WHAT: Second annual Farm-to-Table Tasting Event

WHEN: June 3

WHERE: 5 Rivers Delta

PURPOSE: To connect local growers, restaurants and consumers

MORE INFO FOR NEXT YEAR: Contact the Mobile County Master Gardeners at 251-574-8445.

The local food movement is growing at a rapid pace across the country, and South Alabama is joining — the seafood industry led the way, but these days, all kinds of local crops are getting special attention.

Consumers want to know where their food comes from, chefs want high-quality products and farmers, as always, just want to grow and sell the produce they've nurtured.

For all these reasons, it makes sense to buy locally. But connecting these three groups can be challenging. How can a foodie find a restaurant that sources locally? Where does a chef find the perfect local produce? And how does a farmer get his product to more people than those who come to farmers markets?

The Mobile Master Gardeners, who seek to educate the public about horticulture through the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, thought getting all of these groups together for a dinner would be a way to start making some of those valuable connections.

Planting seeds

Master Gardener Regina Gunn says the idea for a farm-to-table dinner began out of a desire to educate the public about the concept of buying fresh produce and eating in season, at home and in restaurants.

“Eating locally helps everybody — It helps us health wise, it helps the local economy and it even helps the home budget,” Gunn says. “And here in South Alabama, we have so much diversity and a great long growing season. But there's a big gap in education as far as how to eat seasonally and where to get it.”

So in September of 2012, the Master Gardeners hosted a traditional farm-to-table dinner at the John Archer center in Mobile. Growers donated produce, and chefs at Virginia College's Culinard program prepared a meal for guests. The seed was planted for an annual event that would bring consumers, growers and restaurants together.

Farm-to-table tasting event

For the 2013 event, held June 3 at 5 Rivers Delta, the Master Gardeners decided to include more chefs and growers and allow each chef to bring a dish as part of a tasting event rather than a sit-down dinner.

Fourteen growers and producers from Mobile, Baldwin and other surrounding counties provided the ingredients, and each of the 16 chefs created dishes that spotlighted the fresh, local produce. Consumers, chefs and growers ate and drank wine together as the sun set over the Mobile skyline, exchanging business cards and trading stories.

Mobile farmer Ken Buck worried his Silver King sweet corn was not up to par; because of the cool spring, his crop took longer to mature, and he had to pick it about three days earlier than he would have liked.

“This is the best corn I've ever eaten,” Chef Jason Lafferty of the Virginia College Culinard program told him as they discussed the challenges of farming. Lafferty used Buck's corn to create a creamy corn soup topped with popcorn and caramel.

“When you have a product that is grown and cared for by a person like Ken Buck, it's easy to let the natural flavors shine out,” Lafferty said. “I didn't manipulate it at all. I think we need to realize the bounty we have around here. We have the ocean, but we also have some incredible crops that we need to be spotlighting.”

Buck returned the praise — “This corn soup is very good. I've never had anything like this made out of my corn. My compliments to the chef,” he said.

Lafferty said as a culinary instructor, he believes the restaurant industry is heading in a local direction.

“It kills me when you see these great restaurants with half-empty parking lots and the chains are booming,” he said. “But eventually, I think these chains are going to go out of business. We're sitting and waiting in the wings, and we'll take over. It'll be back to local mom and pop restaurants before too long.”