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

As the weather starts warming up and the ground starts drying out, our growers are getting even busier than they’ve been preparing for another (hopefully) great growing season. As part of that planning, they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to keep from losing money this year. Some will expand their operations to grow a little more, some will diversify their crops, some will focus their crops more on just a few big sellers, some will seek out new markets or add CSAs or other strategies, some will scale back, and some will add new revenue streams, such as agri-tourism.

One of our growers just got some recognition for her efforts to bring people out to her farm for events and other activities. Pilar Quintero, of Rancho Allegra, had a nice article written about her and her farm, which you can find online here. Many of you have been agri-tourists yourselves, when you’ve gone to Washington Farms to pick strawberries and ride in the wagons, or to the Athens Corn Maze, or to cut your own Christmas tree. Many of our growers hold tours, special events, and other activities to bring you out to their farm where you can see firsthand how things are grown, what goes into bringing food to your table, and meet those who work so hard so we can eat well. As I hear of these events, I’ll be sure to mention them here, and I encourage all of you to take advantage of some of them to get out and see more of our local food system and to support our growers in yet another way.

Oh, and most of our growers will be employing many of those strategies I listed all at once to try and keep their farms going. It’s a hard business, in many many ways.

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!