Alabama Travelers Share Trip Highlights

Members of the Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee who traveled to Alabama earlier this month spoke about their trip on Tuesday evening. They shared many fun details with their fellow members as they spent November 1st through the 8th in Hartford, Alabama – Litchfield’s sister city.

The delegates included Litchfield High School FFA students Cade Cervin, Alexis Engelke, Bianca Forsberg, Wyatt Ratike and Emmett VanDerBill and their chaperones Lane and Abagayle Lysdal. Abby says this was her third time to Alabama and it was fun to see what was different since the last time she was there and to witness the connections between families from Litchfield and Hartford that have endured for years. She says the people in the South seem to enjoy life more as they aren’t in such a hurry.

Lane says he enjoyed seeing the differences in agricultural practices and especially enjoyed seeing how they harvest pine needles and use them for landscaping mulch. He says he had a great time, learned a lot, and enjoyed eating fresh fish during their “beach day” in Florida. Cade says he got to ride in a tractor as peanuts were harvested and he was surprised how woodsy it is in Southeastern Alabama. He says the farmers there can take their time as the weather is more favorable than it is in Minnesota.

Alexis says the people from Litchfield were the only ones in the ocean on “beach day” as the natives felt it was too cold to be swimming this time of the year. She says she ate a lot of fried foods and enjoyed the sweet tea. Bianca says she ate a whole fish at a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed visiting a honeybee farm. Emmett says he especially enjoyed learning about the cotton industry – seeing it harvested and visiting a cotton gin. Wyatt says they got to visit the National Peanut Festival which is sort of like the Minnesota State Fair and they watched the pig and calf scrambles there. He says he also got to go hunting for wild hogs.

The Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee is getting ready to host guests from Hartford, Alabama the week of January 31st through February 7th. The next meeting is coming up on Tuesday, December 16th at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School Ag Room. Everyone is welcome to join the Committee and get involved in the Festival.