White Peake Market offers local produce and more

Story and photos by Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland 

 If you’re driving through Woodville on a Saturday morning, don’t blink or you might miss a local gem. White Peake Market, located across the road from the bank, is a quaint and lovely indoor farmer’s market and retail store that offers locally grown produce, home baked goodies and troves of other treasures.

The store opened last year after farmers Mary and Kirk Peake saw a need for a location where they could sell their extra produce. 

“When a local building went up for sale, it seemed like the right thing to do,” said Deidra White, the market’s manager. “Not only would it allow us to sell extra produce, but it would also serve the community. The market opened May 28, 2022 and quickly became something much bigger than a little extra produce.”

While White manages the market, and Mary and Kirk help with planting and harvesting, it is Mary’s mother, Sally White, who plans and manages a 2-acre garden on the local farm. 

“Sally is also an avid baker and makes a variety of fresh baked goods for the market every week,” White said. 

The market sells seasonal, locally grown fruits and vegetables, and it also offers fresh cut flower bouquets, fresh baked goods, spices and soup mixes and canned goods. 

“We have partnered with other local farmers to provide fresh eggs, beef, pork, honey and crafts,” said White. “We are actively looking for local partners to provide chicken, butter and cheese.”

While White Peake Market has only been in business for a little over a year, there are already a few established customer favorites.

“Sally's fresh baked cinnamon rolls are always a big hit,” White said. “The lettuce mix is a popular item, as well as the potatoes and tomatoes.”

For White, this project has been an opportunity to meet and get to know the locals in Woodville and the surrounding area. It has also been a great opportunity to collaborate with her family.

“Running this market is definitely a family affair,” she said. “I handle a lot of the business side of things, like licensing, database management and developing relationships with other local farmers. Sally plans and manages the garden, while Mary and Kirk help with planting and harvesting. We all pull together every week to ensure everything is presented nicely. Our children, nieces, and nephews have even been known to help with farm chores or assist people to their cars with their groceries.”

Above all, the White family and the Peake family want to provide quality, honest food to their customers. 

“Whether we have grown it on our farm or (it comes from) one of our local North Alabama suppliers' farms, we believe it’s important to know how our food has been grown and handled,” explained White. “That’s why we have made it our mission to provide quality food through honest and transparent farming practices, and to partner with others that share our values. White Peake Market values the local community, and we believe it is important to support local businesses. As we expand our product offerings, we strive to source locally grown products from like-minded farmers and crafts people in the North Alabama region.”

White Peake Market is currently open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. You can follow them on Instagram and Facebook to see what they have to offer each weekend. 

Rep. Strong visits Boys and Girls Club

Story and photos by Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland 

Rep. Dale Strong, of Alabama’s 5th congressional district, visited the Ben Sanford Boys and Girls Club Wednesday, June 29. 

During his visit, Strong toured the club and spent time talking with children while they worked on robotics projects as a part of the club’s STEM program. 

“I think it shows my commitment to not only Jackson County and Scottsboro, but also to the next generation of children that are here,” Strong said of his visit. “What I think has touched me is to hear these kids talk about how they want to become engineers, scientists and teachers.”

Strong said he believes the Boys and Girls Club gives children the opportunity to reach those goals. 

“They’re dreaming, and some of those dreams could never have been attained without the Boys and Girls Club, so I thank each of you that played a role in that,” Strong said, addressing Boys and Girls staff and local government leaders. 

Strong said he was impressed with the intelligence and inquisitiveness of the children he spoke with at the Boys and Girls Club.

“There are kids here that have asked me what is my degree in, and where did I come from? I think that’s unique, and it touches my heart,” Strong said. 

Patrick Wynn, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of North Alabama, said he is thankful to have the support of community leaders, as well as of leadership from Washington D.C. 

“We are thrilled to have them here to see the work that happens at Boys and Girls Club,” Wynn said. “A lot of times people don’t understand the value of the Boys and Girls Club.”

Wynn said he believes having access to the activities that are offered through the club give children opportunities they might not have had elsewhere, which helps them be successful in life. 

“We have a platform that we can provide for our young kids, and they may discover a talent that lies within them that they never knew existed,” Wynn said. 

Boys and Girls Club of North Alabama Vice President Suzanne Thompson gave government officials in attendance a tour of the Ben Sanford grounds and explained expansion projects the club hopes to complete in the future. 

“What we are proposing to build is a 4400 square foot, multipurpose facility that will be able to accommodate activities,” Thompson said.

James Allen, the Ben Sanford club’s director, told the group that the new facility is needed in order to be able to serve more children. 

“We have a waiting list every summer, and sometimes during the school year,” Allen said. “We have had a waiting list for 21 years, and the Boys and Girls Club has been here for 21 years.”

Allen said he was excited to have Strong visit the club and spend time with the children. 

“It’s big for us to have Congressman Dale Strong come in to see what we do in our day to day operations,” Allen said. “ It’s always good when you have someone from Washington D.C. because they invest in the kids a lot, and when they can see what’s going on instead of us just  sending in something, it’s good.”

Jackson County Farmers Market now open

 Stories and photos by Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland 

The Jackson County Farmers Market is now open and offering locally grown produce. Leroy Higginbotham manages the operation and said this year’s weather gave local growers a bit of a slow start. 

“We open in the first week of June, unless it’s real hot,” Higginbotham said. “This business is controlled by produce. When it gets hot and we get ripe produce, we are open. If it is real cold, like this time, we waited up until June.”

Higginbotham, who on Saturday was selling yellow squash, collards and green tomatoes, explained that the weather has been cold and wet, so things are ripening a little later than growers and buyers alike had hoped for. 

“You see these red tomatoes?” Higginbotham said, laughing and pointing to his baskets of green tomatoes. “They are supposed to be red. I was picking yesterday afternoon, and I said ‘okay here is red one’, but it just mushed in my hand.” 

He said it will probably be another week or two for ripe red tomatoes, as well as watermelons, if that’s what you’re visiting the market for. 

As the growing season continues, Higginbotham said he will have different kinds of squash, cucumbers, red and green tomatoes, green beans, watermelon, cantaloupe and okra. He hopes to offer corn, but says the rain may have affected it too. 

“The silver queen corn is high. They’re tufting at the top, but I don’t see any ears. I’m afraid it may be a bad year for corn. That’s just the way it is sometimes,” Higginbotham said, adding that with the weather, it’s always either not enough water or too much. “The only time it’s just right is when your’e irrigating.”

Higginbotham was selling alongside four or five other local growers, some with squash, others potatoes. James Craft, was enjoying his day at the market, selling green beans and cucumbers. Craft has been at the market as long as Higginbotham, which he recalls is 10 or 12 years. 

“Somewhere along, maybe more,” Craft said. 

Craft has always grown his own food,  and though he can’t recall quite why he started growing enough to sell he said he just enjoys it. 

“Meeting people. That’s my favorite part,” Craft said. “That’s one reason why I keep doing it.”

Craft said he would encourage people to shop at the farmers market.

“You get better produce come to the farmers market,” Craft said. “ It’s homegrown. You go to the grocery store and you don’t know where it’s coming from or how it’s grown.”

Higginbotham agreed with that sentiment when asked why he would encourage shoppers to stop by the farmers market. 

“Home grown and a thousand miles. That’s the difference in the farmers market and the grocery store,” Higginbotham said. 

For that reason, the farmers market only allows sellers who grow their own produce and have a growers permit. 

“No one can sell here unless you have a growers permit,” Higginbotham said, explaining that getting one is as simple as visiting the county agents office and filling out a form. “It don’t cost nothing and that way we can look at it and know what you’re growing.”

The Jackson County Farmers Market is located at 218 Bob Jones Road in Scottsboro. It is open Tuesday. Thursdays and Saturday through October from 6 a.m. until 12 p.m. 

Scottsboro celebrates Juneteenth with freedom walk

Stories and Photos by Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland 

One hundred and fifty-eight years ago, on June 19,  the last enslaved African Americans were freed in the United States when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, along with Union troops, traveled to Galveston, Texas, and brought word of the Emancipation Proclamation. Dozens of citizens gathered in Scottsboro Monday to commemorate the anniversary of that historical day, which is known as Juneteenth and is now observed as a federal holiday. 

The celebration began with a freedom walk, where marchers traveled together, many waving the official Juneteenth flag, down Willow Street from the Scottsboro Boys Museum to the town square at the Jackson County Courthouse. 

Loretta Tolliver, a member of the Scottsboro Boys Museum board since 2010, said enslaved people in Texas did not know they were free for two years following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Juneteenth symbolizes that day of freedom. 

“I think it’s very significant that our country has decided to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday,” Tolliver said. “It is as important to many of us as the Fourth of July. It’s Independence Day for those that did not get the message that they were free for two and half years, and continued to live under that oppression. It’s a celebration that has gone on for many years, but the fact that it is now a federal holiday is something to be celebrated.”

Dr. Thomas Reidy, Scottsboro Boys Museum executive director, spoke to the crowd that gathered at the courthouse,  saying Juneteenth, as a day of celebration, fascinates him. 

Reidy, who received his PhD in History from the University of Alabama and teaches at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, read the official Juneteenth proclamation that was given by Granger so many years ago, which states “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

Reidy explained that though the slaves were technically freed, their lives were still very much entwined with the past. 

“You’re free, but you have to stay working the same work you’re doing, and instead of being called an enslaved person we are going to call you a laborer,” Reidy explained. “But, you’re probably not going to get paid, and if you try to leave we will probably hunt you down. That’s really what happened.”

Reidy went on to say that June 19 is symbolically important because the Juneteenth proclamation meant that slavery was illegal in the entire United States territory. 

“The quality has come in fits and starts,” Reidy said. “It comes two steps forward and one step back. That has been the history of this country. It’s a sad history in some ways, and a glorious history in other ways because there are heroes as well as villains in this story.”

Reidy said it is important to remember events like Juneteenth. 

“I think it’s important to study these types of moments in history, and we continue to advocate for schools studying these types of moments in history even though they can be difficult, because it teaches us humility,” Reidy explained. “A lot of people say we study history so we don’t repeat our mistakes, well that’s wrong. We repeat mistakes all the time, but we can look at our past and say maybe we don’t know everything right now. Maybe we shouldn’t be so one hundred percent sure on our views, be it political, economic, whatever. Maybe we should be open a little bit more with each other, and have more discussion … Studying history, we learn about our own humanity. We learn to be humble, and we learn to be better citizens.”

Ryan Johnson, lead pastor at Agape Baptist Church, also spoke about the importance of remembering the past and observing Juneteenth as a day of freedom. 

“This holiday is a memory of the past. We celebrate the events of Juneteenth in the past, to bring it into the present,” Johnson said. “ Someone once said ‘That which we do not intentionally remember, we unintentionally forget.’ Therefore, we need to remember this day, and the way it shapes our culture here in Scottsboro.”

Johnson told the crowd he teaches his kids that though we may be prone to repeat the mistakes of the past, we can truly learn from the past to make the future better. 

“We will not march just this day, but we will march in the light of the truth into a future where we celebrate diversity, where we love one another in unity, and where we recognize that we are all one blood,” Johnson said. 

State Representative Anthony Daniels, of Huntsville, was the event’s keynote speaker. Daniels, Alabama’s first African American minority leader, as well as the youngest,  said the march from the museum to the courthouse was not only a celebration of freedom, but also represents the ongoing need for persistence and, where necessary, resistance. 

Daniels explained that persisting and resisting means to push forward in the face of uncertainty and the unknown. 

As an example, Daniels spoke about his grandparents who were born on a plantation and lived the majority of their lives as sharecroppers on that same plantation. 

Though they had very little in the way of a formal education, Daniels said his grandparents had a vision that even though their nine children had also been born on that plantation, they would not be bound to the life of a sharecropper. 

“It wasn’t until 1978, four years before I was born, that my grandparents were able to move off this planation as sharecroppers and into a nearby community,” Daniels said. “My grandparents had a different vision for (my mother’s) life. A vision of prosperity, seeing her get married one day, having a decent job … they fought for better. They didn’t know what the future would hold, but they persisted.” 

Daniels said that he is where he is today because of their persistence.

“My presence here today is unlikely. I am one generation removed from being born onto a plantation in the land of Governor Wallace and the home of Jim Crowe,” Daniels said. “I, and so many more standing before me, have endured similar stories. But, what we have been able to do is use those stories to make us stronger.”

Daniels said that as people take time to celebrate Juneteenth, they must do more than rejoice and reflect on shared vales. 

“We can and should remember the past and celebrate our progress,” he said. “But together we are called to keep pushing for better. Now more than ever we must use the promise of Juneteenth to strengthen our communities so they persist and resist.”

 

Grandmother's love of cooking rubs off

By Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland
Photos Contributed

Matt Pitman grew up in Chattanooga, but during his childhood he made frequent trips to Scottsboro to visit his grandparents, Sam and June Tipton.  On these trips he often watched his Granny June cook. 

“Every Sunday after church she cooked these massive meals that covered the entire dinner table,” Pittman said. 

It was those Sunday dinners that sparked Pittman’s interest in cooking and led him to a successful career in barbecue.

“My Granny June taught me to cook,” he said. “I was always in her kitchen asking questions and helping her.”

Pittman even named his favorite pit “June” after his late grandmother.

Today Pittman operates Meat Church, where he sells his own custom  BBQ rubs, hats and shirts. 

The business, he said, started as an accident. 

“Meat Church started as a competition team, but I was selected to be on the TV show BBQ Pitmasters in 2014 and we really took off from there,” Pittman said. 

Pittman said his audition video for BBQ Pitmasters, where he says “when you have my barbecue it’s going to be like having a religious experience in your mouth,” went viral on Twitter.

“We had big names in BBQ tweeting it all over the place,” he said. “It got the attention of the (BBQ Pitmasters) production company.”

Pittman said he learned that he made it on the show while in the Alabama team hotel room during the 2014 Sugar Bowl. 

“That made the loss to Oklahoma later that day a little easier to swallow,” he joked. “I was on a high after getting that phone call.”

After the show aired, Pittman launched MeatChurch.com, where he began selling the two rubs he had handmade on the show, along with two hats and two shirts. 

“Now we have nine rubs, tons of hats and shirts, and (our products) are sold around the world,” Pittman said. 

While on BBQ Pittmasters, Pittman got another good break. 

“One of the meats I had to cook on BBQ Pitmasters was a steak,” he said. “I cooked it on my Big Green Egg, and that got their attention. Now, I’m one of their brand ambassadors and do lots of cool events for them. I teach at their culinary center in Atlanta. They have also hired me to cook back stage at the Academy of Country Music Awards twice, and for the VIP Experience at Memphis in May.  Just this past weekend I was one of their chefs at their annual Eggtoberfest at Stone Mountain Park.”

Pittman said his work as a chef and barbecue champion has led him to meet good people and have good times. 

Matt Pittman and country music singer Luke Bryan. 

“In less than four years we have gotten to cook steaks for George Strait,” he said. “Luke Bryan drove us to Nashville to cook for his first ever stadium show in Tennessee, and we fed Chris Stapleton the day he won four ACMs. We also cooked for University of Tennessee’s head coach, Butch Jones, but I hope the folks of Alabama don’t hold that against me.”

Pittman said the one thing people need to know about preparing good barbecue is that you have to have patience. 

“There is no shortcut to good barbecue,” he said. “There is no right or wrong way. I tell folks ‘I can’t tell you what tastes good to you.’ I offer free recipes on MeatChurch.com to show people my style, and hopefully they enjoy it with their friends and family.”

Though he now resides in Texas, Pittman still returns to Jackson County to visit his grandaddy Sam and mother, Jona Tipton. 

Pictures of Hope to host first art show

By Danielle Wallingsford-Kirkland

Jackson County Drug Court and Family Wellness Court, with the help of local artist Sonya Clemons, will host their first Pictures of Hope Art Show from 12 to 4 p.m., Sunday, October 1 at Pine Brothers Coffee Company, located in downtown Scottsboro. 

“Pictures of Hope is a recently developed art program created to benefit the recovery community in Jackson County,” said Erica Weeks, the Family Wellness Court coordinator. “The recovery community is made up of Jackson County Drug Court, Jackson County Family Wellness Court, Family Life Center and Jackson County Court Referral.  It also consists of anyone that supports recovery or anyone in recovery.  It's a community effort to support those individuals in recovery.”

Weeks said there are a number of benefits to the newly created art program, which consists of classes for both the children and adults of the recovery community. 

“Pictures of Hope provides families a much needed experience to work together.  Families are not only creating art in class, they are taking their newly learned techniques home and creating art at home as well,” Weeks said. “Not only are children using art skills, they are also putting their geometry and math skills into practice.   Pictures of Hope is teaching the adult participants a positive form of self-expression.”

Weeks explained that the program provides those involved with a creative outlet that relieves stress and builds self confidence.

“ It's amazing to observe the children in each class,” Weeks said. “They are fascinated by each new technique that they learn.  We have received all positive feedback from both the adult and children's classes.  Both children and adults have been blown away at their ability to create new projects.”

The classes are led by Clemons, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field and works as a muralist for many schools in North Alabama. 

“Ms. Clemons has a passion for teaching art and inspires creative expression in others,” Weeks said.

Clemons said she enjoys working with the Pictures of Hope program because she feels that art should be made accessible to everyone. 

“It improves behavior and stimulates learning,” Clemons said. “The students are excited to see what they can do and learn, and (art helps them) see the world differently.”

Clemons said she teaches the students of the program that art can be found in everyday items.

“I teach them to break things down into smaller shapes, so it doesn’t seem that hard to draw,” Clemons said. “When they achieve a finished product it builds self-confidence. I am honored to play a part in Pictures of Hope and provide a creative outlet for members of our community.”

The art work displayed will consist of paper mosaics, paintings, self-portraits and zentangles. 

In addition, a Christmas ornament, created and designed by Clemons, will be debuted and 25 preorders will be taken. Proceeds from ornament sales will benefit the art program. 

“Pine Brothers is the perfect location to display art while talking with artists and enjoying coffee. We invite the entire Jackson County community to join us in celebrating these young artists,” Weeks said. 

For more information, contact Weeks at 256-609-8659, or visit jacksoncountydrugcourt.org. 

Scottsboro native aids in Harvey rescue

Scottsboro native Jeremy Campbell experiences the dangers of Hurricane  Harvey as he floats the flooded streets on a boat rescue mission.

By Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland

As catastrophic waters brought on by Hurricane Harvey flooded the streets of Southeast Texas, Scottsboro native Jeremy Campbell got up close and personal with both the danger and the human compassion that comes along with such an historic weather event. 

Campbell, who now resides in Atlanta where he is a journalist for 11Alive news, was dispatched to Houston to help 11Alive’s sister station, KHOU-TV cover Harvey. 

“When a big story impacts a city, our parent company, TEGNA, sends crews from other areas to help,” Campbell said. “That was my job. However, this time it was different. The day I flew to Texas, KHOU flooded and the entire TV station had to be evacuated.”

For Campbell, this was a sign of how horrific the flooding would be.

His job was to find a story, but flood-covered roads and barricades made getting to the flood zone in Houston difficult. 

“I was worried we would be cut off from any news so far from the epicenter,” Campbell said. “But this storm was so widespread, and things were just beginning to worsen.”

When Campbell, along with his executive producer Erin Gutierrez, saw a green pontoon boat being hauled down the highway, they pursued it. 

“I figured it was on the way to a rescue, so we followed it,” Campbell said.

Soon, the truck hauling the boat pulled to the side of the road as the rain continued to pour down. 

“Turns out they had a flat,” Campbell said. “This is where I first met Charlie (Diggs) and Morgan (Weiderhold). We offered to help. They didn’t need it. We asked to come along. They said, ‘Sure.’”

Campbell said he never dreamed that this chance encounter with a man and a pontoon boat would lead to the dramatic rescue that followed. 

Over the course of the next two hours, Diggs, an event promoter, and Weiderhold, a former Houston Texans cheerleader, would rescue 27 people, 8 dogs and three cats on a pontoon boat built to hold only 12. Campbell went along for the ride, filming along the way. 

“Riding on a rescue boat down a street that looked a lot more like a river felt, in a word, eerie,” Campbell said. “The houses were covered in three or four feet of water. Some people had been trapped upstairs waiting as the water inched up the sides of their living room couches and kitchen tables. As we cut through the mucky brown flood water I heard air horns signaling for help. I’ll never forget seeing a family of three staring out a bay window waving while the water wake splashed on the glass of their home.”

Campbell said that as each person, and pet, climbed aboard the boat he could see relief and gratitude in their faces. 

“Everyone was emotional, but cheerful,” Campbell said. “Cats and dogs literally got along on the boat.”

But cheer soon turned to fear, as things began to get rough. 

“The flood water flowed so rapidly it took on a current that drifted the boat toward power lines and submerged mailboxes,” Campbell said. “They might as well have been land mines as the stress took its toll on the passengers.”

The families, Campbell explained, thought they had survived the worst part of the Harvey experience before they boarded Diggs’ boat.

“Now, the boat intended to be their salvation started taking on water. It was horrific in the moment,” Campbell said. “Relief after the rescue turned to fear.”

Luckily, Diggs knew what he was doing and stayed calm as water coming onto the boat caused some passengers to panic. 

“At one point we thought the boat may be so overloaded that some passengers would have to jump out to keep it afloat,” Campbell said. “Being the observer with a camera, I was ready to go first. What right did I have to stay on board when their homes were flooded?”

As the rescue went along, Campbell said he was nervous and fearful that he had gotten in over his head. He kept calm though. Logically he knew the water level was only about four feet. Still, the dangerous situation made it seem much deeper.

“I could stand in that and keep my camera out of it at least for a short while,” Campbell said. “But on board it didn’t feel that way. This was a street overtaken with rushing water and at the time it felt as mighty as the Tennessee River rushing down John T. Reid Parkway after a summer storm.”

Though the rescue took two hours, to Campbell it felt like only ten minutes. 

“We stopped in culs-de-sac and neighbors stomped down flooded driveways waist deep in water with cats in carriers and dogs in their arms. One father cried as he told the boat driver ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ A young girl joked with her mom that she would rather be in school that day after all. Some neighbors met for the first time, promising to swap numbers when their phones dried out,” Campbell said. “It was the best of humanity at the worst moment. Relief. And when they all made it to land they all had places to go for the night.”

Campbell posted a video of the rescue online and it has been viewed more than 10 million times. 

“That speaks to the heroic efforts of Charlie and Morgan,” Campbell said. 

When everyone was safely on drier land, Campbell headed to the largest shelter in Houston where he stayed for 24 hours.

“Our 24 hours in the shelter revealed humanity at its best,” Campbell said. “Volunteers came in droves, some as soon as they were able to leave their own flooded neighborhoods. They came to hand out food, walk dogs, give free haircuts, haul trash —anything. There was an order of politeness.”

The shelter wasn’t the most pleasant place to stay, Campbell said, but at least it was safe and dry. 

“Life was on pause for the 10,000 plus waiting to find out how bad the storm was on their home, or if they even had a home to return to,” he said. 

Campbell said he wonders where those who left an imprint on him ended up.

“Particularly, I wonder what happened to a young man who lost his grandmother months before and came to the shelter as his last resort when the water rose on his 27th birthday.”

Over Campbell’s decade long career as a reporter he has covered the best of times and the worst of times and has found that there are common themes in each. 

“Sometimes the worst things that happen to us lead us to the best,” he said. “It just takes time to see the silver lining.”

One thing he has learned for sure is that gratitude rises from loss. 

“I saw that sense of gratitude across Northeast Alabama covering the tornado outbreak of 2011. I saw it last week in Houston. When we almost lose it all, there’s a stronger sense of appreciation for what we have left — the people we love who we hold on to as the floodwaters rise and recede. That’s what matters. And no matter the flood, the water always recedes and the sun shines again. Storms pass.”

To watch Campbell's footage of the pontoon boat rescue, search “Charlie’s Ark” on Youtube.