When Will Mastin's wife brought home tomatoes from the grocery store that had a “grown in Canada” sticker on them, he started thinking.

“Surely we could grow tomatoes at home that would be more affordable and better than those,” he said.

He couldn't believe he was eating a tomato grown in a greenhouse thousands of miles away when he lived in one of the most fertile areas in the country. So he decided to give it a shot.

A year and a half later, he's growing more than tomatoes.

Mastin and his business partner Karl Brantley own three and a half acres of land in Silverhill, where they grow interesting varieties of tomatoes, carrots, lettuces and more, mostly in hydroponic greenhouses. They call their business Local Appetite Growers, and they sell directly to restaurants like Fisher's at Orange Beach Marina and produce co-ops like Chasing Fresh in Spanish Fort and Windmill Market's produce club in Fairhope.

“Our goal is to grow unique, interesting and colorful things for chefs and foodies,” Mastin says.

Mastin, who works full time as a landscape architect at Garden Design Solutions, Inc. (GDSI) in Fairhope, says the business is just getting started. He and Brantley plant to raise chickens, add more greenhouses and plant more summer crops like eggplant and peppers in the future. They may even add a building that could allow them to host events.

Mastin attended the Master Gardeners' Farm-to-Table dinner June 3 in hopes of making valuable connections with others in the local food scene in south Alabama. Currently, although many local chefs are interested in his products, distribution is a huge challenge.

But restaurant owners like Johnny Fisher of the brand new Fisher's at Orange Beach Marina aren't giving up on local produce just because they might have to drive to get it themselves. Fisher and Chef Bill Briand make the drive to Silverhill often to pick up what they believe is some of the best produce they've ever seen.

“The whole distribution system for local food is not set up yet,” Fisher says. “Right now, you have to spend hours on the phone and on the road to buy from local growers. So we're trying to support them so they can eventually have that distribution system. It takes work to support these guys, but ultimately, it's where the best food is.”

Fisher and Mastin hope consumers will be vocal about their desire for local produce in restaurants and larger grocery stores. This would give food distributors motivation to invest in a new system that would support local agriculture.

“Every step we take to invest into these local farmers helps us get closer to being able to easily obtain local produce,” Fisher says. “It makes so much sense.”

And supporting local farmers and growers is good for the local economy as well, Fisher says.

“Not using local food amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars that we pour out of our communities,” he says. “Those are huge numbers. If we could keep those food dollars in our local community, everyone would be doing better.”