For the second year in a row, the COVID pandemic has scuttled plans for an in-person celebration of the North Alabama Agriplex’s Harvest to Home dinner. But the show goes on online, with the nonprofit’s annual silent auction set to kick off on Thursday.

Harvest to Home and its accompanying auction serve as the signature annual fundraiser for the Agriplex, and even though bidders won’t be browsing in person, they’ll still be able to shop at their leisure from dozens of unique goodies hosted at the online auction.

Beginning at noon on Thursday and continuing through 8 p.m. Sunday, bidders can access the auction via the Agriplex’s main website (agriplex.org) and vie for the chance to score local and regional treats ranging from a Smoky Mountain vacation to Adirondack chairs from Buettner Brothers to a Yoga session at Elevate Cullman — just to name a few.

As in years past, the auction puts a special emphasis on goodies with ties to local and Alabama businesses, wherever it’s possible. And this year, said Agriplex director Rachel Dawsey, it also emphasizes ethically-sourced goods.

“Something we have more of is a focus on fair trade and ethically traded items,” she said. “We have some coffee from a missionary organization in Vinemont called SendMe Refuge. They sell coffee and use the proceeds from those sales to help get people out of addiction. We also have neat items like the Magic Backpack from a company called the Ethical Trade Company; their proceeds go to a fund to end human trafficking.

“There’s a lot of really unique stuff that we’re seeing for the first time, like the coffee from Vinemont and The Fatback Pig Project, which is a place at Eva that emphasizes heritage breeds and supplies bacon for Jim and Nick’s. They grow and process local pork, and they’re donating four slabs of uncut bacon at six pounds each. That’s a neat local contributor that a lot of people might not even know we have here in our own backyard.”

New, too, this year, is a new auction hosting site that allows bidders to set their maximum bid amount — and then automate the process of upping the ante if a competing bid comes in while they’re not looking.

“Our web interface is from a professional auction web service, it’ll auto-update the prices whenever people bid on things,” said Dawsey. “You can even set your maximum bid, so you can automatically up your bid every time you have a challenger. It’s better for everyone who participates than the way we’ve done it in the past, which required one of us to go in and update that information.”

Alabama Farm Credit had committed to sponsoring the Harvest to Home Dinner this year, and Dawsey said it’s remained committed to the fundraiser by sticking around to sponsor the silent auction.

“We have our items in place now — close to 120 and counting — so now, all we need are the shoppers,” she joked.

Visit agriplex.com beginning at noon on Thursday, Aug. 26 to take part in the silent auction. Winners will be able to pick up their prizes at the Agriplex on Tuesday, Aug. 31 via a contactless drive-thru arrangement that will run from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.