Month: March 2006

Av and I visited the Alabama Rural Heritage Museum in Thomaston last week. We got there about twenty minutes after it had officially closed (we weren’t sure what their hours were) but the director said that she absolutely wanted us to come in and take a look around. We totally didn’t want to keep her there after we learned they had closed, but she insisted that we come in…..not only did she let us shop, but she took us on a full tour of their facility, which is absolutely *wonderful*. Besides the space for local products, they have a large area for functions, a very large kitchen, and her office is great, too!

(Above: custom shelving for pepper jelly) Inside the shopping area are two levels – one for the really big items like woodwork, baskets, and Charlie Lucas sculptures, and another enclosed space for smaller things like food, dolls, paintings, and other more portable handcrafted objects. Both spaces are beautiful.

We bought a few small things – nothing huge, but I was just wide-eyed at how great everything is, and want to go back really soon.

The whole thing is just amazing. Not only their facility, but their purpose.

Outside this building is this sign:

The pepper jelly is important, because it was a project that Auburn University’s Nutrition and Foods Department put together for a “Do Something” grant they received, and the project became known as ‘Grow Your Own Jobs.’ The products that stem from that project – like pepper jelly and watermelon rind pickles – are called labeled “Mama Nems” (I guess as in, ‘how’s your mama & ’em?’), and the ingredients for the “Mama Nems” items are grown on-site, and cooked in the kitchen there in Thomaston.

Other items that are sold in the shop include everything from pine needle baskets to pottery, music boxes to quilts – made by people who aren’t well known, to people who are – like Charlie Lucas, Gee’s Bend quilters, and Jerry Brown. And more.

The Center’s brochure lists their six basic goals:
* To preserve and celebrate our rural heritage
* To protect and demonstrate diverse cultural contributions to our rural heritage
* To provide opportunitites for cultural enrichment
* To encourage economic development which enhances the lifestyle of rural citizens and small-town America
* To conserve, develop, and promote the unique handicrafts of rural life, exhibit and market handicrafts, and assist groups and individuals who wish to produce crafts
* To improve and enhance the quality of life for citizens of small towns and rural areas.

How could you not love a place like that!? Their director, Gayle – well, she is the exact right person for that job. Just wonderful. I told her that I’ve thought a zillion times about how much fun it would be to have a shop of Alabama-made things, and she and her foundation have really done it. I’m going to send off for us to become members, and I’m going to try to help them however I can.

They have a website here, but really it’s something to be seen *in person*!