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Sweet Grown Alabama Day focuses the spotlight on the state’s farmers

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If you were looking for an excuse to visit one of the state’s farmers’ markets, how about “Sweet Grown Alabama Day?” The event celebrates farmers and the state’s fruits, vegetables and other products. The weekend will include special events, where Sweet Grown Alabama members will offer giveaways, taste tests and discounts. They’ll also share recipes on their social media to highlight the day. Activities vary based on location.

In a press release, Aisling Walding, assistant director of Sweet Grown Alabama, the state’s nonprofit agricultural branding program says supporting the state’s farmers is as easy as buying produce from them.

“Whether it’s shopping at your local farmers market, cooking with Alabama-grown ingredients, picking fresh local flowers, dining at restaurants that feature local, or simply buying directly from a nearby farm, there are countless ways to celebrate.”

One proponent of working with farm fresh produce is James Beard award winning chef Frank Stitt in Birmingham. His French style Bistro, Chez Fon Fon, and his Italian restaurant and café Bottega, all focus on using Alabama fruits and vegetables that are in season. Stitt says he was first introduced to this idea by his grandparents when he was growing up in Cullman.

“Granddaddy White plowed with mules and milked a Jersey cow, and Eulala, my grandmother, would let me come and help her pick the asparagus and the strawberries. And, she would gather the eggs, and she would make the butter from the milk, the cream,” Stitt recalled. “And, so those memories of those meals at their table, and those just dug new potatoes and green beans and onions, stewed okra, creamed corn, tomato salads in the summertime.”

Stitt discussed those days, and his work as a restaurateur, in an interview for an upcoming edition of “APR Notebook.” He says he took that family farm experience in Cullman to a job as a visiting chef, at Alice Waters’ restaurant “Chez Panisse” in Berkeley, California. Chef Waters is renowned for championing the so called “farm to fork” culinary movement, which carried a message similar to Stitt’s grandparents in Cullman.

“Everything was pointing me to Chez Panisse, because here was this place that was only doing one menu, no choices, just working with what was at the peak of the season,” Stitt said. “And. in that little bit of time in the kitchen at Chez Panisse was transformative for me, that I could see this was run more as a as a passion and of a pursuit of beauty than it was just a business.”

The non-profit Sweet Grown Alabama published a list of farmers markets going on around the state this weekend.

  • City of Albertville Farmers Market: 8 a.m.-noon (314 Sand Mountain Drive East, Albertville).

 

  • Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (781 Farmers Market Lane, Foley).

 

  • Market at Pepper Place: 7 a.m.-noon (2829 Second Avenue South, Birmingham).

 

  • Monroeville Market Days Farmers Market: Thursday, July 24, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. (31 North Alabama Ave., Monroeville).

 

  • Northport Farmers Market: 6 a.m.-noon (4150 Fifth St., Northport).

 

  • The Farmers Market at Killen Park: 8 a.m.-noon (Lock 6 Road, Killen).

 

  • Tuscaloosa River Market: 7 a.m.-noon (1900 Jack Warner Parkway, Tuscaloosa).

 

  • Village of Providence Farmers Market: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (7 Town Center NW, Huntsville).
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