This Sunday afternoon, Jones Valley Urban Farm will host the fourth annual Slow Food Fair. This “Party in the Garden” will feature a host of musical acts, activities for kids, a mini Farmers Market and workshops in the shady grove.

Located in Mountain Brook’s Crestline Village, Dyron’s Lowcountry Restaurant is just 10 minutes from the bustle of downtown, Five Points and UAB, but it feels a world away.

Chances are, you’ve already eaten Sara Foster’s food. As the owner of Foster’s Markets in Durham and Chapel Hill, Sara and her staff produce more than 2,000 meals a day. She has contributed hundreds of recipes to such publications as Southern Living, House Beautiful, Cottage Living and more. She is also the author of four stellar cookbooks, including the just-released Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen: Soulful, Traditional, Seasonal (Random House, 2011).

I often wish that people were born with their Myers Briggs Type Indicator emblazoned on their foreheads. You know, ESTJ or INFP or something similar.

Sometimes in Birmingham it feels like feast or famine. There are a few weeks in the Spring and another few in the Fall, when it feels like all the fun stuff is going on.

With the advent of social media, blogs and the like, it seems like EVERYONE has a tale to tell. It becomes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, the music from the static.

There’s a woman on television that takes a few store bought ingredients, combines them with stuff in her pantry or fridge and calls them homemade. I hear her eponymous show is a big success, even earning her an eponymous magazine.

The vast majority of us go through life, bouncing from like to like, activity to activity, never really finding our passion. We never alight on that one thing that lights the fire in our bellies, consumes our every waking thought, drives us toward excellence.

Shaun Chavis has been holding out on us, Birmingham. With a degree in Culinary Arts and a Masters in Gastronomy from Boston University, Shaun is a woman who wears many hats: Foods Editor at Oxmoor House, facilitator of the Birmingham Foodie Book Club (foodiebookclub.wordpress.com), creator of the Birmingham’s Best Home Cooks blog (birminghamcooks.wordpress.com).

Chad Adams will be one of the first people to tell you that last summer’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hurt the seafood business. Ironically, his business is more than 250 miles away from Mobile. Chad and his wife Allison own Crestline Seafood Company in Mountain Brook.