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.
Locally Grown Market CCF: The market is open- tomatoes, figs, peppers galore
The abundant rain has made for abundant crops this summer, which we are so please to be able to share with you. Try some of the different pepper varieties, like the sweet cubanelles. With a thin skin, they are perfect for a quick stir fry. the poblano peppers give just a hint of heat to dishes or you can stuff them. Anaheim are also used for chili rellenos.
Commerce GA Locally Grown: The Locally Grown Market is Open!
Good morning!
The market is now open for shopping!
Pick-up will be on August 18th. Check out all the availability and support your local farmers and artisans by placing an order this week!
Click here to be directed to the market: commerce.locallygrown.net
Have a great weekend!
Champaign, OH: Weblog Entry
Well I’ve been out walking
I don’t do that much talking these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do…
(Jackson Browne-These Days)
So, still on my Jackson Browne odyssey, today. I’ve just had him on replay since the weekend. His voice, lyrics, music…maybe just what we all need in these days that continue, that linger, and maybe speak to all of us, doing all that we feel we can do…
The thing that blows me away, if you listen to this song, and the lyrics, is that he wrote this song in ’67, at the age of 16. These lyrics of regret and loss just seem so mature, more out of a life that has already been lived, to come from the heart of a 16 year old guy.
I love the versions of him singing it with the late Gregg Allman…another favorite musician of mine. From my early age of concert going, I had the pleasure of seeing Gregg perform many times, solo, as well as with the Allman Brothers. One of my favorite times was an impromptu decision to see them, outdoors, when I lived in Los Angeles, on an evening that I had just taken a call for an early New York flight, the next day, but instead of packing and preparing, I hopped on out to a music filled night.
That has always been me…I am a jumper at chance. A doer. I’ve always lived life on the edge, by the seat of my pants, a semi plan, but not really a plan….and, I know that by instinct, I will always make it happen, somehow.
(And, I might add, on that flight to New York, I was the number 1 flight attendant, first class, and received some of my most glowing letters from happy customers, to my supervisor, and American Airlines)
My businesses, and this market are examples of those leaps of faith, in my life, and making things work, even if things seem to be slipping into the unknown, at a quick pace. March found me a nervous wreck when we were without a home for the first time in the market history. It found me nervous as to if we moved the market, how would we operate around Covid? Your other market manager was more convinced, than I was, at that moment, that it was the perfect setting, the perfect time, to move the market, and make it safely accessible to the customers.
And, so, like always…I jumped at the unknown, and this lovely little market found a new home, with a whole lot of lovely, lovely new customers, loyal customers, returning customers, that now make up this new market family, each and every week…
These days….never look back with regrets, wishes, and unfulfilled dreams. Never be afraid that your chance taking will end up in failure. So many times, and I can attest to this, your failures become your learning tool, that propels you to where you going in the first place…
The last lines of this song, will always speak volumes to me…
Please don’t confront me with my failures…I’m aware of them…
But, then the optimistic person that I am, knows that the chance of failure, makes you want to take the chance, and make it a success, even more!
Tuesday ramblings, from your market manager who took a few days off from life, this past weekend, to spend with music, books, and thoughts…
And, to remind you that the market closes, tonight, at 8pm, for the week…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Old99Farm Market: Week of August 9 2020
Hello again local farm lovers!
I would like to extend a big welcome to all the new customers who have recently discovered the farm and signed up here on locally grown. We greatly appreciate your patronage at the farm and look forward to seeing you all again this week.
This week’s specials:
Frozen black currants – $1 off every 500g you buy.
Tropeana onions – 8 onions for the price of 6.
AND
10% off Roaster Chickens again this week!
Also available this week is green kale, baby fennel bulbs (tops on), jalapeno peppers, Ho Chi Minh green cayenne peppers, red kale, chicory, sweet Hungarian wax peppers, Tropeana onions, white princess eggplant, bunching onions, snap peas, green beans, yellow beans, purple beans and new potatoes.
We have plenty of beef, pork and chicken available and our eggs are well stocked. Buy 5 dozen eggs get one free!
This weeks recipe has always been a hit from pit. Nick has used this recipe for many years to prepare BBQ or smoked chicken. It pairs well with the poultry brine shared in the previous blog. *reduce the salt in the rub by half if you use the brine)
BBQ Chicken Rub:
4 tbsp coarse sea salt
3 tsp ground bay leaf
1 tbsp ground peppercorns
2-4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp red chili flakes (optional)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl or shaker bottle with large holes. Apply to chicken by rubbing onto the skin and meat. Place in a bag or wrap tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rest 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Place the chicken on the grill or BBQ grate and seared lightly then move to finish cooking with indirect heat at 375°F (190°C) until an internal temperature of 170°F or 76°C. Remove chicken from grill, cover and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Remember to place your order BEFORE 6pm Wednesday evening. Orders placed after this time may not be processed.
Pickup times are Thursday and Friday from 3pm to 6pm. If you can let us know what day you plan to come that would great.
We wish you all a safe and healthy week ahead. See you soon!
Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami
Siloam Springs, AR: Online Market is Open!
https://siloamsprings.locallygrown.net
Good Morning!
The Online Market is open!
Happy shopping and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday!*
GFM : Lots & Lots of Produce
FRESH LOCAL PRODUCE IS FINALLY COMING IN STRONG
CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE EACH FRIDAY EVENING
TO SEE WHAT VENDORS WILL BE BRINGING TO THE PHYSICAL MARKET.
KEEPING IN MIND THAT
SOMETIMES THEY DON’T ALWAYS KNOW
UNTIL THEY GO OUT TO PICK
JUST WHAT WILL BE READY AND HOW MUCH
THEY WILL HAVE
PREORDER BY CALLING VENDOR TO ARRANGE PICKUP ON SATURDAY
AT THE MARKET OR ORDER HERE ONLINE.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ARTISIAN VENDORS WHILE SHOPPING
HERE AND IN PERSON AT THE MARKET.
Yalaha, FL: Still here for Summer vacation ordering
I’m Gonna call this the Summer Vacation Schedule. I will probably just leave the Market Open now through August until September unless something major happens. I’m still here and we still have some of the basic stuff but I’m busy doing farm rebuilding/clean up and preparing for fall planting. Contact me if you want anything listed. Or if you might want to make a Huge batch of pesto (I actually have to pull out and throw away a large amount of Basil just to make room for fall planting.)
Anyway, Feel Free to contact me if you want to order anything or make requests for fall crops. I’m here but may not remember to do weekly posting for the Month of August.
Since I am out of the normal schedule for now, please remember to indicate when you would like to make your pickup appointment.
Milk is available, we pick up Wed so if you want some I need to know by Tuesday.
Summer time brings weather not conducive to growing much here, So I am trying out throwing together anything edible (including edible weeds) and salad like into a mix and calling it Wild Summer Mix – Cut Salad Mix
We have Shoots and microgreens available.
Following is the Normal Schedule to make it easy for me to paste into the notices come Fall** If you want to place and order and pick up before the standard window, just let me know.Standard Ordering window below.
Order now through 7 am Friday September 18th for Sat Sept 19th Pickup, or tell me when you want to pick up, we usually have flexibility, especially if you order buy in products or milk or just want to pick up during the week.
We Are Flexible, TELL ME if you want to make special arrangements for produce, I am open and willing especially now. I just need to know the day before so I can harvest anything that needs early morning handling and I like to know when to expect people to show up.
Remember to tell me when you want to pick up! (and if I don’t reply to confirm within a day, bump my e-mail or text me 407-342-8515. Though I have cleaned up my e-mail so hopefully I won’t Miss Anyone.)
Sign in to order. https://yalaha.locallygrown.net/market
You have to sign in to see the add to cart button. Then set the number and click the add to cart button on the items you want to buy (it is the little picture right next to the quantity box.) Remember you need to check out before your order will be placed.
Remember to let me know when you want to pick up on Sat or maybe even Friday late afternoon or on Sunday. (If I don’t send you an e-mail confirmation of your order and pick up time, please make sure you checked out and completed your order.)
Champaign, OH: The Load Out/Stay
Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They’re the first to come and last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They’ll set it up in another townTonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line…
(Jackson Browne)
I am a huge Jackson Browne fan…probably from the mid 70’s on. This has always been one of my favorites of his, and many times, I think of this song, on Thursdays, as we get the market all set up in the greenhouse, the vendors all bring their products, the customer names are all organized, we take our positions, and the cars begin to roll in.
As I greet you, chat with you, and yell your names to the greenhouse, Mark and my father start packing your orders, I recheck your orders, and lovingly pack them in your cars, sending you on your way. I like to think of each of you, and where you are headed, what you will make for dinner, etc.
Then, as the last car leaves, and we shut down the greenhouse, and corral the boxes, and clean things up, there is a sense that the show is over for the week, we go from being the main attraction with the products, to being the roadies who pack it all up, storing things until the next market…
This little market of melodies, the customers, the vendors, the product…each goes into making this a well oiled machine…a local road show…and when we turn off the lights, I look forward to the next Thursday…
It’s Monday, these are the rambling thoughts of your market manager, and also serves as your reminder that the market will be closing, tomorrow night, at 8pm, for the week…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Falls Park Farmers Market: Online Farmer's Market is OPEN!
The online market is once again open for the week!
As always, check out some of the available items and have a first chance to claim some of them here!
Online inventory changes from week to week, so search by a key word, or scroll through your favorite categories to find the items you want to put in your cart!
Thanks for checking us out again this week and we look forward to seeing you Saturday!
Athens Locally Grown: ALG Market Open for August 15
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
First off, everyone did a wonderful job spreading out amongst the three hour slots last week — thank you! We had about 10% more orders than the week before, and we didn’t even break a sweat getting things ready for the 5pm hour.
Second, The comerian is taking a week off, so don’t be alarmed to see their breads and pastries gone from the website. They do plan on returning next week.
And finally, the new school year brings many new people to Athens, and many new people to Athens Locally Grown, so I thought this week I’d give a brief primer on how ALG works. Those of you who have been with us during these last seventeen years probably already know all this, but I’ll try to keep it interesting for you too. In January, I’ll spend several weeks going into much more detail about all this.
First off, ALG is best thought of like a traditional farmers market, because except for the lack of tents and tables that’s very much how we operate. The growers are putting their own items up for sale directly to you, at prices and quantities they have set. The market volunteers and I are here to make sure it all happens smoothly, but the growers are selling their products directly to you. Growers do have to apply to sell through the market, and I personally approve each of them before they list their products. Here’s a summary of the standards we have set:
- All growers must use sustainable practices and never use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
- All growers can only sell what they themselves have grown or made
- All growers must be from the greater Athens area. Right now, this means within about 50 miles
- All animals raised for meat or eggs must be pastured
- Handicrafts must be made primarily from items produced or gathered on the farm
- 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
- All growers must first participate in the market for a few weeks as customers, so they can clearly see how it all works
When I’ve turned down requests to sell through ALG (and I have turned down many), the items clearly broke one or more of those standards. There are a few edge cases that I take on a case by case basis, such as coffee. In cases like that, we set the standards as strict as we can. With coffee, for example, the beans must be sustainably grown, they must be roasted locally, and the roaster must have a direct business relationship with the farm that grew the beans. Now in the time of covid-19, I’ve put a moratorium on new growers. I’m just not able to get to know new people and their growing practices as much as I want to while staying socially distant, but when it’s safe to do so I’ll be talking with those who have been waiting.
So, the growers list their available products and set their prices. For most all of the products, they do this before they’ve harvested the items, so they have to estimate how much they will actually have. They’ve gotten pretty good at this guess, but it is a guess, and the unpredictable nature of farming means they may have far less than they thought (thanks to deer, a hail storm, etc.) or they may have far more than they thought (a nice rain can double the growth of lettuce overnight, for example). Most of them are conservative with their estimates, and so they let you continue to order even if they’ve already sold more than they guessed they’d have. That’s why popular items may have a quantity in the negatives when you look at the listings. The system will still let you order on the chance that they’ll actually have enough, but you’ll get warnings along the way that you’re taking a gamble.
I do not collect items from the farms, and do not know myself until Thursday afternoon what the growers were able to harvest and bring in to town. The growers do have each other’s contact information, so if one grower is short and another has a surplus, they may arrange with each other to get all the orders filled, but in general, if a grower cannot fill an order for something, they’ll remove that ordered item and you’ll see a comment on your invoice indicating that. Since I’m not a middle-man, I can’t arrange for substitutions myself.
When the growers bring in the items you ordered on Thursday afternoon, packaged and labelled with your name, I pay them on your behalf out of our shared cash box during the hour before we open the market for their sales from the previous week. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order this week via Venmo or your card online. We deposit the money you pay into our bank account so it will be there when we write checks as the cycle begins anew. As explained elsewhere on the website, you are really ordering directly from and paying the growers yourself, but our shared cashbox system makes things convenient for you and them. (Imagine if you ordered from ten growers having to write ten checks when you picked up your items!) This shared cashbox system does mean that if you place an order and then never arrive to pick it up, we’re left holding the bag. For that reason, you are responsible for paying for orders not picked up, and that amount is automatically added on to your next order for your convenience. If you pay by card, the cards don’t actually get charged until after pickups on Thursday so your charge will reflect any adjustments that had to get made along the way.
For a number of legal reasons, ALG never takes possession of your ordered items. We don’t buy them from the growers and resell them to you, nor do we repackage them in any way. The growers drop off your items for you, and you arrive and pick them up. The market volunteers facilitate that happening. Because of the need to maintain that separation, we cannot deliver, nor can we generally hold your items later than 8pm on Thursday if you fail to come pick them up. We start calling those who haven’t arrived by 7:30, and quite often we just get answering machines and voice mail. Anything still at our pickup location at 8pm will get divided up among those there at the time, primarily our volunteers, and then we finish packing up and leave. There are some things you can do to insure you won’t get charged for things you didn’t come get:
1. If you know prior to Tuesday at 8pm that you won’t be able to come get your order or send someone in your place, send me an email and I will cancel your order.
2. If you have a cell phone, make sure that number is the number on your account. You can go to the “Your Account” page on the website to be sure. If you’re out and about and I get your home phone or your work phone, no one gets helped.
Finally, ours is a paperless system, so we do not have paper receipts for you when you pick up your order. An electronic receipt is generated, though, and can be found on the website. Go to the “Your Account” page, view your order history, and you’ll see an invoice for each order. By 2pm on Thursday, it will show what we expect to have for you that evening. After we fill your order, it will show exactly what we packed for you, and what, if anything, was missing. You can view that at any time, even years from now. If we didn’t get you something we should have, or if anything you got was of unacceptable quality, please contact me ASAP. I’ll share the problem with the grower so we can insure it won’t happen again. If you’re logged into the site, most of the growers have their contact info on their profile page (off the “Our Growers” page), so you can contact them directly if you choose.
Thursdays are pretty hectic behind the scenes and we want your pickups to go as smoothly as possible. Here’s a detailed run-down on how they go:
- Don’t arrive at the beginning of your pickup window if you’ve got that flexibility. We fill the bags alphabetically (because it’s easier on us that way), but your arrival time or last name has no bearing on what items you get. The growers fill orders based solely on the time you placed your order, so that’s all been long decided by Thursday. Take your time getting there and that’ll naturally spread things out a bit. Flatten the curve, if you will.
- I’m bad with faces as it is, and masks make it even harder to recognize you and even hear you when you give your name. Many of you had papers with your name written in big letters we could read through the window, and that is wonderful. If you think to do that same, it’ll make things even smoother.
- The pickup loop does have a fair bit of room, but we don’t want you backing up into Tallassee. If you arrive faster than we can deliver orders, we may ask you to pull ahead into the loop and circle around. That may mean that some people who arrived after you may get their food before you, but as I said above, that doesn’t affect at all what items you get when things run short.
- We’ve still got three pickup windows, and it’s totally ok if you come later than the slot you chose. If you come early, odds are high that we haven’t filled your bags yet and we may ask you to come back. Tallassee is a pretty drive, and I recommend taking it to the county line and back, just for the scenery.
- We’re not accepting in-person payments unless absolutely necessary. We’ll have a drop box for checks or labelled envelopes of cash, but we greatly prefer Venmo payments to @athenslocallygrown or online payments through a card tied to your account. Venmo is free, and card payments have a 3% processing fee.
- We can not accept any recycling just yet, though that may change once we get settled.
- We cannot take your own bags or bins out of your car and fill them up
- If you’d like to go through your items before you leave to make sure you’ve got everything, or that we didn’t mix up people’s items, feel free to pull into the lot and have a look.
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 at our brand new home on Tallassee Road!
Other Area Farmers Markets
If ALG doesn’t have everything you need, please support our growers at the other markets that are now back up and running, or at their own locations. The Comerian takes online orders for Saturday pickup at the bakery here: https://www.thecomerian.com/online-ordering. The Athens Farmers Market is holding their Saturday market once again in Bishop Park. It’s not anything like it was before, so you’ll want to read up on all the changes on their website, http://athensfarmersmarket.net. The West Broad Farmers Market is back too, holding a drive through market just like us (and using my software too, so it’ll be nice and familiar). You can join them at https://wbfm.locallygrown.net. And of course Collective Harvest is going strong over at https://www.collectiveharvestathens.com.
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!