Market News

First off. let me announce again, in case you missed it, that Athens Locally Grown will be closed next week. Thanksgiving week is the one week a year that we close down completely, so we can all travel to family, prepare feasts of thanksgiving, and otherwise mark the holiday. That means if you’d like any ingredients for your Thanksgiving meal, you will need to purchase them this week! The Saturday Athens Farmers Market at Bishop park is also still open, so that’ll give you one last chance should something not come through from us on Thursday.

And what a glorious selection we have for you this week! Each year’s pre-Thanksgiving availability list at Athens Locally Grown seems to outdo the last, and this week’s suits our 11th year. Can you believe we have green beans? Tomatoes? Peppers? Eggplant? Squash & zucchini? Cucumbers? And of course there is all the fall produce you’d expect to see: the greens, salads, root veggies, and so on. Our growers have put so much effort and resources to extending their seasons, every year able to grow a little bit more a little bit longer, and it has really all paid off. I hope you can reward their efforts by making as much of your Thanksgiving meal locally grown as possible. If you’re going to be traveling, pack up the bounty and take it with you! You might not be at home, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be having a Georgia Thanksgiving.

Of course the traditional centerpiece for a carnivore household’s table, the turkey, is extremely hard to come by. This year there were few growers raising pastured heritage turkeys, and they sold out six months ago or earlier. There’s an obvious market there with far more demand than supply, so hopefully other growers will join in in upcoming years. If you weren’t able to get your hands on one of those available this year, or you’re just not the turkey-eating sort, there is more than enough veggies available to make a meal fit for a king. We have so many things to be thankful for in our community, and the abundance of locally grown food is right up there.

If your Thanksgiving menu isn’t set, take a look around the internet for seasonal recipe ideas. Even if you’ll be getting ingredients at the grocery store, it’s still feasible to cook with produce that is typically at its peak about now. Here are three of my favorite Thanksgiving pages to get you started:

• Roasted root vegetable pot pie
• A soup-to-nuts plan for a homegrown holiday meal
• Rescue Thanksgiving Recipes

So, one last time: Athens Locally Grown will be closed next week. If you’d like any ingredients for your Thanksgiving meal next week, you will need to purchase them this week!

Thanks 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!
Thanks 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!

Recipes

Please, share your recipes with us on the website, on the Recipes tab. We’d all love to know how you use your Athens Locally Grown products, so we can try it too!

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Simple and tasty — If you want to sound fancier, call it “Sunchoke Soup.” “Sunchoke” is the marketing name for these root vegetables, which come from a sunflower-like plant that is native to eastern North America. Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke, though when it is cooked like this, the taste is similar. (Note: Although the original recipe calls for peeling sunchokes, this can be tedious and I suspect peeling loses nutrients. I just scrub them thoroughly and cut them into equal-sized pieces so they will cook evenly.)

Source: Adapted from www.simplyrecipes.com (Entered by Janice Matthews)
Serves: Serves 4.
Vegan!

Ingredients

2 T. unsalted butter or olive oil
1 cup peeled, chopped onion
2 pounds Jerusalem artichokes, cut in chunks
1 quart vegetable stock (pref.) or water
2 to 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
to taste salt and pepper

Step by Step Instructions

1. Heat the butter or oil in a soup pot, and cook the onions (plus 2 stalks of celery, chopped, if desired) until soft but not brown (about 5 minutes). Add garlic and saute another minute. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.
2. Add the Jerusalem artichokes and stock to the pot, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until the artichokes begin to break down (usually 45 minutes to an hour).
3. Puree the soup. (This is easiest with an immersion blender. If you use an upright blender, do it in batches, filling the canister only up to about 1/3 of its capacity and holding the lid, because hot soup tends to spew out the top of blenders! Alternatively, you also could push the soup through the finest grate on a food mill or push it through a sturdy sieve.) Finally, taste the soup and add more salt if desired. Pour into bowls, sprinkle with more freshly ground black pepper, and serve.

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon (The Wednesday market has closed for the winter). It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Also, Watkinsville has a thriving farmers market every Saturday morning, behind the Eagle Tavern. And further east, Comer has a nice little market Saturday mornings as well. Both are worth visiting. ALG member Sarah C. adds, “Oglethorpe County/Lexington, GA has a nice, growing farmers market on Saturday mornings from 8AM-noon and Tuesday afternoons from 4-PM.” If you know of other area farmers markets, please let me know so I can list them here as well.

Many of the ALG growers sell through more than one market. Don’t feel like you have to choose a favorite, either. We have many items here you can’t find there, and I’m sure the reverse it also true. Many people stop by the supermarket several times a week, so it’s only natural that you might wish to stop by a farmers market several times a week. Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so. We’ll see you there!