Market News

As you know winter has set in and only a few select farmers can continue growing produce if they grow under hoop houses/greenhouses. Cane Creek Farm and Heirloom Gardens are the two farmers we have that continue to sell through the winter months, thank goodness for them!

This week…Heirloom Gardens is taking off to help her mom move, (she’ll be back next week) but we are fortunate to have Cane Creek Farm providing all the produce for us this week with carrots, turnips, kale, lettuces and two great mixed combo bags.

Milk Heritage Farm has put milk on sale this week. Did you know you can freeze milk? It’s really helpful to freeze milk if you are trying to stock up and have the space. Thawed milk that has been frozen is just as tasty if consumed straight but you may notice that the cream doesn’t mix completely smooth into the milk. Many people will use previously frozen milk for baking recipes.

Butter and Cheese Last week we received a fresh order of raw butter and raw cheese from our Amish friends in Indiana. Just add these items to your order when you come in to pick up.

This week I’ll tell you more about the market guidelines.
The decision to let a new grower into the market is always made by me alone. There’s no committee, and no formal application process. We have a closed market, and it’s not open to just anyone to sell through. A good number of our growers also go above and beyond to only bring “the best of the best”, and that pushes the de facto standards even higher. Here’s a summary of what it takes to be able to sell through The Cumming Harvest:

• All growers must use sustainable practices and never use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. I’ll come back to this later.
• All growers can only sell what they themselves have grown, made, or otherwise produced.
• All growers must be within about 100 miles of Cumming.
• All growers must be willing to be part of our TCH community, and not think of us as just a dumping off point.
• All animals raised for meat or eggs must be pastured or sustainable wild-caught
• Prepared foods must use organic ingredients if at all possible, and locally grown ingredients if at all possible
• All proper licenses, when required by law, must be obtained

“Sustainable practices”. There’s no set definition of that, and there’s really a sliding scale. There is a generally accepted definition of what is “conventional” agriculture, and that includes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and confined and grain-fed animals. Those are easy to exclude. At the other end, there is the USDA Organic Certification and Certified Naturally Grown certification. Few small diversified growers can meet the expense of USDA certification, but a good number of our growers are CNG certified. This program uses the USDA rules as a starting point, made a few things more strict, and uses a system of growers certifying other growers to keep things honest. If a new grower does not have a certification, then I talk to them, get information about them, and visit their farm in person when necessary.

In short: the growers have satisfied my standards, and I personally have approved them for inclusion in TCH. However, I want you to not just take my word for it. All the farmers welcome visitors to their farms, just call them and set up an appointment. We occasionally have a “meet the farmer” table on Saturday’s so you can talk with the growers yourself face-to-face. We encourage them to take photos for their online photo album, to describe their practices, and to take care with their product listings. We want to facilitate communication between you and them, so when you place an order, they see your name and email address in case they need to clarify a request or offer a substitution, and likewise for most of our growers you can see their contact info when you view their grower profile (while logged into the site) so you can get clarification from them when needed.

I often wrestle with some of those edge cases. Doug’s Wild Alaska Salmon was one such case. The salmon and halibut they sell was caught in Alaska, but Doug and his family live here (well, just over the line in South Carolina). They own their own small boats, and catch the fish themselves. Their practices are certified sustainable by a reputable organization up there, and their products are high quality. They’ve worked out the logistics of getting fish to you every week (by keeping a supply at the market in a freezer they own). I have in the past talked with dairies from across the state, fisherman from Savannah, olive growers from Savannah, and other people making items we just can’t get from growers located right here. Often, the logistics of getting their items from there to here on a regular and timely basis is what breaks down, but I hope that over time we’ll be able to expand the items at our market without compromising our community of growers located right here.

Hopefully that explains how our growers get into TCH, what standards they have to meet, and so on. It’s a very important topic, perhaps the most important one for our market, but much of it goes on behind the scenes. I know you’ve put your trust in me, and I take that very seriously, If you’d like to talk with me in person about this or any other aspects of TCH, I’d love to do so. Just pull me aside when you come by to pick up your order.

LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
Google Map

PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME

To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest