Athens Locally Grown

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Our Website: athens.locallygrown.net
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On Thursdays: Here’s a map.

Market News

First off, I hope you all are doing well, staying healthy, and are able to weather out everything going on. It’s positively surreal how life has changed for us in a week. Hour by hour, things change even more, and it’s hard to imagine what all might happen between now and Thursday.

Without knowing if we’ll actually be able to have pickups on Thursday, I’ve gone ahead and tentatively opened up market. We all need to eat, and our local farmers have the best food for us. Their ability to get that food to you will be severely tested over the next few weeks, or even months. The Saturday Athens Farmers Market is supposed to open this coming Saturday, but in light of the guidelines issued by the CDC tonight that all events with over 50 people should be cancelled for the next eight weeks, I’d be very surprised if that would still happen. Our pickups aren’t near as crowded, but there’s plenty more than 50 coming to see us each week, and I know many of you are in the high risk category for this virus. The back room of the bike repair shop isn’t the ideal environment for sterilization, either.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. I will aspire to find a way in the next couple days to safely conduct order pickups on Thursday, and will let you all place your orders with those hopes. Odds are very high however that I won’t find a way forward, and in that case I will close market down and cancel your orders for the week. You (and the growers) will know for certain by Tuesday evening.

One possibility I’ve seen discussed with other growers around the country is “pop up” markets with individual farmers set up in separate parking lots and green spaces, removing the dangerous concentration of people at one place at one time. If that makes the most sense for our area, I’ll do what I can to help facilitate and publicize that effort.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, and you’ll hear more from me before Tuesday night.

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area 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!