The Blackbelt Benefit Group’s annual Fall Farm to Feast is coming up Saturday, and Spencer Farm is making the final preparations to make the night as good as it can get.

Local food prepared by the group, Spencer Farm and local restaurants will be served at the feast, which features libations, hors d’oeuvers, salads, family-style offerings and dessert.

“Farm to Feast is to make people aware of the Grow Selma Community Garden and utilize that as a fundraiser for the garden,” said Chip Spencer of Spencer Farm. “Hopefully some future farmers, some young kids will go out to the Grow Selma garden, find their passion is local food farming and we are sorta knocking the barriers down for the next generation as well.”

The BBG has been working on a community garden for years, and continues to work to make it a place for people in the community to come out and plant and harvest foods, as well as have activities and educational opportunities.

Besides raising money for the garden, Spencer said it’s a good time to show people what local farmers and restaurants have to offer and to give them a glimpse of what fresh food is like.

“We thought it would be a good idea to incorporate local food as well as local restaurants to highlight what we can all do locally with our food,” Spencer said. “It helps to start bonding a relationship between local farmers and local restaurants who may buy that product and serve it to their customers.”

Spencer said they look forward to the event each year and hosting a crowd of people out there at the farm in Marion Junction.

“It’s sort of our big day of the year on the farm to have the entire community to come out there, mainly to support the Grow Selma Community Gardens, but also they get to come out and actually see local food farming in action,” he said. “It’s always a pleasure for us to host the event.”

This year, Spencer will be roasting one of the farm’s own Tamworth Heritage breed pigs for the feast.

Through a combination of the type of pig, the environment in which it lives and the food that it’s fed, Spencer said it’s much healthier than store bought pork and that comes through in the flavor as well.

“Our pork has about 30 percent less of the bad, unsaturated fat than commercial pork,” Spencer said. “It’s a healthy pork and the flavor is also better because of that nutritional difference.”

To go along with the food will be music provided by Nashville artist Shawn Byrne, who has been called Nashville’s best kept secret, along with Spencer’s children VK and Mac.

Farm to Feast is Saturday, Sept. 23 from 6-9 p.m. Tickets are $65 each and can be purchased at www.eventbrite.com. Search for Fall Farm to Feast in Marion Junction.