It’s cookout time.

The Austin Area Chamber of Commerce will host its 23rd annual Ag Appreciation Summer Cookout Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Mower County Fairgrounds’ Plager Building.

Sandy Forstner, the chamber’s executive director, said the event recognizes agriculture and all of the contributions it makes to the economy.

“It’s absolutely vital to our community,” Forstner said about agriculture. “We remain an ag-based community, all the way from commodity markets to livestock to our leading employer Hormel Foods, which adds value to those products.”

When: Today, 5:30 p.m.

Where: The Mower County Fairgrounds’ Plager Building

Cost: $9 in advance, $10 at the door

For more information, call the chamber at 437-4561.

The annual cookout is organized by the chamber’s Agribusiness Committee, with the proceeds supporting the committee’s activities and associations. Those include the 4-H ribbon auction, the corn and soybean growers, the pork ambassadors, the dairy princesses and the farm tour they host for elementary students from Lyle and Austin each September.

Tickets to the event are $9 in advance and $10 at the door.

“The public is invited and encouraged,” Forstner said, who added that roughly 1,000 people attended last year.