Take a look in the kitchen cabinets of any Southern cook and you’re likely to find a Lodge cast iron skillet or two… or three or more. For 124 years, just over the Alabama state line in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, they’ve been casting skillets and cookware pieces at Lodge Manufacturing. Mary Wilson heads inside the historic foundry to find out more about how Lodge forges their iconic, seasoned cast iron skillets.

Thanks to shows such as Chopped, Cut-throat Kitchen and Top Chef, cooking competitions have reached a new level of popularity. If you enjoy watching renowned chefs create gourmet plates from interesting ingredients, then you’re sure to love watching Alabama’s best backyard grillers and home cooks put their skills to work during the Alabama Wildlife Federation’s annual Wild Game Cookoff. Melissa Bowman stops by for a taste-test.

Less than 2 percent of the people in the U.S. make their living by farming. That means a lot of folks have questions about modern-day farming practices. So Kevin Worthington is taking questions y’all have emailed us or submitted through our website and asked Pickens County farmer Mike Dee for some answers.

In this segment, discover the answers to:
-What percentage of Alabama products go overseas? (submitted by Kathy Gray)
-How do you fight drought in Alabama for your crops to remain productive? (submitted by Jennifer Jarman Stephens)
-What’s the biggest change that’s happened in farming since you started feeding Alabama? (submitted by Brad Holmes)

You’ve got questions about growing vegetables and herbs, and Sidney Phelps of Bonnie Plants has your answers.

In this segment, discover the answers to:

-My six-year-old grandson is interested in planting a few plants for the fall. Any suggestions? (submitted by Myra Mason)
-My momma and I enjoy watching Simply Southern, and we’ve learned a lot from Sidney’s segments. How can we care for our strawberry and raspberry plants? We’ve had them for years, but they’re not producing like they used to. (submitted by Lisa Haynes)
-Why would cucumbers turn yellow? We have a ground garden box. (submitted by Kara Illiano)