It’s just getting them to try it.”

Overall, festival organizer Joan Adams said the event was a huge success, and brought in one of the biggest crowds she has seen since the festival’s start.

“People are really having a good time,” Adams said.