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

Today was just the most perfect day ever to be out in the garden, cleaning out the overwintered debris and getting seeds and plants in the ground, Just perfect. I spent it looking at dinosaurs at the museum in Atlanta, though, because my daughters asked me to take them. And of course I was more than happy to put the rake down and jump in the car. That, perhaps, is why I have far few items growing in my garden than I did when I was childless. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

This week, I thought I’d highlight a few features of the website you may have overlooked.

At the top of the Market page, there’s a carousel of “Featured Products”. Each grower can flag up to five of their products as “featured”, and they’ll show up on that list. In addition, if anything catches my eye (as market manager) that the grower didn’t mark, I can put it in there too. Up to ten of the items will be things I hand-picked to go in the list. Before I added this carousel, I was always missing items that were just coming into season or items that the growers wanted to highlight for the week. Now, I can guarantee you that when I do my shopping, before I go anywhere else on the site, I’ll be spinning that carousel around and adding items to my cart. Next, I’ll hop down to the “New Products” carousel right below, which shows the last thirty items that have been added to the site.

I understand if you might not want to do the same, though. You can shop however you want, in any section you want. This isn’t IKEA. So, if you’d rather not see the Featured Products carousel, or the New Products carousel, or your Order History, you can turn off all three of them. Just look over to the left side of the page, in the little section called “Display Options”. Click the links to hide what you want, and it’s done. If you change your mind later, you can turn them on in the same place. (A note: due to some problems with older versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, visitors using those old browsers won’t see the carousels at all. Instead, you’ll see a little note in the “Display Options” box letting you know I’ve had to turn them off for you so the rest of the market would still work.)

There’s another little-used feature of the site there in that same section. Did you know that you can turn off and on specific growers? You can do that, and it’ll remember your preferences every time you come back to the site (with that browser on that computer). One example I’ve seen is you can turn off all of the meat farmers if you want a vegan version of the site. I can understand that you might not want to be scrolling up through beets and suddenly see a thumbnail picture of beef cheeks. If you’d rather that not happen, uncheck the meat producers, and you’ll have a meat-free product listing. Or, if there’s a farm that for whatever reason you’d rather not order from, even on accident, just turn them off and be done with it.

Another nice thing over there is a link to subscribe to an RSS feed of the product listing. If you don’t know what that is, just skip over it. But if you do use a news reader to keep up with your favorite weblogs and news sites, add the ALG product feed, and you’ll see new products right as they get added to the site. It’s a great reminder, and a way to whet your appetite during the weekend, as the growers are busy getting the site ready to open for the 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!

Upcoming Local Food Events

March 23rd: Be a Farmer For A Day at Long Shot Farms Have you ever wanted to learn how to plant asparagus? How would you like to give it a go? Here is your chance to do it with no risk! Long Shot Farm in Arnoldsville, Oglethorpe County, is a new establishment focusing on Granax onions, tomatoes, and perennial blueberries and asparagus. It will take some time to establish their beds, and Rochelle Long needs your help. Come join a small group of volunteers to help plant asparagus. Participants will go home with asparagus crowns of their own while supplies last. The event will be held on Saturday, March 23 and will begin at 10:00 AM. You will spend two hours planting asparagus crowns into the prepared bed, enjoy a free lunch around noon, and tour the farm after lunch. Sign up for this free tour by adding reservations to your order (look in the “Event Reservations” category). For more information, contact Cathy Payne at broadriverpastures@gmail.com.

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the winter. You can watch for news during the offseason on their website. Most of the other area markets are also all closed for the season too. The Washington-Wilkes Farmer’s Market in Washington is open every Saturday 9-12 behind the Washington Courthouse, and several ALG vendors also sell there.

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!