Availability for November 13

Sustainable farming is hard work. Everyone who has been to one of our “Farmer For a Day” events can tell you that, and if you don’t believe them, any of our growers would be happy to go on at length on the subject. Still, even with all the work, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Ron & Kate Khosla, operators of the very successful Huguenot Farm in New York and founders of Certified Naturally Grown, shows off the fun in the hilarious seven minute video that give a “behind the scenes” look at their operation.

I’ll be putting a few extra hours this week too, as I’m driving down to Southern Alabama tomorrow evening for the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network’s annual conference. I’m on the schedule there to talk about the success of Athens Locally Grown and to plant the seeds for more markets to begin over there. This will make my third conference in three weeks, but it’s my last one until January, when the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group comes to Chattanooga. Of all the conferences I’ve been to, I think this is the most “can’t miss”.

My place is going to have another night in the 20s tonight, but surprisingly, several of the farms nearer to town have yet to have their first freeze. There are still just a handful of tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers to be had, but more and more the fall leafy greens have replaced them. Our growers also have winter squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, radishes, and even some baby summer squash coming out of Michael McMullan’s greenhouses.

Remember that we’re taking the week of Thanksgiving off, so if you only buy milk from Cows R Us, it will be three weeks before we return to them. Next week we’ll go to Split Creek and Milky Way, then take a week off, and then return to Cows R Us the week after.

Finally, those of you who put a deposit down on Thanksgiving turkeys from Nature’s Harmony Farm way back in May should have received an email from them detailing your pickup options. Note that due to logistical issues, they will not be at Athens Locally Grown next Thursday (they will be in Athens on Sunday the 23rd). If you missed that detail, check the email again. If you didn’t get it, let me know and I’ll forward it on to you.

As always, thank you for your support! We’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30 to 8pm at the old state farmers market on Broad Street.