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

Fried Okra and Potatoes

Frying Okra and Potatoes together gives a real taste treat. From www.africhef.com.

Serves 4 to 6

1 lb young Okra pods
2 large potatoes
1 Onion
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp Salt.
2 pints ice water
oil for frying
salt and pepper for seasoning, to taste

1. Top and tail the Okra pods (cut off the ends). Cut the pods into approximately 1/4 inch rounds. Peel and dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Peel the onions and chop finely.
2. Place the sliced Okra into a glass or stainless steel bowl and sprinkle the salt liberally over the pods. Cover the pods with the iced water, making sure that all the slices are under water. Place the bowl containing the Okra and water in a refrigerator and leave for 2 or more hours.
3. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and drain off the salt water. Place the Okra in a bowl and add the potatoes and chopped onion. Season the cornmeal with the salt and pepper. Place the sliced Okra potato and onion mixture together with the seasoned cornmeal in a large plastic bag and shake until the vegetables are well coated with the cornmeal.
4. Heat some oil (1/2 inch deep) in a frying pan until it begins to shimmer. Place the vegetables in the pan and fry until the potatoes are done and the mixture has browned nicely. Remove the Okra and potato mixture from the oil, using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve hot as a side dish

Coming Events

Farmer for a Day: September 4, Saturday, at Burnell Farm (Hart County)

“Certified Naturally Grown. We are a produce farm in Royston, Ga. One of are goals is to supply our local community with vegetables grown with no herbicides, chemicals are pesticides. We also raise chickens (Cornish X Rocks) and Rainbow Layers using the same standards as we do with our vegetables. We like to say our birds are DRUG free. We currently farm 9 acres and we have a greenhouse and use raised beds. We also have a 91/2 acre pond.” There are slots still available for both our September Farmer for a Day event, and you can find more details 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’s all-paperless order pickup went really smoothly. I can’t begin to tell you how great it felt to not print out the giant stack of paper, as we had every week for the past nine years. I’ve long had a vision of being able to coordinate the food from getting from the growers to you all without the paperwork, but it took this long for technology to be both available and affordable. Being able to work directly off the website live as we fill orders also greatly cuts down on the “back office” work. As you might imagine, the logistics behind getting the right items from the growers to the the right customer while getting the right amount of money from the customer back to the growers, all while accounting for missing items, packing mistakes, and so forth, is quite daunting. It all just got considerably easier, though, which is good news for everyone.

Now that that project is mostly behind me, I’d like to turn my efforts to another thing that’s been bothering me (and some of you, too): all the little plastic bags that get used to package most of the items going out to you all. It’s a tricky problem, for a number of reasons:

• The items must be pre-packaged by the grower, because we are not licensed as food handlers, nor do we have the facilities to re-package anything
• Paper bags are still environmentally costly to make, and having a bunch of paper bags all the same, even with our stickers on them, makes it very hard to find the right items as we fill orders
• Plastic produce bags are both inexpensive and readily available, so whatever replaces them must be as well

There are a lot of specifics wrapped up in those general statements, but you get the idea. It turns out, though, that again technology has found an answer, and it’s very close to being affordable as well. There is a new 100% compostable produce bag being made by BioBag that contains no GMO starches, and composts back into soil (not CO2 gas, like many compostable plastics do). It’s even nearly transparent, so it won’t slow up order packing. I can get almost a year’s supply delivered to us for about $6000, which comes out to about 6 cents a bag. If we got an outside funding source, I could give them out to the growers and require them to use the bags to pack their produce, eliminating almost all of the plastic that goes out (the meat and dairy can’t use these bags). If we got about half of it paid for from outside sources, I could offer them to the growers at half price, which would be in line with what they’re paying now for plastic.

So, that’s what it comes down to: $6000 to eliminate almost all of the plastic used by the growers at our market for a year. Sounds like a great deal, and if I (or the market) had the cash, I’d order the delivery today. But I don’t, so I’ll need to see if there is any funding sources around that would sponsor something like this for us. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Another long-standing project I’ve been working on is accepting EBT (“food stamps”) at our market. Several of you have asked about this, and unfortunately, these days EBT is the only way a growing number of families can put food on the table. The Athens Farmers Market, both the Saturday and Tuesday versions, started accepting EBT this year. Athens Locally Grown, though, does not. The biggest problem is the EBT program is extremely bureaucratic. The rules in place are rather straightforward, but are also very rigid. ALG is a new kind of business, not quite a farmers market and not quite a grocery store, and so we don’t really fit in any of the boxes. It also requires approval at the Federal, the state, and the local levels, and at each I’ve gotten “wait, you do what now?” as responses. It’s been a little dangerous. It seems regulatory authorities, at any level, have a universal response to something they’ve never seen before: “You can’t do that.” If I’m not careful, it’s not out of the question that ALG itself would get shut down for a while while we run around assuring people we’re not doing something we’re not supposed to be doing. I’m still progressing, though, and have hope that in the near future we’ll be able to accept EBT.

Just a reminder: due to some logistical conflicts, both Split Creek Farm has gone to an every-other-week schedule through the end of August. They’re here this week, but will be gone again next week.

We’ve re-instated our regular “Meet the Grower” table during the Thursday pickups. This week the table will be hosted by Tim & Liz Young from Nature’s Harmony Farm. They’ll be talking about their farming practices and cheese making, so be sure to stop by and say hello while you’re waiting for us to put your order together. They’d love to meet you!

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!