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Our Website: http://athens.locallygrown.net
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Recipes

Baked Zucchini Halves Stuffed with Wild Rice and Quinoa

In this hearty recipe the classic combination of onion, celery, and cheese give plenty of robust flavor to the mixed grains, while zucchini provides the perfect juicy-firm base. This satisfying dish is an excellent accompaniment to roasted chicken or grilled fish. From Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables.

Serves 4 to 6

1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup cooked wild rice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3/4 ounce)
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)
1 rib celery, chopped
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
butter (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Cut out the center from each half of the zucchini with a paring knife, being careful not to puncture the bottom or the sides; reserve the centers. Transfer the hollow halves, cut-side up, to a baking dish.
3. Coarsely chop the zucchini centers and put them in a large bowl. Add the quinoa, wild rice, and Parmesan. Stir until well combined.
4. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and celery; cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the bread crumbs and salt. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the bread crumbs are well mixed in and heated through, about 1 minute.
5. Add the bread crumb mixture to the quinoa/rice mixture and combine well.
6. Stuff hollow zucchini halves with the quinoa/rice mixture. Cover with aluminum foil; bake for 40 minutes.
7. Remove the foil. If you wish, dot each half with a pat of butter. Continue baking until zucchini is very tender and the filling is gold- en brown, 10 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Coming Events

Farmer for a Day: August 7, Saturday, at Flatwoods Farm (Elbert County)

“USDA Certified Organic. We are located in the Flatwoods area of south Elbert County. One of the goals of local sustainable agriculture is to grow crops befitting the culture, the land and the nature of a given area. We specialize in growing organic fruits and vegetables that are best suited for the consumers, retail outlets, markets and restaurants of northeast Georgia and the surrounding area. We concentrate when possible on producing heirloom varieties and raise all our crops in the ground, no hydroponics or container produce.” There are slots still available for both our August and September Farmer for a Day events, and you can find more details on all of them on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

Athens Locally Grown Hunter’s Moon Feast: October 23, Saturday, at Boann’s Banks (Royston, Franklin County)

“The October full moon has been known as the “Hunter’s Moon” for millennia, and was a time of feasting throughout the Northern hemisphere. We revive the notion here with a day of feasting at Boann’s Banks (the farm of Athens Locally Grown managers Chris and Eric Wagoner) on the banks of the Broad River outside Royston. It’ll be a low-key affair, without any farm work for you to do. Just good food and drink (Eric will prepare a variety of dishes using locally grown vegetables and locally raised meats, and perhaps brew an adult beverage. There’s also the possibility of home-brewed beer, and the likelihood of good live music. There’ll certainly be good company (all of you), and a river to splash in. There’s even some camping space, for those who really want to enjoy the moon. Come any time, but I’ll be aiming for 2pm to have the BBQ and other dishes ready. Stay as long as you’d like, even into Sunday. Nights are chilly, though, so bring a tent if you’re wanting to do that. There is no charge for Locally Grown members and their families. We do ask that you bring a dish to share, and if it’s made from Locally Grown ingredients, so much the better." You can make your reservations for the feast on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon and every Tuesday evening at Little Kings downtown. It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!

Market News

Last week I gave you a heads up about the paperwork we’ve been printing out each week, and this week it’s official: starting this week, Athens Locally Grown pickups will be completely paperless. In case you missed it last week, I’ll just repeat everything here (if you read last week’s email, skip down below the pictures):

I’ve been working over the past several months on an electronic system that our volunteers can use to fill orders so we wouldn’t have to print so much paper. During our last record week, back in early May, we printed almost 750 pages, all of which we sent straight to the recycling bin at the end of the day. We’ve been doing that week in, week out for years, and it added up to far more paper than I even want to think about. Not only did we print your invoices, which we used to pack the order, but we also had a condensed version of them all for the payment table and another report with much of the same information we used to check in the growers.

The folks at Ben’s Bikes let us use their internet service, so the first thing I did was add a grower check-in system to the website’s back end. Then, using some iPads that I borrowed (and one the market bought), we were able to get the payment table using the website as well. In the process, we were able to add a second cashier, eliminating our biggest bottleneck. We were donated some old iPhones to help us test filling the orders electronically, and that has worked really well. I found a great deal on some refurbished iPod Touches a couple weeks ago, and so now we’ll be able to go 100% paperless. It’s a huge relief for me to get us to that point. I just hated to see all that paper going into the recycle bin every single week.

So, what does that mean for you? First of all, we won’t have a paper receipt for you take home with you. Few of you asked for it, but I know for those of you who did it was very important. Those invoices have always been available to you on the website, and they will still be there. These are the exact same things we printed out Thursday afternoon. You’ll find them on the Your Account page of the site, under “Your Order History”. There, you’ll see you can generate an invoice for every order you’ve ever placed. The growers are adjusting orders throughout the week to account for things they couldn’t fill, but they are done by 2pm on Thursday. Any time after that, your invoice is pretty much final, and reflect what we expect you to get when you arrive that afternoon. You can view or print that any time you need to.

There are occasionally adjustments we need to make on the spot, however, so that’s the second thing. Since our volunteers will be filling your order electronically, and since the cashiers will be seeing that same information, we’re going to ask that you not pay until after you’ve received your items. That way, if we need to make any adjustments on the spot (usually either due to the grower accidentally leaving something out or us making a mistake getting the right items to the right people), the cashiers will already have that info on their screen when they give you your total. Paying first, then getting your items, and then making refunds/credits has been a bit confusing for everyone.

Another exciting development this week is the arrival of aged raw milk cheeses from Greendale Farm. With them and Nature’s Harmony Farm, our community now has two sources for traditional raw milk cheeses, both made from milk from their own pastured cows. Add to that Split Creek Farm’s goat milk cheeses from up the road in South Carolina and the various products from AtlantaFresh Artisan Creamery (made with Johnston Family Farm’s milk), we’ve gone from having nothing available a year ago to suddenly having a range of locally made dairy products that would make even a town in Wisconsin or Vermont proud. And not one of them is made using milk from confined, grain fed cows. Even if you’re not as big a fan of traditional cheese as I am, it’s still a fantastic thing for our community.

We’ve got two more “Farmer for a Day” events scheduled for the summer, with the next one this coming Saturday. There are still plenty of slots open, and you can find more details over on the sidebar to the left, and on the website.

Due to some logistical conflicts, both Split Creek Farm and Mac’s Eggs will be going to an every-other-week schedule through the end of August. This is an off-week for them, so they’ll return next week.

We’ve re-instated our regular “Meet the Grower” table during the Thursday pickups. There’s not currently a grower signed up for this week, but I hope to have the table claimed by Thursday.

I feel like I’m forgetting something, but can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Might as well open the market, then. Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown and everything we’ve tried to accomplish. With you’re help, we’ve been able to build something truly great and inspirational to people all across the country, more than you could know. Thank you also for your support of 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!