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

Athens had its first freeze of the season this weekend, so we can expect to see a quick decline in the range of summer veggies available at our market. It won’t be the complete end, though, and that’s due in some part to a great program that was funded through the USDA. Several of our growers qualified for a grant program in the last few years that allowed them to build what are known as “high tunnels”, a type of hooped greenhouse made of a rigid metal pipe frame and then covered with a skin of plastic. They’re sometimes heated, but often the solar heat captured by the plastic and by passive water heat collectors is enough to keep what’s growing warm enough through the night. The program is an advanced research project, building upon earlier work done on a few farms. The goals include seeing if a standardized high tunnel design can be easily built and operated on a wide variety of small farms, and to see if they can greatly increase production during a time of year when small growers have traditionally had little to nothing harvestable.

It’s a long-term project, and we’re only seen a few winters of production from the tunnels, but so far all of the growers involved are excited and optimistic. It’s not often that you see federal agriculture dollars make their way to small scale producers, and it’s even rarer that you see money spent on projects that can have such a large return on the investment for the community. Not only are the growers able to extend their income potential, but we customers have access to more variety of fresh food for a longer part of the year. Not only that, but it can help growers who were only marginally able to break even (if that) get on more secure footing, and so keeping more farming operations going in the long term. It’s not a lot of money involved (as far as federal dollars go), but the USDA seems to have found a point of high leverage here.

In part because of the expected production of these tunnels, the Saturday Athens Farmers Market runs well into December (the Wednesday market has closed for the season). Athens Locally Grown, of course, will continue the year round, as we have for the past eight years.

We will be taking Thanksgiving week off, however. It’s usually the only week of the year we close completely, but looking ahead on the calendar Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Thursdays this season, and we’ll be closed both those weeks as well. So, if there are things you’d like for your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, you’ll need to plan ahead and order them early. I’ll be giving more reminders as the holidays grow near.

I’m already getting requests for sources of locally raised heritage turkeys. They’re very hard to come by here, because the summer heat is pretty brutal for turkeys. However, I think I may know of a very few turkeys available here and there, so if you’re desperate for a local turkey, drop me a line and I’ll try and get you in touch with a grower who might have some. Be warned that the total available from all the farms put together is probably less than ten birds.

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is open throughout the week here in Athens, and you can find more information about them here: www.athenslandtrust.org. The Washington-Wilkes Farmer’s Market in Washington is open every Saturday 9-12 behind the Washington Courthouse. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse. The other area markets I haven’t mentioned have yet to open for the season, so far as I know.

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!