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

The town has slowed to a crawl, and it seems like my Facebook feed is a non-stop slideshow of photos of people on vacation. I took a few days myself, getting a personal guided tour of one of Georgia’s more wild barrier islands. Saint Catherines Island has a long relationship with the unusual, from the location of what is thought to be the first Christian church in the United States, to being the private playground of a candy baron, to today’s distinction of being the home to the only population of free-ranging lemurs outside of Madagascar. I didn’t even know this place existed a year ago, and it was amazing to see in person. If you’re like me and extremely curious about the island, here’s a series of weekly writings about it, written by one of the current residents.

I’m back now, working, tending my garden, and enjoying everything going just a little bit slower than it had been. Got the last of the seedlings that had been languishing on my picnic table into the ground yesterday, just in time for today’s rain to really perk them back up. I’ve still got about 40 square feet to clear and plant, with beans and squash and okra, but so far my first year with this new garden has been an enjoyable one.

If you’re still in town, I look forward to seeing you on Thursday! 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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is up and running, Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, and you can find out more here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

It’s a holiday Monday, where we remember those fallen in our wars. It’s also the symbolic beginning of summer, marked with cookouts and other outdoor activities. If you’re out there, grilling your locally grown burgers and veggies, please remember those who have left us.

There’s not much new to report this week. Summer veggies are really starting to come in now, and the recent rains and cool nights might keep the spring items around a little longer. We’re at the change of the season now, and everything is very weather dependent. Just a little too much heat will end the spring items, and just not enough sun will keep the summer goodies from ripening. If we get a few days in a row on the hot and dry side and the spring crops will begin struggling, but that can all change day to day.

We’ve starting to run low on our supply of salmon from Doug’s Wild Alaskan Salmon. Doug and his family are now on their boats, catching fish while the summer weather makes it possible for them to do so. We may not get a fresh supply until the boats get put back in the dock at the end of August, so what we have listed will have to do us for a while. Now’s the time to stock your freezer if you don’t want to go without this summer.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is up and running, Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, and you can find out more here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

School’s done, the fireflies are out, and the temperatures are soaring — summer’s here! The rains have come at just the right time, to knock those temps back a bit and to get that moisture into the ground. The spring leafy greens will soon take their leave from the Athens-area farms, but the ALG growers further up in the mountains will keep us supplied for quite a while yet.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is up and running, Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, and you can find out more here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

A special hello to all the mothers out there this week! I hope your families treated you to something a little above and beyond this weekend. It’s been a really slow week, news-wise, what with much of Athens getting ready to go to sleep for the summer. The place doesn’t quite turn into the ghost town I remember in the ‘90s when I moved here, but there’s definitely a change of pace. The recent storms and following heat has done a number of the strawberries, but there should be a second crop ripening soon. I see lots of pictures on social media from our farmers busy in the fields, so as many people leave town for a bit, that just means more great fruit and veggies for the rest of us!

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is up and running, Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, and you can find out more here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

It’s a week of transitions, what with UGA done for the semester (and Maymester starting up) and the public schools winding down for the year. With sudden changes in schedules and routine, it’s also a week that more people that usual tend to forget to pick up their orders. It’s a good time to check the phone number on your account, over on the Your Account page, to make sure that it’s current and preferably a cell phone. I start calling people who haven’t arrived at 7:30 — we are open until 8 — and every week there are folks I reach who completely forgot it was Thursday. There are also usually people I’m not able to reach at all, because I have a number for a home phone or they don’t answer and don’t have voice mail set up, and 8 o’clock rolls around and their food is still sitting there. When that happens I have to give the food away and charge them anyway, because the growers deserve to get paid. I’d much rather you get the food you order, even if we have to work out an an arrangement when I reach you with the reminder call, and that’s much easier if I can reach you before we leave for the night.

I don’t have any other news this week, so I’ll let you get right to ordering. 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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

I really didn’t think it was possible May was here already, but the 90 degree days this weekend kind of put an exclamation point on the fact. This is by far the busiest time of the year for our farmers. They’re out working in the fields weeding and harvesting the delicate spring veggies, trying to protect them from the daytime heat. It’s a challenge to give them enough cool water and shade to keep the greens crisp during the day when it’s over 90 degrees in the afternoon. At the same time, they’re putting in all the seedlings and seeds necessary to maintain a steady supply of summer veggies for the months ahead. They’re preparing beds, thinning seeds, watching over starts in the greenhouse, doing their best to keep bugs off the new growth, and doing what they can to shelter them from the cool night air. While doing all this, they’re going to the many farmers markets that are all now up and running. Some of them attend three or four markets a week, including ALG. Some of them even more. Wherever you might bump into your local farmers, please give them a thank you fore all their hard work, especially this time of year. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the best thank yous come in the form of a cup of coffee.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

I finally got to spend some quality time out in the garden this past weekend, before the deluge started today. Late last summer I moved to a rental house on the west side of town, and I was lucky enough to find one with raised beds already established in the back yard. They’re overgrown and there’s no easy way to get water out to them, but just having them there is a great start. Even if the beds weren’t here, I could have a little container garden on the patio, which is an easy way to grow a surprisingly large amount of veggies when you don’t have any land to grow in. But if you don’t have space of your own for a garden in the ground and growing in pots doesn’t sound like a “real” garden to you, you’ve got another option: community gardens.

There are a number of community gardens around town, though I suspect some have fallen into disuse. Like any project that runs on volunteers, the amount of gardening getting done will ebb and flow with the hands available. If you’d like to get involved in bringing and maintaining public gardens for Athens communities, I’m sure the Athens Land Trust and the Community Garden Network would love to hear from you. They have a website where you can find out more: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/community-agriculture/community-garden-network. They have descriptions and other information about some of their current active gardens, and I’m sure they’d love more hands.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

I’ve gone through all my notes, and don’t really have anything to include for this week’s email. The days have been beautiful, and that’s keeping our growers as busy as the bees that are racing to find all the wildflowers. So, with nothing more to say, I’ll just let you get right on to ordering from this week’s bounty.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

The average last frost date for Athens falls this week, but you never know when a weird cold front will blow through, wreaking havoc on the little plants. It may be that last night was the last blast of cold for the year, but ten days from now we might have to crank up the heaters again. If you’ve put out summer plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and eggplants, keep an eye out on the forecast for the next week or two, just in case you need protect them. The average last frost date for some of our growers won’t come for another month, further up in the mountains, but that just means more variety for our market.

It’s really never too late to put something in the ground, and it’s prime planting season now. I was one of the founding farms of Athens Locally Grown, back in 2002, but these days I’m living back in the city of Athens and lucky enough to have a rental house with a few raised beds right outside my back door. Springtime weather makes me want to throw seeds in every bit of dirt I can find, wherever I find it, so maybe this week I’ll also make some native wildflower seed bombs for use in bare patches I run across while walking through the neighborhood.

If you’ve been preparing your garden, or just thinking about starting one, be sure to check out all of the live plants offered by our growers through Athens Locally Grown and the other area farmers markets. Sure, you could run off to Home Depot and buy some mass-produced seedlings soaked in synthetic fertilizers and sprayed with fumigants, but you can also get hardy seedlings grown by the same people cultivating plants for their own vegetable beds, free of synthetic chemicals, for the same prices.

Why am I encouraging you to grow your own food when I’m in the business of helping growers sell you food they grow? For one, studies have shown (and my own experience confirms) that people who grow their own gardens tend to actually increase their yearly purchases at their local farmers markets. Once they take an interest their food so strong that they begin growing what they can, they find that they can rely even more on their local growers for things that they used to get at the grocery store. And besides, my goal is for every community to become less reliant on food grown elsewhere and shipped in from long distances. And you having your own little patch of garden in your yard is a big step in helping Athens do just that

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Oconee County Farms Market is open on Saturdays in Watkinsville. Their website is www.oconeefarmersmarket.org. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9-12. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!

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

The weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful. Just perfect for getting outside and enjoying a day at the park, or walking through the neighborhood, or working out in the garden. You might think, what with the daytime temps nearly hitting 80 degrees and the traditional farmers markets all opening up again that it’s the perfect time to put those tomato seedlings you picked up at market or the plant sale into the garden. It is prime gardening season, but hold off on those summer plants just a little bit longer! We’re going to have two nights down in the 30s this week, and the low on Saturday is currently forecast to hit freezing. That’s enough to outright kill those summer veggies, most of which are tropical plants that can’t handle even the slightest bit of cold. For tomatoes, I’d recommend hold off until the nights are reliably in the 50s for optimal growth. You can start them sooner and they’ll survive nights in the 40s, but it doesn’t do them any good at all and generally stunts them for the rest of the year.

I know when you see those gorgeous plants listed at ALG and elsewhere the urge is strong to go home and put them right into the ground when the weather is like it was today. I have to fight that urge off every year, too, and I’ve had a garden going most every year of my life. Go ahead and buy them and get to know them, but keep them in the pots and bring them inside at night for just a little while longer. They’ll thank you later.

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 and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 10am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me 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!