By ELISABETH ALTAMIRANO-SMITH | Community Columnist
Clanton resident Madeline Swindle is representing as 2023 Chilton County Elite Ms. United States Agriculture. Swindle, 58, will spend 2022 attending to know native farmers, encouraging girls in agriculture and educating others in regards to the significance of agriculture, particularly inside Chilton County. She will compete in 2023 for state and nationwide pageant titles. Swindle mentioned that her love for agriculture started throughout childhood and has continued to develop as she obtained older.
“When I was a child, we lived in New York,” mentioned Swindle. “We moved to Alabama when I was 10 years old. It was a big culture shock! My mother brought five children to my grandfather’s house. We had goats, chickens and hogs, and that’s how we ate. Later in life, I have always had something in the (kitchen) pot that was fresh from the garden or farm.”
Swindle’s pageant historical past started throughout her highschool years, profitable 1982 Miss CCHS Beauty Night. Her daughters even have a robust pageant historical past, each collaborating in Beauty Night and the Chilton County Miss Peach. Both daughters positioned within the Peach Pageant; her oldest daughter, Jessica being topped Miss Peach in 2010. Swindle turned inquisitive about collaborating within the agricultural pageant when she realized of its mission.
“My youngest daughter, Savannah, was also very involved in agriculture growing up,” mentioned Swindle. “We went to goat shows and chicken shows. I knew that this was the right pageant for me because of our history with agriculture and how it has been such a big part of my life. I am a big advocate of ‘Eat Local, Eat Fresh.’ Not only is it supporting local farmers, but it is healthier to eat something that was just picked from the vine today or yesterday. It’s fresher. It tastes better than something that has been sitting on a truck for days traveling across country.”
Swindle at present raises a wide range of chickens and has a backyard along with her husband Dwight.
She just lately wrote a kids’s e-book, entitled “There’s a Bug in my Garden” which poses the query from a toddler’s perspective, “There’s a big in my garden, what shall I do? Should I hit it with a stick or stomp it with my shoe?” The storyline continues to clarify the significance of particular bugs comparable to honey bees, and the way they assist the backyard.
“One of my main interests and something that I want to focus on as Chilton County Elite Ms. United States Agriculture is container gardening,” mentioned Swindle. “Many people say that they don’t have the resources or yard to grown a big garden. Using containers to plant herbs or have a few plants is something that everyone can easily do, even if you don’t have the space for a garden. However, there are only certain kinds of plastic containers that you can safely use without the plastic particles getting into your food source. You can’t use just any kind of plastic.”
So far in 2022, Swindle has visited Chilton County High School Agriculture Department, Thorsby’s Strawberry Festival, Peach Nutrition and among the native farms. She hopes to go to extra farmers, the native stockyard and find out about soil administration.
“Chilton County is such a wonderful place for agriculture,” mentioned Swindle. “We are known for our peaches here, which have wonderful nutritional and medicinal properties but the agricultural amenities are endless.”
Swindle graduated from Concordia College of Selma with a level in Early Childhood Development. She at present teaches Early Childhood Development at Alabama State University. Her different pursuits embody stitching, writing, face-portray and collaborating as a member of the World’s Church of the Living God in Clanton. She enjoys gardening along with her husband, Dwight and is the mom of youngsters: Jessica, Savannah and Josiah.
Swindle encourages girls of all ages to take part within the 2023 United States Agriculture Pageant and to affix her in advocating for native agriculture and training. For extra data on how to enroll for the pageant or to schedule Swindle for talking engagements at native faculties, occasions and organizations contact her on Facebook.