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

What a beautiful weekend for gardening, finally! Well, excepting the small but fierce hail storm that came through yesterday. It missed me, but parts of the athens area had large hail, the size of a quarter, for a few minutes. Myself, I finally cleared out 18 of my raised beds and got most of my seedlings in just as it got too dark to see tonight. Hopefully, by next weekend, I’ll have the whole summer garden in. It looks great — not a weed in sight! That’ll last about three days, if I’m lucky.

I made a few improvements to the website this week. One, that I tested out last week, is a reminder email for those with orders that should hit your mailbox by Thursday morning. Every week I’ve got a big list of people to call by seven thirty, and quite a few of them tell me they completely forgot about their order. A few each week I can not reach, and they end up having to pay for an order they didn’t get. I’m hoping this reminder email will cut down on some of that, and it’ll give me a chance to put in special notices about weather, guest farmers, and so on without bothering all four thousand people with accounts.

Another thing I’ve done is make the “Order History” box on The Market page much more useful. You could always see your last ten orders, and add items you had ordered before to your cart. It only ordered one, though, so if you habitually ordered four dozen eggs, you had to click the button four times. Now it will add the same number to your account that you had ordered before. Even better, there’s a link to duplicate the entire order (what’s available this week, anyway) with one click. We can’t really have standing orders, since the availability changes so much from week to week, but this is the next best thing. Make one order with the things you order every week, and next week (and each week thereafter) just duplicate it and check out. It doesn’t matter how many orders you place — we’ll add everything up together on Thursday, but each order is still a separate thing in the records, so you can just have one with your staples that you repeat, and then other orders with things you just want this week. Take a look — you may not use it at all, but for some people this will really come in handy.

Every so often, I get an inquiry from someone wanting to put in some time on a farm, to get some experience in before going off to start a farm of their own. We have such an opportunity now. One of our area’s most well-known blueberry farms, Jim’s Farm, is in desperate need of one very dedicated individual for the next six to eight weeks to manage the harvest and marketing of berries. It’ll be hard work, but only for six weeks or so. If this sounds like something you want to do, please contact Farmer Jim at jimsfarm@windstream.net. This season might be depending on you.

We’ve got our third free Farmer for a Day event this Saturday at Covenant Valley Farm. See the details below. It’s free, including a meal, but you need to reserve your spot this week to get in. We’d love to see you there!

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

May 18th: Be a Farmer For A Day at Covenant Valley Farms This is the third FREE event in the Farmer for a Day Tour Series of 2013. We arranged five tours this year, scheduled around the needs of various small farms. Each one is unique. Be sure to get your event ticket today! Each event will offer you a chance to experience real work on the farm, so come prepared to work! The work session will last for two hours. You may want to bring your own work gloves, weeding or digging tools, etc. if you have them. Be sure to prepare for the weather appropriately and dress for getting dirty or muddy. You will be in an agricultural setting and can expect sun, rain, bugs, wildlife, dogs, electric fences, pets, and farm animals to be part of the experience. Do not bring your dog with you for an “outing” as this would stress the livestock and disrupt work. Please plan to closely supervise your children during all activities. Water will be provided during the work session and a nutritious lunch is also provided. Farmers will have products available for purchase at the event, so you may want to bring cash/checks and a cooler with you. If you have special dietary needs, plan accordingly to bring those with you. To save resources, feel free to bring your own water bottle and dishes. Covenant Valley Farms Tour Event Nolan and Annie Kennedy own Covenant Family Farms in Colbert – Oglethorpe County. They produce grass fed Angus cattle, eggs, pork, honey, handcrafted lip balms, beeswax candles, and Georgia pecan honey butter. The day will shape up like this: 1:45-2:00 Meet and greet 2:00-4:00 assist with general gardening chores including weeding, building raised beds, livestock care and feeding, and working with honeybees. 4:00-5:00 Farm Tour 5:00-6:00 Light supper including grass fed Angus sliders and vegetarian options. Opportunity to shop from the farm store for honey, lip balms, candles, beef, pork, eggs, and honey butter. NOTE: Honeybees on the property. Bring epipen if needed, and avoid wearing black. We hope you can join us for a fun day of volunteering, meeting new friends, delicious food, and fresh farm air! This is a free event! You will be contacted to confirm registration and be given the address and directions. You will be asked for a phone number in case of emergency cancellation. If you do not get a confirmation, please email Cathy Payne. For questions, contact Cathy Payne, event coordinator, at broadriverpastures@gmail.com or 706-283-7946.

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market on Saturday has opened for the season on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons (see their website for info). The Watkinsville market has opened as well. 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. Most of the other area markets are preparing to open back up as well very soon!

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (even 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!