Second annual Farm-to-Table dinner hosts 80 guests -

The second annual Farm to Table Dinner was served Thursday night, June 23, at the Park-Along-the-River in New Albany. We understand the tickets for this year’s event sold out within less than an hour of going on sale a few weeks ago.

Atop the Little Tallahatchie Bridge, guest enjoyed an interesting meal

The dinner emphasizes serving food produced locally, which is to say from sources up to a couple of hundred miles away as opposed to thousands of miles away. Last year all guests were served on the steel foot bridge across the Tallahatchie River at the downtown end of the park. This year about half of the diners were served on the bridge and the others served on tables set up under the cypress trees on the left bank of the river, just upstream of the bridge.

Chef Mitchell McCamey of the Neon Pig and Kermit’s Outlaw Kitchen in Tupelo and Pastry Chef Samantha Allen of Sugaree’s Bakery planned and prepared the dinner, using only locally obtained ingredients. Dinner also included wine and desert and was served by volunteers.

Even dinner music was provided

A vocalist and a three-piece band — two guitars and a saxophone — provided dinner music.

This year’s event was a fundraiser for Anita Alef’s New Albany High School culinary program to purchase a rotisserie that they can begin using to create ongoing fundraising opportunities.