Even though many University of Alabama students are away from Tuscaloosa for the summer, Homegrown Alabama continues to open its farmers market every Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m.

This Thursday, the Tomato Festival will take place at the market, which will include a salsa making competition, allowing visitors to judge, and a showcase performance from the Crimson Tide Ballroom Dancers. Tomato sandwiches will also be available. Last year, 1,000 visitors attended the festival.

Created in 2005, Homegrown Alabama began as an experimental project in the Ferguson Center Plaza. UA students expressed a desire to have local, fresh food in campus dining halls. Since then, the organization has expanded off campus to the local Canterbury Episcopal Church. Each week, 15 vendors sell fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, soaps and flowers. Various baked goods, jams, tea and honey are also available, and recipe ideas are even given out for free.

Mo Fiorella, the coordinator and a UA graduate student, has been managing the organization for the past year. She believes Homegrown Alabama is a one-of-a-kind organization in Tuscaloosa.

“The farmers market is a great community event that is very social and a way to meet other people,” Fiorella said. “It is important to have an understanding relationship with food and get to know the farmers as people.”

Homegrown Alabama became the first farmers market in Alabama to accept EBT payment, a welfare system of payment. Other state farmers markets have begun catching on. Cash, credit card and Bama Cash are also acceptable forms of payment.

Each Thursday, 300-500 visitors attend the open market. A large percentage of visitors are community members along with UA faculty and students.

Freya Gibbon, a UA graduate student in creative writing, recently started working for one of the Homegrown Alabama’s vendors, Snow’s Bend.

“I love my job and being around the produce and vegetables,” Gibbon said. “I have always enjoyed markets and being around people.”

A different event is held the first Thursday of every month. In August, the Melon Festival will be held. A back-to-school barbecue and sauce competition will be held in September to welcome students back to the Capstone. The October Fall Festival will include a chili competition and costume contest for children and pets.

Fiorella said Homegrown Alabama would like to partner with other organizations on campus in the future and hopes to integrate craft vendors in the coming months.