Anyone who knows Sarah Lazzari of Baldwin County knows two things about her. One, she is quite a character. Two, she is a great supporter of agriculture.

Sarah chairs the Baldwin County Women’s Committee and serves on the state Women’s Committee. Her husband, Victor Lazzari, serves on the board of directors of the Baldwin County Farmers Federation.

In addition to these activities, Sarah does everything she can to promote agriculture, such as distributing peanut samples to obstetric doctors’ offices in Baldwin County, along with literature on how the folic acid found in peanuts can help prevent birth defects. She has given informative coloring and activity pages about peanuts and soy crayons to pediatric medical facilities in her area.

“Agriculture is our bread and butter, so I promote it as much as possible,” she said. “Even when I’m giving beef demonstrations, I try to throw some peanuts in there, too. I enjoy promoting commodities when I can to help young farmers and support agriculture in general.”

Sarah grew up in the country, but never lived on a farm until she and Victor were married. She says as a child she was much more interested in eating than cooking, but her required home economics class in school first sparked her interest in spending a little more time in the kitchen.

And as an adult, it was a garden patch that really brought her to cooking.

“I asked friends and neighbors about how to can garden vegetables. I tried it, and it worked out. I still do some canning, and I put up lots of tomatoes every year,” Sarah said.

While cooking came easily to her, Sarah’s not too proud to admit she had a few kitchen catastrophes.

“Once I made a cake recipe that called for several cups of sugar, and it came out terrible. I threw it out and tried again, but the second one was awful too. I called the woman whose recipe it was, and she told me it was a printing error. And I made some dill pickles that were soft, soggy and completely inedible,” she joked.

Sarah stays busy with her many social and civic activities, but still finds time to cook for the whole family when they can be together.

“Last Thanksgiving my daughter made the turkey, but I still made the dressing and gravy. Nobody can make dressing like Mama can,” said Sarah.

Sarah says the recipes she shares with us are her “everyday recipes” that she prepares quite often.