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

There are a number of workshops and conferences coming up that those of you who are gardeners might want to look in to, especially if you think you might want to expand your gardens and begin selling at ALG or other area markets.

First, there’s Sound and Sensible Organic Certification Workshop on February 5, 2015 from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., hosted by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). This workshop is intended to enlist new farmers and ranchers and help them learn how to become National Organic Program (NOP)-certified. It will provide information and expertise to farmers interested in NOP and answer questions regarding organic farm practices and NOP certification. This day-long event is free, and lunch will be provided. Location: Athens-Clarke County Cooperative Extension, 2152 West Broad Street, Athens, GA 30606 http://www.ugaextension.com/clarke To register: Please visit https://www.ncat.org/events Questions: For questions and more information, please contact Rockiell Woods at 479-575-1385 or email rockw@ncat.org.

Georgia Organics is again bringing their annual conference, attended by people from all over the county, to Athens next month. You can find details of what’s to come at their website, http://conference.georgiaorganics.org/. It’s one of my favorite conferences anywhere, and there’s something there for everyone involved in the local food system, from growers to cooks to eaters.

Just up the interstate in Greeneville, the SC Organic Growing Conference (known as GROW) will be held on Saturday, February 28 through March 2. COOK, featuring cooking classes taught by the chefs from the Culinary Institute of the Carolinas, will be held on Sunday, March 1. And edible Upcountry’s Food Hub (NETWORK) rounds out the event on Monday, March 2. The Culinary Institute will prepare a locally-sourced breakfast and lunch for GROW, an afternoon tea for COOK, and a locally-sourced happy hour for NETWORK. For more information, see their website: http://scorganicliving.com/GROW__2015_Conference.html

Finally, here’s a workshop you can have on your own time. Georgia has recently enacted cottage food laws, which allows low-risk foods to be prepared in home kitchens for sale at farmers markets and other locations. There is an online seminar that goes over the ins and outs of this new set of rules on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zryAP46dJ4E.

And, one repeat from last week: UGA graduate student in the department of Geography, and Athens Locally Grown Member, Aidan Hysjulien is conducting a Master’s Thesis project trying to understand how the values associated with alternative foods systems are incorporated into decisions at the supermarket. This research will consist of an interview during a shopping trip and will require a very minimal time commitment. For more information please contact Aidan Hysjulien at ahys@uga.edu or at (919)699-4288. Aidan will again be manning a table at our pickups this Thursday, if you’d like to talk to him and get a feel for his research project. He is needing to interview quite a few people for his project, and would love your help.

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 has closed for the winter. You can watch for news during the offseason on their website. The other area markets are also all closed for the season, I believe. If you know of any winter markets operating, please let me know. And they might all be closed, but we’ll be here all year round!

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!