In a nondescript warehouse on 3rd Avenue North in Birmingham, strips of LED lights hang from the ceiling, glowing pink and purple. Music plays in a room behind a large glass window. I step inside the room and it smells like…lettuce? Yes, that’s right—this isn’t the city’s newest club or trendy restaurant, it’s an urban hydroponic farm growing greens and herbs for consumer sales and restaurant distribution.

Alabama is river country. A map of our state’s topography reveals a land crisscrossed with squiggly blue lines indicating more than 5,300 miles of accessible waterways. Alabama’s Scenic River Trail is the longest and most diverse river trail in America. Running the course from mountain streams to whitewater rapids and the river delta to the Gulf of Mexico, spending a day on the water is practically an Alabama birthright. 

Pursell Farms is steeped in history. Even its location in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is part of the story. Pursell Farms is located on the east side of Sulphur Mountain. On the west is Talladega Springs, a former resort town that hit its peak in the early 1900s when visitors flocked to its luxury 100-room hotel for a stay while enjoying the supposed healing powers of the area’s many sulfur springs. Today, Pursell Farms carries on the resort town tradition with its 40-room boutique inn, cottages, and cabins.

Is your four-legged best friend the outdoorsy type? Is your pup especially photogenic? Then you should enter them in the Best Black Belt Dog Photo Contest!

Nothing brightens up a room like a vase of fresh flowers. If you don’t have a green thumb and you’re looking to support your floral addiction with something a little more sustainable than Trader Joe’s, look no further than these 8 Alabama flower farms. Offering everything from U-pick weekends to delivered flower CSAs, these local farmers are guaranteed to keep you in bloom all summer—and beyond—long.  

When you fish for red snapper off the Alabama coast, the work is hard but the rewards are delicious. With a limited window for catching them, eating just-caught snapper at home or in a restaurant is a culinary celebration. 

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Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines—your boat engines that is. On Saturday May 15, Russell Medical is hosting a scavenger hunt on Lake Martin for anyone who would like to […]

For those in on the secret that is Horse Pens 40, the Yellowhammer State has more than earned its stripes as a world-class climbing destination.

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Just outside of Birmingham awaits a luxurious private lodge positioned on 895 acres of breathtaking views and exceptional amenities.  But what is most striking about Honeywood Valley is the unique […]

In addition to finding within these North Alabama destinations some of the most beautiful places in the world to photograph Fall foliage, I also discovered a few things about myself. I cherished the peaceful solitude of an unfamiliar dirt road just outside of Double Springs and the sound of rustling leaves as a gentle breeze filled the forest in Bankhead National Forest.

Play a round of 18 with the family over the weekend — but we’re not talking about golf. Selwood Farm is a family-owned hunting preserve in Alpine, Alabama that holds […]

The fall foliage in Alabama is starting to peak this week in North Alabama and next week in central Alabama. Our state tends to get a later leaf peak, with […]