Homegrown Alabama is a non-profit, student-led group at the University of Alabama that seeks to educate students and community members about the value of local produce, as well as foster partnerships between local farmers, the University of Alabama, and the greater Tuscaloosa community.

Our partners include: Canterbury Episcopal Chapel, Alabama Farmers Market Authority, UA Office of Community Affairs, Students for Sustainability, and the SGA Department of Environmental Concerns.

One of the great reasons to shop at a farmers market is to know the person who planted, tended and harvested your food. Our goal at Homegrown Alabama is to facilitate relationships between local growers and the community they feed–which is to say, us. This seems important in an era when, as Virginia farmer Joel Salatin has observed, we put more energy into choosing who will fix our cars than who will grow our food.

We at Homegrown Alabama want to know that what we put on our plates is being grown in ways to improve the health of the soil, so animals and plants can continue to be productive for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. We want to eat fruits and vegetables in season because they’re fresher, healthier and far tastier, and the variety keeps eating interesting. We want to know where our food is coming from, and we want you to know, too.

2012 marks Homegrown’s fifth consecutive year as a weekly market. The market is held at the Canterbury Episcopal Chapel lawn, 812 5th Avenue in Tuscaloosa on the University of Alabama campus, every Thursday from 3:00 – 6:00 pm, April through October. Approximately 21 vendors attend the market throughout the season to sell fruits, vegetables, cheese, plants, baked goods, beef, pork, cut flowers, coffee and tea, eggs, homemade herbal teas, soap, canned goods, hot foods, and arts and crafts.