Episode 104: BBQ Cookoff and Peanut Butter Festival

Barbecue and peanut butter are as southern as kudzu, magnolias, and hushpuppies. This month, Alabama Public Television’s Season to Taste series continues with a look at festivals that celebrate these flavors of the South.

Barbecue isn’t just for fun. It’s serious business for cooks at the Alabama State Barbecue Cook-off Championship held annually in Decatur during the Riverfest Festival. For the past ten years contestants and spectators alike have crowded Rhodes Ferry Park to test their culinary skills and sample great barbecue.

This year’s Decatur Riverfest-Barbecue Championship will be held September 16 and 17. The two-day event includes live entertainment, an art show, games and activities, and a 5K run. But the reason for the event is clear – cooking barbecue.

In the 1930s, Brundidge, Alabama was home to a thriving peanut butter business. The thick, sweet concoction was shipped to stores all across the U.S. In 1991 this homegrown product became the centerpiece for a festival that attracts folks from all over the state.

Season to Taste takes you to the Brundidge Peanut Butter Festival, a free event held the last Saturday in October. It features a parade, recipe contests, and a 5K Peanut Butter Run that approximates the route taken by peanut wagons as they hauled their produce to market more than half a century ago.

Add to that fried, boiled, parched and raw peanuts, arts and crafts, and Alabama’s largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Bring the family, enjoy the entertainment, and taste the best homemade peanut butter this side of the Chattahoochee.