Savor A Slice Of Bama’s Best Tomato Dish

BAMA’S BEST

TOMATO DISH

FDL Tomato Pie Triumphs In Bama’s Best Tomato Dish Contest

By Marlee Moore

Atrio of judges sampled savory tomato pie June 14 — just steps from the Montgomery Curb Market stand where FDL Gourmet To Go chef Preston Williams purchased the dish’s star Better Boy tomatoes hours earlier.

The tomato pie’s simple, salty flavor earned it the title of Bama’s Best Tomato Dish, a contest sponsored by Sweet Grown Alabama. As the winner, Montgomery-based FDL earns bragging rights, a cash prize, a plaque and a feature on “Simply Southern TV.”

“It was love at first sight!” said judge Kathleen Phillips. “The beautiful presentation of the ripe red tomatoes arranged on top told me tomatoes were going to take center stage of that tasty show. Sure enough, as I cut into the warm pie, another layer of salted tomatoes was found between layers of creamy, cheesy goodness. At that point, I knew I would be a fan girl of the FDL tomato pie.”

Phillips, a recipe developer and author of the Grits and Gouda food blog, was joined on the two-day judging journey June 13-14 by “Simply Southern TV” co-host Mary Wilson and tomato connoisseur Kyle Hayes.

Sweet Grown Alabama Director Ellie Watson accompanied the crew, which visited the Flavorful Four finalists across the state to taste their takes on Bama’s Best Tomato Dish. Finalists were chosen by fans in head-to-head matchups between Edible Eight entrants on the Sweet Grown Alabama Facebook and Instagram pages.

Watson praised FDL Gourmet To Go owners Williams and Phillip Carter for cooking with fresh, local ingredients.

“Preston and Phillip understand the Sweet Grown Alabama mission,” Watson said. “FDL has built relationships with local farmers to highlight fresh produce. Their tomato pie shows off what Alabama farmers do best — grow safe, affordable, tasty food for families.”

Williams is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef who specializes in Southern food with a Mediterranean flair. He and Carter broke into the gourmet food-to-go business during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with pop-up events in neighborhoods.

FDL (which stands for fleur-de-lis, a nod to Williams’ French ancestry) has a catering kitchen and takes custom delivery orders weekly.

From left are Sweet Grown Alabama Director Ellie Watson; recipe developer Kathleen Phillips; FDL Gourmet To Go owners Phillip Carter and Preston Williams, whose tomato pie was named Bama’s Best Tomato Dish; “Simply Southern TV” co-host Mary Wilson; and tomato connoisseur Kyle Hayes.

FDL also has a booth with refrigerated foods (casseroles, pimento cheese and more) at the Montgomery Curb Market.

“Once someone gets our tomato pie, they come back and get more,” Carter said. “We do a lot of deliveries for people throughout the week for funerals, new parents and events. Loved ones send things they like.”

The duo is inspired by seasonal ingredients. Summer favorites include an heirloom tomato gazpacho and, of course, Bama’s Best Tomato Dish.

“Some people are scared of tomato pie if they’ve never had it,” Williams said. “I’ve never met a tomato pie I didn’t like. With ingredients being in season, it would be a shame not to use them. To highlight a tomato is to eat it fresh.”

Other finalists in the Bama’s Best Tomato Dish contest were: l Claunch Cafe, Tuscumbia, tomato pie l The Downtown Chief, Gadsden, fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese and pepper jelly l Gather, Atmore, The Train Wreck

To learn more about FDL Gourmet To Go, visit their Facebook page. The “Simply Southern TV” episode featuring FDL Gourmet To Go and Bama’s Best Tomato Dish airs Aug. 6 and 7.

More Flavorful Finalists

Claunch Cafe

Tuscumbia Tomato pie

The Downtown Chief

Gadsden Fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese and pepper jelly

Gather

Atmore The Train Wreck

Green Industry Growers Sharpen Skill Set On Florida Tour

Alabama greenhouse, nursery and sod growers visited the University of Florida Turf Unit during an inaugural education tour June 23. At the unit, they learned about research projects, which included work with soil moisture probes, nutrient disturbance analysis and thermal imagers.

By Marlee Moore

Green industry farmers crisscrossed south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle June 22-23, leaning into lessons about logistics, labor and the importance of farm-friendly legislation.

The Alabama Farmers Federation Greenhouse, Nursery & Sod (GNS) Division coordinated the educational tour, which replaced spring Commodity Organization Meeting workshops. The tour, held in the heat of summer, hit a lull for many greenhouse, nursery and sod farmers, including Ashley Driskell Morgan.

“I learned some new things at each of the stops, particularly the University of Florida (UF) Turf Unit, and will be able to integrate aspects into our business,” said Morgan, whose family farms in Mobile County. “With having a family business, it’s hard to take off for a long time, so the short tour was ideal.”

A seminar with Alabama Extension’s Dr. Jeremy Pickens kicked off the two-day event. The next day, the group visited Flowerwood Nursery in Loxley, Alabama, which propagates 4 million Encore azaleas annually, in addition to other container plants.

Flowerwood CEO Ellis Ollinger serves on the Federation’s State GNS Committee and gave growers insight into Flowerwood’s fusion of modern technology and hands-on labor.

“Right now, we’re working on ergonomics to not necessarily make the job faster but easier for our employees,” Ollinger said.

Sod took center stage at UF’s West Florida Research and Education Center Turf Unit — a former corn field that’s now the largest turf research facility in the Southeast. Associate Center Director Bryan Unruh told Alabama farmers that battling environmental activists while implementing best management practices (BMPs) for the state’s thousand-plus golf courses is a hefty issue for Florida turf growers.

“We have 110 fertilizer restricted ordinances,” Unruh said. “Restrictive ordinances really pertain to landscapes and thankfully haven’t gone over to the golf course yet. I don’t know how I could manage a golf course without fertilizing May-October. If you can’t feed something in the warm season, it’s not going to do too well.”

Unruh highlighted the importance of passing legislation to educate the public on BMPs, noting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law just days earlier highlighting that point.

During a tour of the Turf Unit in Milton, Florida, farmers saw technology in action, including thermal imagers recording data, soil moisture monitors and projects analyzing nutrient disturbance.

Just a few miles from the Turf Unit, the group learned about wholesale tree production at Panhandle Growers, while a pitstop at the Pensacola Oyster Cluster microhatchery showcased farmers problem-solving another logistical puzzle — a bottlenecked supply chain of seedstock to oyster farms.

Federation GNS Division Director Blake Thaxton said the tour had two goals: help farmers improve growing methods and, ultimately, their bottom lines, while increasing camaraderie among growers.

“The feedback we’ve received from this tour has been excellent,” Thaxton said. “Everyone really enjoyed visiting with and learning from each other, and each stop had unique insights that will help Alabama farmers continue to improve their operations while growing exceptional products.”

Alfa Employees Enjoy Bounty Of Alabama Agriculture

By Josie Chance

The peaches were just picked yesterday!”

“Yum, I love bramble jam.”

“I can’t wait to cook these steaks tonight.”

These exclamations and more were heard from Alfa Insurance and Alabama Farmers Federation employees at the Montgomery home office during Alfa Farmers Market Day June 30.

Alfa employees Cindy Strickland, Melanie Stanford and Heather Burge browsed each booth, anticipating their turn to visit with farmers and purchase local goods. Burge said she was excited to get home and dig into fresh peaches and sweet bramble jam.

“We love the Farmers Market Day,” said Burge, who works in Property & Casualty Services. “We even moved meetings around to make it down here in time. The farmers are fantastic, so we were excited to support them.”

The Federation coordinates the event to give Alfa employees the opportunity to interact with the organization’s farmer-members while enjoying summer’s bounty. The Federation’s Blake Thaxton said it’s important for farmers and employees to spend time together and was grateful to bring the market back after a two-year hiatus.

“Farmers are the reason we get to come to work every morning,” said Thaxton, the Alabama Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association (AFVGA) executive director. “It’s important for Alfa and Federation employees to grow relationships with our farmers so we can represent them well. This is a great opportunity for our employees to learn about local farms and the fruit of their labor.”

The market also encourages employees to seek farm-fresh goods outside of the home office.

Five farms plied their wares at Alfa Farmers Market Day. Boozer Farms’ Taylor Hatchett brought Chilton County peaches, tomatoes and cabbage. Hatchett serves on the AFVGA board with Beth Hornsby, who supplied jams, jellies and pickled products from her Lee County Hornsby Farms.

At the East Alabama Bee Co. table, shoppers chose from honey, handmade candles and beeswax bars while learning about beekeeping from Chambers County farmer and Federation State Bee & Honey Committee member Jeff Monroe.

Alfa employees searching for a refreshing treat in the heat visited Blue Ribbon Dairy’s ice cream station manned by Elmore County farmer Michaela Sanders Wilson, who serves on the Federation’s State Dairy Committee.

Rock House Farms from Cleburne County rounded out Alfa Farmers Market Day offerings with steaks, ground beef, sausage and eggs. Farmers Kaleb and Karah Skinner serve on the Federation’s State Pork Committee.

Additionally, Sweet Grown Alabama, the state’s agricultural branding program, held a drawing for a Sweet Grown Alabama basket, won by Federation Membership Assistant Office Manager Liz Coon. Learn more at SweetGrownAlabama.org.

Boozer Farms owner Taylor Hatchett bags fresh Chilton County peaches with help from her daughter, Raven, during the market June 30.

Employees enjoyed Alfa Farmers Market Day June 30. From left are Heather Burge, Property & Casualty Services; Cindy Strickland, Farm and Commercial Underwriting; and Melanie Stanford, Personal Lines Underwriting. Trim & Mow the EASY Way!

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Irrigation Initiative Eliminates Guesswork

Above: Heath Darnell demonstrates how soil moisture probes send a continual flow of information to a smartphone app, allowing him to make timely irrigation decisions. Top: Heath and brother Jared say the Alabama Irrigation Initiative is helping manage risk for the next generation on their family farm, which includes Heath’s son, Jackson, and Jared’s son, Riley.

By Jeff Helms

Torrential rains gave way to blue skies just in time for the Darnell brothers of Lawrence County to show how the Alabama Irrigation Initiative takes some guesswork out of farming.

Steel skeletons, which crawl across 12% of their 6,000-acre farm, sat silent. But Heath Darnell, 45, said it’s reassuring to know the irrigation pivots can deliver water to corn, cotton and soybeans when needed.

“We can do everything right, but if it doesn’t rain for 10 days, we can be hurting,” he said. “We can go from being too wet to get anything done to needing a rain badly.”

The initiative helps farmers like the Darnells mitigate risk by providing cost-share assistance for irrigation equipment. Funding was secured by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Kathy Gotcher is a senior conservationist with the Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee (ASWCC), which administers the program. The initiative pays 50% toward new irrigation equipment, up to $250,000. One of the most impactful

investments, however, is the $10,000 farmers receive for an irrigation water management system. This includes a soil moisture probe, flow meter, weather station and three-year subscription to monitoring software.

“Vendors have told me they have producers who’ve installed the soil moisture probes under our program who are now installing them on other pivots,” Gotcher said.

Standing in chest-high corn, Heath demonstrated the software. Using a smartphone app, he can access information provided by the solar-powered monitoring station. At ground level, a PVC pipe conceals the data-gathering probe. Irrigation vendors install equipment each spring and remove it before harvest. The technology is another way to increase efficiency while conserving resources.

“A farmer, by nature, is going to overdo it,” Heath said. “In the past, we watered an inch a week whether the crop needed it or not. With these moisture probes, I’m seeing that sometimes I don’t need that inch a week. Maybe it’s an inch over 10 days with two or three passes.

“If I’m putting on too much water, I’m wasting money and losing topsoil. You can save a tremendous amount of money by not overwatering. These probes pay for themselves,” he added.

The irrigation management software is tied to planting date. Graphs show how deep the plants’ roots should be and how much water is needed at each stage of growth.

The Darnell brothers said some of their systems take 40 hours to cover a field with an inch of water. Consequently, plants on the far side of the pivot could suffer almost two days before getting relief. Applying less water allows the pivot to move faster.

“A field of growing corn uses so much more water than I realized before we had the monitoring stations,” said Jared, 50. “Instead of waiting for the crop to look stressed, Heath can watch the graph and know when to irrigate, even if it seems like it rained just a few days ago.”

The Alabama Irrigation Initiative has invested $1.9 million on 19 farms in the Middle Tennessee River Watershed, which includes parts of Cullman, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall and Morgan counties. Expansion is underway in the Choctawhatchee and Pea Rivers Watershed, including parts of Barbour, Bullock, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike counties. Scientists are also working to bring the initiative to farms in the Middle Alabama River Watershed.

Alabama has about 160,000 irrigated acres, compared to over 1 million in each neighboring state. Jared said increasing on-farm irrigation benefits the entire state.

“Alabama is a corn-deficient state,” he said. “This will help us grow more of our own corn to feed the poultry industry.”

Good relationships are key to the initiative’s success. ASWCC, NRCS, local soil and water conservation districts, irrigation vendors and researchers at Auburn University and University of Alabama Huntsville helped make the program a reality.

The Darnells said the initiative made irrigation affordable, especially for smaller fields.

“Before the program, it was very hard to put in an extensive irrigation program because you were investing a lot of money,” Heath said. “You’re looking at a 10- to 15-year return on your investment. You need to have a good relationship with your landlord, and they should be able to handle the expense of everything underground that stays with the land.”

Although the brothers rent most of their land, Jared Darnell said they are blessed with good landowners and neighbors.

“We’ve been renting land from the same people in a lot of instances for over 30 years,” he said. “Our neighbors are really good farmers, and a lot of what we do is from watching them.”

The Darnells operate as Clifton Farms, a shared family name. Since 1993, the brothers have more than tripled acreage. They utilize a three-year crop rotation, minimum tillage, cover crops, terracing, grass waterways, soil sampling and precision agriculture.

Those techniques and management philosophy factored into their selection for the initiative, Gotcher said.

Riley Darnell, who farms alongside his father, Jared, and uncle Heath, said the investments make the farm sustainable for his generation.

“Everything we’re doing is only building for my future,” he said. “When I first started, we didn’t have any pivots; we had hard hose reels. You’d work yourself to death and not feel like you were doing any good. It’s come a long way. In farming, we know a lot of stuff may happen, but the crop is not going to dry up. That’s a game changer.”

Darnell Farms was started in 1968 by Jared and Heath’s parents, Danny and Pat. They retired in 2016. Today, the family business operates as Clifton Farms and includes, from left, Sally-Rae, Heath, Rachel, Jackson, Kenzie, Jared, Michelle, Riley and his fiancee, Maggie Williams.