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VALLEY — This past Friday was Free Tomato Sandwich Day at the Valley Farmers Market. Valley Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Blount was prepared to make up to 200 tomato sandwiches for those who turned out for the 3 to 6 p.m. EDT weekly session. 

Helping her make the sandwiches was a sandwich-maker crew made up of former Valley Police Chief Tommy Weldon, Dr. Sharon Weldon of the Chambers County School District, Chambers County Commissioner Debra Riley and former Valley City Councilman Ray Edwards. 

Weldon is the Republican Party nominee for Chambers County Superintendent. She faces opposition from a Democrat in November. 

Edwards is the long-term board chairman for the Alabama Department of Senior Services (ADSS) and a strong advocate for senior issues.

The tomatoes were provided by Walter Pulliam and Matthew Steele, two East Alabama farmers who have produce tables at the weekly farmers market. Pulliam has been farming for most of his life on his family farm near LaFayette. Steele is the owner and operator of Steele Farm, located on US 80 near Shorter, Alabama.

Valley Parks & Recreation provided the bread, mayonnaise and lemonade.

Free Tomato Sandwich Day is an event that pre-dates Valley Farmers Market. It’s a local tradition that was started by Evan and Jeanette Mason at the Village Curb Market. When the East Alabama tomato crop started coming in they would pick a day in mid July to serve free tomato sandwiches as a way to promote Alabama tomatoes. That tradition continues today with Free Tomato Sandwich Day at Valley Farmers Market.

Valley Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Blount said that activity really picks up at the farmers market when the summer crops start to come in. There are more local farmers there selling their crops and more people coming out to see what’s for sale.

The next promotion for the farmers market will be Free Slice of Watermelon Day. That will be taking place on Friday, August 30. Pulliam and Steele will be bringing the watermelons that day. Both have fields of watermelons about two acres in size, and both grow Crimson Sweets.

There’s always a variety of items at the farmer’s market that are very reasonably priced. On most Fridays, Randall and Laura McClellan of Circle M Farm, Fredonia, have their table filled with the jams and jellies Laura makes. Pepper jelly is her speciality, but she’s always coming up with something new like rhubarb jam and lemon and lime jelly.

Mary Ann Johnson of Hamilton, Georgia has had live plants for sale at her Growing Old table. Her plants are grown by her husband Tom. 

“He grows the caladiums from bulbs and the native hibiscus from seeds,” she said. 

Some of the heart-shaped caladiums she’s been bringing are red and green and others green and white. All were beautiful and had obviously been well cared for. Some of the hibiscus plants had large white blossoms on them. Each plant on display bore the touch of someone with a green thumb.

Kim Rager of Oak Bowery Apiaries has had jars of honey she and her husband gather from their nine hives. They have Italian and Russian queen bees in their hives. “The bee population in the U.S. has been been affected by habitat loss and disease,” Rager said. “We have found that bee colonies with queen bees that are of the Italian and Russian varieties have better resistance to an infestation that’s been caused by Varroa mites.”

One of the more popular stopping places was the table of Mary Finley, “the cake lady.” Each slice of her cake is safely wrapped and looks scrumptious. She’s had slices of key lime, strawberry, caramel, carrot and German chocolate cake along with fried apple pies and lemon-blueberry loaf bread. Finley is from the Camp Hill area and is carrying on a long family tradition of cooking.

Kevin Copeland has had his table filled with scented candles he made in his home in Beulah. He likes the expression: “If you can’t smell it, I won’t sell it.” It’s safe to say that his Mavwick-style soy wax candles live up to that billing. Copeland is originally from Palmetto, Georgia and has been coming to Valley Farmer’s Market for four years now.

Another popular place to stop is Denise Bibb’s table. She had fresh-baked goods for sale including sandwich and sourdough bread, lemon-zucchini bread and her homemade cookies. Bibb lives in Five Points and learned much of what she knows about baking by watching Martha Stewart on TV and from lots of trial and error. She’s been doing it for the better part of three decades and has gotten quite good at it.

On Fridays, John Carson of Wadley has his table filled with tomatoes, squash and beans. Like other farmers present at the Friday markets, he said he’d like to see a little more in the way of rain than what we have been getting lately.