Kim Roland was among the many wives who called Andalusia Farmer’s Co-op and asked Russell Lassiter to save the Andy Bucks tickets due their husbands.
Mrs. Roland’s phone call paid off when she held the first winning Andy Bucks number drawn last week in a shop at home promotion sponsored by the City of Andalusia and 20 participating merchants. Yesterday, she claimed the prize at city hall.
Her husband, Charles, was among, the men buying supplies for feed plots last month. Mrs. Roland said she was initially headed back to the Co-op, to eat at David’s and to Singer’s to spend her 20 $50 Andy Bucks certificates.
Lassiter said Mrs. Roland wasn’t the only wife who called him.
“We kept them in a file of tickets in the back,” he said. “They came by and picked them up.”
It was a great time of year for wives to be tuned in to Andy Bucks tickets. Lassiter said the Co-Op went through 19 rolls of 1,999 tickets during the October promotion. That’s a total of 37,981 tickets.
“We had a five-gallon bucket we kept the tickets in for the drawing,” Lassiter said. “We filled it up two and a half times. I’ve already brought the bucket up here and turned the tickets in once this month.”
Area shoppers receive a chance in the monthly drawing for each $10 spent with participating merchants. The winner receives gift certificates in increments for $50 totaling $1,000 to be spent with any participating merchant.
Those include Ansley Place, Barrow’s Furniture, Beef O’Brady’s, Brooks Hardware, Christopher’s, Darby’s, David’s Catfish, Delta Lighting, Andalusia Farmer’s Co-Op, Harold’s Furniture, Ireland Trailer, Lee’s Samauri, Mary Kay Consultants, Pale Moon Yarns, Singer’s, Sporting Lifestyles, Two Guys Pies, Walker Business, Ward & Co., and Yo’ Cravin.
The next drawing will Be Dec. 3.
Andalusia area residents have two days left in October to become eligible to win the first Andy Bucks in a drawing set for Tuesday. Residents get a chance to win the $1,000 drawing for each $10 spent with a participating merchant. Here, Mayor Earl Johnson and Kimberly Jacobs are shown with tickets collected for the drawing to date. Ticket colors change to pink on Friday for the December drawing.Participants include Ansley Place, Barrow’s Furniture, Beef O’Brady’s, Brooks Hardware, Christopher’s, Darby’s, David’s Catfish, Delta Lighting, Andalusia Farmer’s Co-Op, Harold’s Furniture, Ireland Trailer, Lee’s Samauri, Mary Kay Consultants, Pale Moon Yarns, Singer’s, Sporting Lifestyles, Two Guys Pies, Walker Business, Ward & Co., and Yo’ Cravin.
Work done here could modernize tea world
Part of a dream began to come true this past weekend for Bob Sims. The Texas entrepreneur and Alabama native has long had an interest in growing his family’s tea business from the sale of tea to the cultivation and processing of tea. Now he is working to make that dream come true in Andalusia.
- Approximately 7,000 tea plants, grown from seeds imported from Eastern Europe, are ready to be planted.
- Nigel Melican and Bob Sims. In three decades in the business, Melican had never used an auger for planting.
- Melican, left, and Sims plant the first local plant.
- Melican walks a newly-prepared row.
- In the tea industry, blooms are not good. But they are pretty, and illustrate that the tea plant is a “cousin” to the camellia.
With the help of the British tea consultant Nigel Melican, Sims has been researching the possibility of growing tea in or near Andalusia for several years.
Melican selected a tea plant in ex-Soviet Georgia as the one he believes will do well here. The selection, Melican said, was based on his experience and the local climate.
“Tea,” Melican said, “loves humidity.”
And while ex-Soviet Georgia may not be a place one thinks of as a tea-growing nation, Melican said the Georgians produce more than 200,000 pounds of tea per year – mainly for their own use.
“I chose this tea for Bob because it is hearty,” he said. “It’s built like a Soviet tank.”
On Valentine’s Day of 2011, a shipment of seeds left Georgia for Andalusia.
“It was 20 below in Georgia,” Sims said. “And the shipment was held up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. What was supposed to be overnight delivery took seven days.”
When 20,000 seeds finally arrived – in less than optimal condition – Sims had them planted here and placed in greenhouses.
Two-and-a-half years later, this past weekend, Sims, Melican, and other helpers began planting the resulting 7,000 seedlings. Sims is partnering with AHS ag instructor Anthony Mikel and his students for the project.
Sims is using approximately 11 acres at the entrance to the Andalusia Industrial Park which he is acquiring in a lease/purchase program with the Andalusia Industrial Board. Before it was purchased by the city, the property had a long history as a peanut field.
Sims said it makes sense to cultivate tea there.
“If you think about it, most of the places where tea is grown, they don’t have access to water,” he said. “Here, the utilities are already installed, which helps us.”
By comparison, Melican said he... READ MORE>
Charles Anderson said he has tried to be as scientific as possible in creating his In Search of Eden list of the top small cities in America.
The retired high school geography and civics teacher who spent more than 50 years researching his list, which he hopes will be published by a national magazine. He’s spent most of the last year contacting communities on the list, and revising it somewhat.
And the revisions keep getting better for Andalusia.
The list always ranked Andalusia higher than any other small town in Alabama, and originally had the city 49th in the nation.
But Anderson has revised that list twice, first moving Andalusia to No. 44, replacing Livingston, Mont., because “it has too much wind in the colder months.”
And, because community spirit matters, he said.
Actually, community spirit matters so much, that after a recent visit, Anderson moved Andalusia to No. 33 on the list.
“When I do the kinds of thing that I do, I try to be as scientific as possible,” he said Friday. “But after 50 years, I know it’s impossible. There is leeway, and in a certain group of towns, various reasons I could put one higher or lower. I just like you guys, and I think you deserve extra, because you and your mayor have done so much with it. It shows enthusiasm in and for your town you don’t always see.”
Anderson said Andalusia has a perfect... READ MORE>