The Weblog
Athens Locally Grown has closed.
ALG Market Open for June 18
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
We’re back! I’ve sure missed you, but I bet you’ve missed the wonderful food from all our producers even more. I think it’s been at least fifteen years since we’ve been closed three weeks in a row, and I’m hoping it’ll be the last time that happens.
We’re trying out a new location on Tallassee Rd, and it has potential to be our new permanent home. We plan on operating pretty much exactly without the system we honed during our time at the YMCA, where we’ll have your items waiting for you and we’ll load them into your car as you drive on through. There’s a nice scenic driveway loop through the woods that goes past the old farmhouse that recently housed the Double Helix STEAM school. We’ll have signs at the road so you’ll know where to turn (there’s even a turn lane for you) and people to guide you where to go.
The address is 580 Tallassee Rd. Athens, GA 30606, a short distance off the loop. If you’re coming off the loop or Mitchell Bridge or Oglethorpe, head right up Tallassee Rd, just a bit past the Whitehead roundabout, and we’ll be on the right hand side. If the Oglethorpe/Tallassee/Mitchell Bridge intersection is daunting, come up Prince, continue onto Jefferson Hwy, and turn left at Whitehead Rd and take that o he roundabout and turn right. It happens to be right around he corner from my house, but tI know some of you might rarely ge tout o this part of town. I’ve converted your pickup slot from the Y to the same time at the new place, but feel free to change it if a different time works for you better now. Lord knows so much has changed just in the four weeks since we’ve seen you last. Here are some things that we’ve all been doing that worked wonderfully at the Y, and we’d like you to keep them up:
- Don’t arrive at the beginning of your pickup window if you’ve got that flexibility. The time you arrive has no bearing on what items you get, so take your time getting there and that’ll naturally spread things out a bit. Flatten the curve, if you will.
- I’m bad with faces as it is, and masks make it even harder to recognize you and even hear you when you give your name. Many of you had papers with your name written in big letters we could read through the window, and that is wonderful. If you think to do that same, it’ll make things even smoother.
- The pickup loop is newt to all of us, and while I think there is plenty of room we don’t want you backing up into Tallassee, so if you arrive faster than we can deliver orders, we may ask you to pull ahead into the loop and circle around.
Here are some general reminders of things that have changed from the before times:
- If you arrive by bike or on foot, or just want to park in the lot and get out of your car, we’ll have a place for you to walk up.
- We’ve still got three pickup windows, and it’s totally ok if you come later than the slot you chose
- We’re not accepting in-person payments unless absolutely necessary. We’ll have a drop box for checks or labelled envelopes of cash, but we greatly prefer Venmo payments to @athenslocallygrown or online payments through a card tied to your account. That last option has a 3% fee, and Venmo is free.
- We can not accept any recycling just yet
- We cannot take your own bags or bins out of your car and fill them up
- If you’d like to go through your items before you leave to make sure you’ve got everything, or that we didn’t mix up people’s items, feel free to pull into the lot and have a look.
I hope everything will go smoothly but since this is new to all of us, there may be some weirdness. Bear with us, and I’m sure we’ll be settled in in no time.
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 at our brand new home on Tallassee Road!
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!