Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Commodity Conference


Last weekend, we attended the Alabama Farmers Federation Commodity Conference in Columbus, GA. (Makes sense to have an Alabama Farmers Federation meeting in Georgia, huh?). 
Look, here are some Alabama Cotton Producers!
This is what Alabama Peanut Producers look like.
And of course, your regular ol' Alabama Chicken Farmer!

I attended the Conference so that I could enter my tablescape in the statewide competition.
Here is my cotton tablescape set up and ready to compete!

I didn't win, but one of these days I'm going to figure out exactly what the judges are looking for!
This is 1st place, spotlighting forestry.
This is 2nd place, spotlighting, um, well, I had to ask somebody. It's greenhouse/nursery. This happened last year too. When you see one of the winner's tablescapes and you can't tell what commodity it is, how in the world should that win? The rules state it should spotlight a commodity. This table could have been spotlighting silverware for all I knew, the commodity looks like an afterthought. Oh well, who knows what the judges want.
Here's 3rd place, spotlighting poultry.
There was also a cotton sewing competition, and this was the winner in the quilt division.

There were also some tours you could sign up to take. We went on the Red Tour which took us to Calloway Gardens. I've been there once, but it was so long ago, I didn't really remember much about it.
We toured the Butterfly Gardens and even saw a woman get proposed too! She said yes, by the way. She might have gotten a butterfly garden proposal, but I got a cotton field!
We also saw a LOT of flowers! I can barely keep one potted plant alive, they should've banned me at the gate.
We even got a behind the scenes tour of their greenhouses. They have to decide what they want their seasonal displays to have in them long before time so they can start growing and be big enough when it is time. I think this picture is of some mums for their fall displays. This would have been a lot more enjoyable if it wasn't about 150 degrees outside.
We couldn't tour everything at Calloway, but there are tons of bike and walking trails, a lake with a beach, paddleboats, and fishing, and even cabins to stay in. It's a pretty neat place to visit.

To end the conference...
we got to hang out with Lucy and Ricky!

4 comments:

  1. Oh how fun. I was gonna comment about the Alabama confrence takin place in GA, but then I read on...hahaha. Sounds like a good time!! I love your table setting!! I don't know what they are looking for...I'm not too impressed with the winning tables.

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  2. Your table setting looks awesome. I've never heard of a competition like this!

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  3. Hey Steph,

    I couldn't find an email and blogger wouldn't allow me to reply to your comment on my blog - ARGH! Anyway, the only secret I have to keeping our outside chair cushions clean is I make them to be easily removable so I can throw them in the washer every now and then. Honestly though, I probably only do that about 3 times a summer.

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  4. You are lucky you got proposed to in a cotton field...Marty proposed to me in Hardee's parking lot in Oxford. :/ I should have realized then that he wasn't very romantic! LOL

    Sorry you didn't win this year....maybe you should just do like the second place winner did and just decorate with your finest china and silverware and put one little tiny cotton plant on it....LOL!

    Robin :o)

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