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

This was a beautiful weekend, perfect for working out in the garden. I’ve not even started on mine, but it’s really never too late to put something in the ground, and it’s prime planting season now. I was one of the founding farms of Athens Locally Grown, back in 2002, but these days I’m living back in the city of Athens again, and haven’t established gardens here. Weather like this, though, makes me want to throw seeds in every bit of dirt I can find, wherever I find it.

If you’ve been preparing your garden, or just thinking about starting one, be sure to check out all of the live plants offered by our growers through the market. Sure, you could run off to Home Depot and buy some mass-produced seedlings soaked in synthetic fertilizers and sprayed with fumigants, but you can also get hardy seedlings grown by the same people cultivating plants for their own vegetable beds, free of synthetic chemicals.

The average last frost date for Athens falls this week, but you never know when a weird cold front will blow through, wreaking havoc on the little plants. If you’ve put out summer plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and eggplants, keep an eye out on the forecast for the next week or two, just in case you need protect them. The average last frost date for some of our growers won’t come for another month, further up in the mountains, but that just means more variety for our market.

Why am I encouraging you to grow your own food when I’m in the business of helping growers sell you food they grow? For one, studies have shown (and my own experience confirms) that people who grow their own gardens tend to actually increase their yearly purchases at their local farmers markets. Once they take an interest their food so strong that their begin growing what they can, they find that they can rely even more on their local growers for things that they used to get at the grocery store. And besides, my goal is for every community to become less reliant on food grown elsewhere and shipped in from long distances. And you having your own little patch of garden in your yard is a big step in helping Athens do just that.

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!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park and Wednesday afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. The other area markets are all still closed for the season, I believe. If you know of any markets operating, please let me know.

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!