The Weblog
This weblog contains LocallyGrown.net news and the weblog entries from all the markets currently using the system.
To visit the authoring market’s website, click on the market name located in the entry’s title.
Joyful Noise Acres Farm: Don't forget to order.
The market closes at 8:oo p.m. so please get your orders in.
Saturday, we had a wonderful class on the fermentation of vegetables. We learned so much and ate very well. Thank you to all that attended and especially to Marty Martinez for sharing his vast knowledge. He made something very unfamiliar and seemingly daunting, simple, doable, and delicious. Next month, March 7th, we will be learning about water and milk kefir, kombucha and yogurts. If you want a kombucha scoby, one of our clients has plenty and is willing to share. She will bring it to the market if you let us know ahead of time that you want one.
Have a beautiful week and we will see you Wednesday.
Mary Beth
Athens Locally Grown: ALG Open for February 12
Athens Locally Grown
How to contact us:
Our Website: athens.locallygrown.net
On Twitter: @athlocallygrown
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/athenslocallygrown
On Thursdays: Here’s a map.
Market News
This week, I’d like to remind you about a feature of the website that’s been there for some time, but that you may have missed. When we started filling orders paperlessly a few years ago, I revamped the “Order History” that you can view by looking at the Your Account page. Back when we had a sheet of paper with your order on it, you could see right then if a grower couldn’t fill an item you had ordered. Now, we try to tell you (we can see that on our little screens), but I do sometimes get asked days or weeks later about missing items (often when someone else picked up the order, and word didn’t get passed back). The system records every time a grower takes something off your order by adding a note to the comment section of the order. Sometimes they’ll also email you in person, but not always. Additionally, the system records when we put an item in your basket or bag, and how you paid. If something turns up missing because the grower didn’t bring it, or if we later discover a bag with your name on it (usually because we accidentally gave you someone else’s), it’ll record that too. We automatically issue refunds for items you paid for but didn’t receive (and you’ll get an automated email each time), and that gets recorded also. You can see all these notes and details about your order by pulling it up in your order history and clicking the link for the PDF Invoice.
If you want to double-check our packing as we hand you your order, you can print out that invoice and bring it with you or load it up on your smart phone. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we welcome your diligence. By 2pm on Thursday, it should accurately reflect what you’re going to be getting that day. I will say that the paperless system has improved our order filling accuracy tremendously. We still have to refund a couple things each week, but well over 99.9% of the items are getting to where they’re supposed to go.
If you have entered your credit card into our system, we do not run those cards until after pickups close on Thursday night, and the total charged to your card reflects any adjustments that had to get made along the way. If there is any question, the PDF has an item by item accounting of everything you received and was charged for, so we can go back over that at any time.
If you’ve ordered something one week and want to order it again, but can’t quite remember what it was called or who sold it, there’s a simpler version of your order history right on the market page. If you never use it, you can hide it, but what makes it really useful is the items you ordered previously will have an “add to cart” link right next to them if they are currently being offered for sale again. If you like to buy the same things each week, it can really speed up your shopping time.
Also, just a reminder that we don’t actually open and begin filling orders until 4:30pm on Thursdays. Sometimes we get a line of people forming at 4pm, when growers are still trying to load and unload. I get a little worried about having all that truck traffic going through a crowd of people for one, and it’s also just human nature to get a little frustrated when you’ve been waiting in line for a while. If the growers have all come early and we have things under control, we will start filling orders early, as soon as we’re able. But keep in mind that we don’t open until 4:30pm, so if you’re in a hurry at 4 and want your items right away, odds are we won’t be able to help you. We’re usually in a mad rush ourselves just trying to get everything organized in the back. The growers fill items in the order that they were bought, not in the order that you arrive, so getting there super early won’t help you get items in short supply.
It’s been a while since we held a “Grower for a Day” event, but we’re in the beginning stages of planning one out at Blackbriar Farm for Saturday, March 21. We’ll start in the morning working on fencing and sorting some stuff out in their growing orchard, break for lunch (on us), and end with a tour of the whole farm. I’ll have more information later on this free event, but if your interest is piqued, mark your calendars!
And finally, Jeff & Tammy Sosby of Peacefield Farm wrote me to say “we will not have tomatoes until the middle of March due to unforeseen circumstances. So Sorry for the inconvenience.” Several others of our growers are growing tomatoes in greenhouses too, so I’m hopeful you’ll still be able to get some from someone in the meantime.
Thank you so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown, all of our growers, local food, and our rights to eat it. You all are part of what makes Athens such a great area in which to live. We’ll see you on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!
Other Area Farmers Markets
The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the winter. You can watch for news during the offseason on their website. The other area markets are also all closed for the season, I believe. If you know of any winter markets operating, please let me know. And they might all be closed, but we’ll be here all year round!
All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
Atlanta Locally Grown: Available for Saturday February 14
I hope this finds you all doing well. The market is open and ready for orders. We have lots of great stuff to choose from. Taylor’s produce is still looking great despite the winter temps. Double B Farm has lots of great fresh pork sausage, ribs, Boston butts and more ready for your BBQ dinner along with fresh eggs. The market also has water buffalo from Carroll farms and the finest fresh ground coffee from Java Genisis.
We appreciate all your support and dedication to our little market. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday at Brookhave, Piedmknt Park or Sandy Springs. Remember to share us with a friend.
The market is open till 8 PM on Wednesday.
Thank you,
Brady
Conyers Locally Grown: Available for Friday February 13
I hope this finds you all doing well. The market is open and ready for orders. We have lots of great stuff to choose from. Taylor’s produce is still looking great despite the winter temps. Double B Farm has lots of great fresh pork sausage, ribs, Boston butts and more ready for your BBQ dinner along with fresh eggs. The market also has water buffalo from Carroll farms, the finest fresh ground coffee from Java Genisis and even some tasty frozen blueberries from the Flying Horse Farm.
We appreciate all your support and dedication to our little market. We look forward to seeing you one Friday between 5-7 at Copy Central, 1264 Parker road, just down from the old Maxell building. Remember to share us with a friend.
The market is open till 8 PM on Wednesday.
Thank you,
Brady
Green Fork Farmers Market: Weekly Product List
Dear Green Fork Farmers Market Customers,
New this week—Green Fork Farm has red mustard, mizuna, and radishes, and Beyond Organics is offering several cuts of chicken.
Also available this week:
Vegetables—Spinach.
Herbs—Cilantro.
*Meat*—pastured beef, chicken, lamb, pork, organ meats, soup bones, and parts for stock.
Eggs—pastured chicken eggs.
Specialty foods—fermented sauerkraut and jalapenos, salsa made from local and organic ingredients, sugar cookies, blueberry jam, and olives directly from the grower in California. Figgieville will also have a new shipment of olive oil coming in soon.
Place your order from now until Tuesday at noon, and we’ll reserve your products for pickup on Wednesday from 4-7 pm. Or you can stop by to see what we have for sale on our tables.
Thank you, and see you on Wednesday!
Green Fork Farmers Market
Wednesdays 4-7 pm
Indoors, Year Round
At Nightbird Books
Northeast Georgia Locally Grown: Locally Grown - Availability for February 11th, 2015
Hey Local Food Lovers,
Next weekend in for Lovers, or as they like to say on the Holiday Calendar, Saint Valentine’s Day. Since virtually nothing is known about the real St. Valentine, and the holiday celebrating “romantic love” in his name was a poetic invention by Chaucer the Father of English Literature, I’m going to take creative license and tell my own story of Saint Valentine and the holiday we all know and love.
Saint Valentine, though having pledged his life to the priesthood, found himself one day ridiculously in love with aura of a young lady farmer. Each day he did most of the gathering of food in the market to be served for the other priests, and for special occasions, an errand he most deeply appreciated as he enjoyed the smells of fresh harvests from the field, the best chicken freshly plucked, and the fine breads and cheeses made by the artisans of the village. But above them all he was entranced with the young lady who seemed to do it all. At her stand she had every vegetable known in the village, but the best grown, without a blemish. She stacked them all in a rainbow palette that caught the sunlight as he walked forth. She cut fresh herbs and instructed each passer of what they were and how to use them in cooking. Her very hands smelled of the rosemary cut that morning. Fresh flowers adorned her farm, her stand and her very hair which always had the most recently bloomed flower tucked behind her ear, reminding one of the season, and the beauty of the season.
Since Saint Valentine was wed to the church he decided to express his love by loving what she loved, the beauty, bounty and abundance of the living Earth, carefully studied and cultivated so that others may live and enjoy it more deeply. And so Saint Valentine engaged every farmer at the market and learned what special skill they had and good morsel they produced that might enrich his meal and his life.
As he fed this newfound love, he found it grew quickly. There was the farm of the Mountains and the Earth that grew fine fields of fresh Spinach that were exquisite in a soup. Their swiss chard always harvested young and tender were bright and pretty as spring flowers but grew in the wintertime. The O’shanna Fofanna farm known for their lettuce and pork would occasionally bring fresh Parisian Cookies with white chocolate and strawberry jam which always made him feel more sophisticated than he actually was when eating them (and his typical sneeze after eating baked goods was absent as well).
The freshness of the eggs spoke for themselves as the days he didn’t arrive at the market super early, he found every last egg had been sold.
In the month of February when the dreariness of Winter needed some cheer he would sweeten his life with Honey in his tea in the mornings from a sweet mountain bee keeper, and each evening a stick of hot cocoa would go in a tall glass of milk. For breakfast he’d have blueberry or fig jam on his biscuit from the farm with the shady creek to remind him that these fruits would begin to grow again soon. After dinner a vegan apple pecan cake
As a way to thank the Lady Farmer that had spurred this new and profound love, Saint Valentine would occassionally bring a small gift. He knew of an amazing chef up in the mountains who had written his own cookbook, that included recipes that had been cooked with her very fruits of the field. So he brought her a copy and with it a soup he had made with her own jerusalem artichokes, a specialty of her farm. She knew not what to think so rarely being thanked in such a generous way. He did not linger too long at her table, but she forever noticed his love too for the people and the food that came from the Earth. This very particular piece of Earth, that thankfully had people who lived and worked on it, showing that the Earth provides when cared for.
So this is the true origin story of VALENTINE’S DAY. If Chaucer can have a go at it why not we!
Eat Well our Dear Friends! And be in love!
Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew
Farm Where Life is Good: FarmWLIG Offline thru the 2015 Season
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A remnant of the recent past
Farm Where Life is Good
News regarding the 2015 Season
We hope this finds you all toasty warm on this fine, frigid, February evening! We’ve just arrived home from some R-n-R in the southern region of these United States; what an awakening it was driving into a blizzard-blasted Chicago area!
Even with this weather, the mind leans toward spring, so with that we bring you news from Farm Where Life is Good.
We have done some of the proverbial soul-searching this winter, reflecting on the past few years of growing for market. We have decided not to offer weekly produce for the 2015 season. The reasons are many and varied— we need to step back and work on our soil, our deer fencing (no joke this time!), our business/financial model, and our growing expertise. If we have some unexpected harvest bounties as we navigate this hiatus filled with trial-and-error growing, cover cropping, and perennial plantings, we will certainly shoot out the occasional “Fire Sale” email!
To help you in your quest for fresh produce this coming spring and summer, we have compiled a list of area farms with whom we are familiar offering CSA shares and also have included the Land Stewardship CSA directory for all of MN and western WI. We hope you continue to eat well!
Land Stewardship CSA Directory
We were honored to have had such a supportive and enthusiastic group of members these past few years. We thank you for all you have given us, and we are proud to have produced a healthy product and a motivation to cook good food! What the 2016 season will bring, we do not know yet. We will stay in touch. Enjoy the coming spring!
Have a wonderful 2015 of eating well.
Roger and Lara
Fresh Harvest, LLC: Fresh Harvest for February 8th
To Contact Us
Fresh Harvest, LLC
Link to Fresh Harvest
Email us!
Tallahassee May
tally@wildblue.net
JohnDrury
john.drury@att.net
Recipes
Roasted Sweet Potato, Goat Cheese & Arugula Sandwiches
From The Kitchn.com
I couldn’t believe how good this was! Good bread is key to making it all work.
Makes 4 sandwiches
2 medium-sized sweet potatoes (3/4 – 1 pound total), scrubbed clean
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 packed cup sun-dried tomatoes
3 ounces goat cheese
8 slices hearty whole-grain artisan sandwich bread
1-2 teaspoons honey
2 ounces arugula (4 good handfuls)
Heat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the lower-middle of the oven. Brush a baking sheet with some of the olive oil and set aside.
Slice the sweet potatoes into rounds 1/4" to 1/2" thick. Lay them on the baking sheet in a single layer. Brush the tops with more olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Bake until the rounds are browned, tender, and look toasted on the undersides, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool
Meanwhile, if your sun-dried tomatoes were packed in oil, place them in a strainer and rinse them under cool water. Pat dry. Mince the tomatoes into small pieces, and then mash them into the goat cheese in a small bowl. Set aside.
To assemble, lay two pieces of bread on your work surface. Spread each slice with a tablespoon of the tomato-goat cheese mixture. Add a layer of sweet potato rounds to one of the slices, overlapping them slightly. Drizzle a little honey over the sweet potatoes. Top with a handful of arugula and the second slice of bread.
Repeat as needed to make more sandwiches. Eat immediately or wrap the sandwiches and eat within 4 hours. The prepared sandwiches can be refrigerated, but the bread will stale quickly if left in the fridge for longer than a few hours..
Market News
Hello!
It’s Valentine’s Day week, and we have lots of treats for you! A sweet simple gift for teachers, neighbors and co workers is a potted hyacinth, locally grown by Turnbull Creek Farm. It comes wrapped in a festive colorful paper, and is ready to give as a present. This is a long lasting flower that will continue to open and smell amazing for the weeks ahead.
Make sure you check out the offerings from The Bloomy Rind! There are some great treats for VDay on there -Including chocolate! A Cheese Plate for Two: wedges of a triple cream and Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve paired with preserves and Marcona almonds; Cheese n’ Chocolate Truffles: Blushing Berry Chocolates in Nolensville, TN, is now owned by pastry chefs Derek and Kayla May. They’re using Bloomy Rind cheeses in three different truffles! And Capriole’s Heart Shaped Fromage a’ Trois: Chocolate chèvre with bourbon and raisins. Add a fresh baked baguette from Dozen Bakery – delivered while still warm! – and you have a great pairing for any occasion.
Also, we are pleased to be carrying a new coffee this week! The Nashville Food Project is a non-profit that is very near and dear to our hearts. They have a coffee roasted and packaged for them by Just Love Coffee Roasters in Murfeesboro. The proceeds of all the sales go to supporting their work. We will be offering this whole bean, organic coffee while supplies last. All money goes to support the Food Project and the good work they do here in nashville. Please buy a bag and support a good cause!
It’s almost the middle of February, and we are looking ahead to spring! Of course we don’t know what the weather has in store for us in the coming month or so, but it is easy to believe the hardest part is behind us and we will now see increasingly sunny and warmer weather. It is the time for seeding transplants, and as soon as the ground dries out we will be getting the fields ready for early spring crops.
The quantities of vegetables are pretty low this time of year. We appreciate your continued support of what we do have to offer. We hope as the weather warms and the days lengthen we will have new crops and greater quantities.
Thanks so much for your support, and we look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
John and Tallahassee
Coming Events
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
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Dawson Local Harvest: BREAD is BACK!
DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST for February 13th
BREAD is BACK!
HI EVERYONE!
We are delighted to welcome MY DAILY BREAD back to the fold after being out of town with an ill daughter. They’re back now with scrumptious Breads, Dips, and Desserts for your table this week. LEILANI’S has added their delicious, all-natural Swiss Chard and Romaine Lettuce to their Salad Mix and Spinach so there’s a bit more Produce coming available now.
As always, we invite you to take a look at the complete Market menu for this week.
THE MARKET IS NOW OPEN!
REMEMBER! You can order until Tuesday night at 8pm. Pick up your order at Leilani’s Gardens Friday afternoons from 4 to 7pm.
You’ll find the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST at http://dawsonville.locallygrown.net
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible! We guarantee your satisfaction with all products in the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST.
Have a happy and healthy week!
Alan Vining
Market Manager
South Cumberland Farmer's Market: Valentine's Day This Weekend!
DOGWOOD VALLEY GREENHOUSE announces winter is the perfect time to enjoy houseplants, succulent planters, and herb collection baskets from Dogwood Valley Greenhouse. These will make perfect Valentine’s Day gifts. Don’t forget to let us know if you might be interested in purchasing flowering hanging baskets, vegetable plants in gallon pots, or 6-packs of bedding plants this spring. If there is something else special that you would be interested in, please let us know by e-mail to tnhomeschooler@yahoo.com.