Availability for December 18

I’m not sure where the time went, but this Thursday will be the last pickup day for 2008. We’ll be off next week for Christmas, but we will return the following week with pickup on New Year’s Day.

There are only a “mere” 400 items to choose from this week, but I do see a few new items on the carousel. It has been a good growing season so far this fall, and all of the growers who keep going year round (and those who do do so largely due to you all sticking with us even after the tomatoes go away) are still planting more. It’s the tail end of the garlic and onion planting season, and we’re coming into time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, and head cabbages for an early spring harvest. The lettuces and salad mixes get planted pretty much every other week from here on out as well. It is risky, since an ice storm or two can wipe out a couple months of hard work, but the rewards are the beautiful produce we have available now, produce that hasn’t been shipped here from thousand miles away.

A few of you have asked about our dairy schedule for the holiday. This week we’ll pick up your orders from Cows R Us dairy, and next week we’ll be off, and the week after we’ll visit Milky Way and Split Creek dairies. We’ll then alternate weekly, as we normally do, from there.

Some of you have also expressed interest in expanding your existing organic gardens and joining the other growers here at Athens Locally Grown. We actively encourage this, since there is no way our community can be food-independent without a lot more growers. And this market’s operations makes it easy to get started. If this interests you at all, please check out the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, also known as SSAWG. Their annual conference is in January in Chattanooga, and is one of the best investments a grower can make. The Georgia Organics conference is in March in Atlanta, and though a lot smaller than the SSAWG conference, it is also worth attending. Details about both conferences can be found on their websites.

Thank you all for your continued support, and whatever holidays you celebrate this season (we celebrate most all of them around here), peace and love to you and yours. We’ll see you this Thursday from 4:30 to 8pm at the old farmers market on Broad Street!