Sweet Grown Alabama Blogs

One of five 2025 Sweet Grown Alabama Ambassadors, Brooke Burks from the Buttered Home and Kitchen is joining the team to help promote Alabama farmers and locally grown products. Help us welcome Brooke to the Sweet Grown Alabama family! We caught up with Brooke to get to know her better and learn about her passion for cooking locally-grown products. 

1. Who is Brooke Burks? 

I guess you could say I am true grit or should I say,  G.R.I.T.S.. A girl raised in the South. I am fortunate to be an Alabama native. My family is from Pike county and Crenshaw county. My paternal grandfather farmed peanuts and cotton on the Pike/Crenshaw county line before enlisting to serve in WWII. Later, my parents moved to South Montgomery county for my Dad to be closer to his job with the 187th Air National Guard. I never left. My roots were grounded in Grady and I have always known I wanted to raise my children in the same community I was blessed to be raised in. Now, all of these years later, my husband and I have grounded more roots here with my food blog, www.thebutteredhome.com . That platform has always been an important place for me to highlight my love of Alabama, her people and her crops. We pride ourselves in sharing whole food recipes that get folks back in the kitchen and around the supper table. Now, I get to help pass that legacy on to my beautiful grandchildren, Witt and Lilah.

2. How did you begin your cooking journey? 

Honestly, I think I have always loved it. From my early Christmas present at the age of 3, my "stove and sink" to spending summer days playing kitchen in my playhouse right up to countless hours spent with my Momma, my Nannie and my Aunt Peggy in their kitchens. Most of my best memories were times spent with all of them in the hearts of their homes, standing on a chair learning how to make biscuits, gravy and sweet tea. Later in life, as a working mother, my kitchen became my sanctuary. A place where I could create and be at peace. I've always said that my kitchen is the most important room in my house, for my peace as well as it being a place where my family has always come together to cook, eat and fellowship.

3. What is your all-time favorite meal?

It always has and always will be my Momma's fresh ham, potato salad, lady finger peas and homemade biscuits. If she ever cooked just for me, this is what I always requested. While she is no longer with us, I have her recipes for these and they are a catalyst for floods of wonderful memories with their smells and tastes. Food, memory, recipes and traditions.  Those are heirlooms just like the antique pie safe you may find in a lot of kitchens. Pieces of people we get to have long after they are gone. 

4. What draws you to locally-grown products? 

My love for local food comes partly from my parents. Momma always cooked fresh. We ate the turkey and venison that my Dad harvested each year, as well as the produce from our small garden that they tended with so much love and care. While my grandfather didn't farm much after the war, his heart was with the Pike and Crenshaw county farmers. We would often go and visit nearby farms to see what their crops were doing each year. My grandaddy,  Daddy Joe,  was a friend to all of the farmers there and many still think fondly of him to this day. I can still see the joy on his face when he would pull raw peanuts from the ground, crack them open and taste them each year. That love for the bounty God's earth provides is deep and had a profound effect on me.

5. Where is your favorite spot in Alabama?

It is hard to narrow it down to just one. It would have to be my whole community of South Montgomery county. From Ramer to Dublin to Grady. Our gem of a community is filled with just the best of people. My whole life, I have seen the people here band together to support each other in good times and in times of need. Here, all people love one another, help one another and support one another. Our community is one of a kind and has been this way for generations, a hidden gem. I am proud to be part of that community. And there really is no place like home.

6. If you had to pick just ONE of the following to keep, which would you choose and why? Local watermelon, okra or sweet potatoes? 

Oh, that would be sweet potatoes. Not to take anything away from the others but goodness, sweet potatoes are the perfect food! They can pull duty for any meal course. I think I have some variation of them in recipes for appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and desserts. My little old house could NOT do without  the sweet potato! 

Follow The Buttered Home on Facebook to see her posts promoting locally grown this year!