By Christiana Mendoza, director of Chilton Food Innovation Center
Are you a locavore? No, it doesn’t mean you’re crazy. It means you eat local foods!
I have gotten several calls from people and businesses looking for a source of local foods.
Consumers and grocers want locally grown, fresh produce.
Processors want locally sourced ingredients for their products. Grocers are calling for those locally processed foods.
The “buy local” food movement is part of an even broader sustainability movement. The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project has a slogan, “LOCAL FOOD: Thousands of miles fresher!”
In Chilton County we have hundreds of places to get locally grown produce, maybe even from our backyards.
“Help Your Town, Buy Local” campaigns sprouted up in many nearby communities just after Thanksgiving.
“Supporting the local economy is the most obvious reason to buy your produce locally, but there are other good reasons,” said Gary Gray, Chilton County’s commercial horticulture agent. “The growing interest in eating locally produced foods is probably also linked to consumers’ concerns about food safety. When you buy your tomatoes and salsa at your favorite farmer’s market, you have a better chance of finding out how they were grown or processed.”
We now have a facility available in Chilton County where locally grown produce can be processed. The vision for the Chilton Food Innovation Center was to expand our farmers’ selling season to year-round.
Isn’t it sad when you see the last peach stand close up for the year?
If they could use some of those over-ripe and oddly shaped peaches to make peach jam and peach salsa and peach pie filling, we could enjoy those peaches all year without having to can them ourselves.
We aren’t the only ones with that idea. There are many shared-use processing kitchens in the nation.
Alabama already has one very similar to CFIC.
The Shoals Culinary Center boasts clients that have produced cheese straws, slaws, salsa, sourdough bread, and of course, barbecue sauce.
There may already be thousands of barbecue sauces on the shelves of grocery stores and gourmet markets, but I’ll bet that you know someone who makes it better.
That was the case with one of our clients, Nat’s Backyard Gourmet BBQ Sauce.
Nat Barker has been making his family barbecue sauce for years. With a large family, the word got around.
His family, friends, church members and even a delivery guy all preferred his sauce to ones they found on the shelves. Wanting to leave something for his children and grandchildren combined with realizing that it’s too expensive to give away gallons of barbecue sauce a year led Nat to decide to process, market and sell his sauce. Nat’s sauce is great on a pulled pork sandwich. It’s available at Associated Foods in Clanton, McEwan’s in Wilsonville and Smith’s Grocery in Vincent, among other locations.
Another CFIC client has a family-inspired story. Jorge Caceres grew up in a family business that was so successful it outgrew the family and is now a world-recognized company.
Returning to his roots, Caceres now has his own business. Darlin’ Ruby’s takes its name from his darling daughter, Ruby.
Their pickled products are internationally flavored, but locally grown and pickled. The four flagship products are Sweet Old Bombay Pickles, East Block Pickles, French Hillbilly Pickled Green Beans and Rancho Caceres Pickled Green Beans.
Two new products are lined up to come out this spring. You can find these at Western Market in Mountain Brook, Freshfully in Avondale, the Golden Temple in Birmingham and other locations in the Birmingham area.
CFIC clients will soon be able to package more sauces, jams and salsas even faster with the automation projects in place right now.
With the grants we have been awarded from the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry and the Appalachian Regional Commission, we’ve begun purchasing refrigeration units, a semi-automatic jar labeler and an automatic jar filler.
As busy as we are at the CFIC with these tasty sauces and exciting expansion projects, we still have plenty of time for new clients.
Growers and food entrepreneurs can discuss availability and options by contacting Christy Mendoza at the Chilton County Extension Office at 205-280-6268 or cnm0012@auburn.edu.