Availability for June 14th

We welcome two new growers to Athens Locally Grown this week.

The first is a regular at the Athens Green Market (the Saturday market at Big City Bread) and used ti sell right next to me back when I used to sell there. Sundance Farm outside of Danielsville, Georgia is run by Ed and Kim Janosik, and they grow a variety of beautiful vegetables. I heard a rumor they were exploring heritage breeds of turkey for Thanksgiving, and I’m hoping it’s true.

The second is Greenbrier Creek Goat Farm in Watkinsville. They are offering different cuts of goat meat as well as custom processing. You’ll find the cuts listed on the website, and if you’d like a whole or half goat you’ll find their contact information on their farm’s Locally Grown page.

Also on the same subject (sorry to all you vegetarians on the list), Dyal Family Farm has a few half hogs from their pasture ready for processing. They cost apx. $375 for a hanging weight of about 115 lbs. They will be processed to order (i.e., you specify the thickness of chops, the roasts, ham and bacon curing, etc.). If you’ve got room in your freezer, this is an economical way to get local (well, they’re down near Vidalia, but it’s close) pastured pork. If your freezer is small, you can go in with friends or neighbors and split things up as you’d like. Either way, if you’re interested in this, let me know and I’ll get you in touch with the Dyals—this will all happen outside of Locally Grown proper.

The three day Athens Tour de Farm bike trip ended today with a stop at Mills Farm for some shrimp and grits and fresh off the vine tomato sandwiches. I didn’t make the bike ride, but I did happen to be at several of the farm stops. It seemed like a good time was had by all. We’ve also got our own Farmer for a Day Farm Tour happening this coming Saturday at Double B farm in Oxford. I know all of the slots have been filled, but we’ve got more tours coming. See the “Event Reservations” category to save your place for those other tours.

I saw several new products listed on the website for the week. The growers are still adding items as I write this, so you might want to wait a bit to order (or order now and come back later to order again). I’ve got to catch a plant to Louisiana in a few hours, so I’ll go ahead and open the website now rather than wait for them to finish.

We are going to both Split Creek Farm for goat milk, cheese, fudge and meat and to Diamond Hill for Jersey cow milk, cream, and buttermilk this week.

We thank you for all your support. The growth in both growers and customers recently has been phenomenal—we crossed 400 customers on the list yesterday and we’re now at 26 growers. I think we’ve got the hang of things in the stockroom at Gosford Wine now, and starting this week we’ll have a couple university students helping us out as well. We’ll see you all on Thursday from 4:30 to 7pm there at Gosford!