HUNTSVILLE – The Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN) in partnership with the Greene Street Market at Nativity, invite the public to their inaugural farm-to-fork picnic Graze: Huntsville, to be held Sunday, July 14, 2019, from 5-8pm, on the Green at Campus 805.
Graze follows a format that’s new to the Rocket City, though ASAN has held a similar event in Birmingham for the past four years. Attendees feast on a wide variety of one-of-a-kind dishes, each produced by a different local farmer + local chef pair. (Participating farms and restaurants are listed below.) The farmers supply one or more ingredients that are seasonal and/or unique to their farm, and their chef partner creates a dish that may be unique to the event, an old favorite they’d like to re-visit, or a new menu item they want to test. The chef/farmer pairs set up beneath market-style tents on the grassy lawn between Straight to Ale Brewery and Yellowhammer Brewery. Participants graze from booth to booth, enjoying unique creations like sweet corn fritters, smoked beef with sweet chili marinated tomatoes and basil cream sauce, egg tempura with black-eyed pea and green tomato salad, and honey graham horchata.
Restaurant/chef participants range from a converted camper-turned-food-truck to a white tablecloth restaurant downtown. Farmers are equally diverse, including multi-generational “truck farm” standards to urban microfarms. Dishes will include meat-based as well as many that are vegetarian and/or vegan. A full menu of dishes will be announced on the Facebook event page leading up to the event.
“Graze is a celebration and a showcase of local food brilliance, from farm to fork,” says ASAN Program Assistant Mindy Santo. “Participating farmers, chefs, and food-based businesses are extremely diverse, but share in common a commitment to quality, craft, and to growing a rich, locally rooted food system.”
Live music will be provided by Microwave Dave, and participants are invited to bring picnic blankets to spread out in the grass.
“We hope that Graze embodies ASAN’s values and vision in multiple ways,” says ASAN’s Executive Director Alice Evans. “ASAN’s mission is to deepen relationships between the people of Alabama, the food we eat, and the place we live. Graze: Huntsville brings together farmers and chefs to create extraordinary food for a diverse community of eaters for a single night. But we also want it to plant seeds for stronger community bonds, and the types of collaborations and 
interrelationships that help make Alabama a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous place to live.”
TICKETS:
Tickets to Graze: Huntsville are sold on a sliding scale. This allows Graze to be accessible to a crowd that is more diverse and more representative of our entire community. Adult tickets are $25-75, and kids’ (under 13) are $5-15. Adult tickets include one drink ticket; both alcoholic and nonalcoholic options will be available. Ticket-buyers are encouraged to truly consider their resources and to give as generously as they can!
Tickets are on sale now at http://asanonline.org/graze. Event organizers are expecting a crowd of 400-500. Any tickets still available on the day of the event, will be sold at the door.
FEATURED FARMS/RESTAURANTS
Alchemy Farms and Plants
Bill’s Honey Farm
Champion Farms
Corella Farms
DSR Farms
Happy Flappy Farm
Humble Heart Farms
North Alabama Wagyu, LLC
Oakwood Farms
Reed’s Farmers Market
Reseda Nursery & Stone Yard
Scott’s Orchard
Sherrill Family Farms
South Eden Foodscapes
Sweet City Micros
The Wild Berry Farm
Whirlwind Farm
Brix and Embers
Carlton’s Market and Catering
Chef Will the Palate
Chupper Time Catering
Domaine South
Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza
Farm Burger Huntsville
Gemini Kitchen & Cocktails Luke Hawke-Chef de Cuisine
Good Company Cafe
Hippea Camper
Manic Organic
Mason Dixon Bakery & Catering
Phat Sammy’s
Piper and Leaf Artisan Tea Company
Rick Vonk Personal Chef
Simp McGhee’s
The Bottle Huntsville
The RailYard
What’s for Supper
Media Release/Mindy Santo/ Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network
