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Athens Locally Grown
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Recipes

Bell Peppers Lemonly Dressed and Cumin-esque

This versatile recipe will add just the right amount of color to any dish in need of some visual pizzazz. What’s more, the lemony cumin in the peppers will pizzazzify the flavors on your plate. From Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables

Serves 4

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 red or purple bell peppers, thinly sliced
2 green or yellow bell peppers, thinly sliced
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon honey (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon) (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions or red onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peppers; saute, stirring until slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Let cool.
2. Combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, parsley, cumin, honey, and garlic in a large jar. With the lid tightly screwed on, shake the jar vigorously until the oil and vinegar have combined and thickened.
3. Toss the peppers and scallions or red onion with the vinaigrette in a large bowl; add the salt and season with pepper to taste. Cover; refrigerate for 1 hour.

Market News

The big news this week is Athens Locally Grown is adding another payment method this week, one that has been asked for since we began nine years ago. Starting this Thursday, in addition to paying by cash or check, you will also be able to pay with your credit or debit card, so long as it has a Visa, Master Card, American Express, or Discover logo. There are a few things you should know first, however.

Most people have a vague awareness that merchants are charged fees in order to accept credit cards. There are typically equipment fees, monthly fees, monthly minimums, special merchant banks account fees, a per-swipe fee, and a percentage based fee, and often those fees vary by card type. On average, the fees all added up come to over 3% of your purchase price. The card companies have all kinds of statistics to show that sales increase when a merchants starts accepting cards, and so the merchant knows he can simply raise his prices by 2 to 3% for everyone, and then make up the fees in increased volume. For a medium to large business, that makes a lot of sense, but for small merchants with slim margins, it’s usually only something they do because they feel they have to.

A new company is trying to change all that, by offering a flat per-swipe fee of 2.75% plus 15 cents and eliminating everything else. This has the potential to be extremely disruptive to the entire industry, but the founder of the company, Square (http://www.squareup.com), has experience with that. He also founded Twitter. It took a while for them to convince the big banks to accept this simplified method of credit card processing, so even though we were first accepted into the program almost a year ago, it took until this week for everything to get turned on. We’re now good to go.

Athens Locally Grown has always been weird, as far as businesses go. We don’t run it in order to make money, and we keep our margins as close to zero as we can. We don’t set the prices at all, so the growers decide how to package and price their items. We charge them 10% of that price as a “table fee”, and that is largely how we cover the market’s expenses. Much of that goes to cover food credits for our team of volunteers, and the rest buys market equipment such as all the coolers, the tables, the shelving, the truck, and so forth. So, even a simple flat 3% credit card fee would suddenly eat up a full third of our operating budget. I’m not going to raise prices for everyone, nor will I increase the table fee for the growers, so that leaves one option for now: if you wish to pay with your credit or debit card, we’ll ask you to add a 3% gratuity to your payment. We’ll make that easy for you, if you find the convenience of plastic worth the added expense. If you wish to continue paying with cash or check, payments that cost us next to nothing to accept, we’ll gladly take that.

Another payment method that I’ve been trying to make available for years now is also getting closer: EBT. The Athens Farms Market began taking EBT this year, but we were still shut out because of our “weird” business model. After pushing all summer on this, though, we finally had our full application accepted by the USDA. They still need to approve it, though, and after that we’ll need to obtain the equipment, but we’re closer than ever. I’m hoping that by the time the Athens Farmers Market closes for the winter in November that we’ll be up and running with that, so families who rely upon EBT can still obtain fresh, locally grown food throughout the winter.

And speaking of winter, it looks like we’ll get our first real taste of cooler weather this week. Today’s rain has been wonderful (and so greatly needed), but I’m most happy about the string of 90+ degree days finally coming to an end. The heat has been great about keeping the summer vegetables going, but I won’t be that sad to see it go. These next few weeks, you’ll get to see the summer and fall veggie seasons overlap, and so you’ll get a greater than usual variety of foods to choose from. There are 117 types of peppers alone listed this week, but you’ll also find cabbages, lettuces, and other leafy greens. There are 26 types of beans, 16 of eggplant, and 17 of tomatoes. By the end of October, though, the frost will come, and all of them will be done until next year. Stock up now, and enjoy them all while we’ve got them!

Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown, all of our growers, and local food in general. 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!

Coming Events

Georgia Organics “Field of Greens” Party

This don’t miss event is held every year at Whippoorwill Hollow Farm right down the road from Athens in Walnut Grove. This year’s event is shaping up to be the best ever. They’ll be having small-plate tastings of farm-fresh food creatively prepared by Atlanta and Athens’ most dedicated farm-to-table chefs, a kid’s learning and activity area, live music, and cooking demos. New this year, many of the Atlanta-area “street food” vendors will be present, so you’ll get a chance to see what the buzz is about. They’ll also have an organic market onsite where attendees can learn about sustainable living options, and purchase farm products, from 50 vendors. The event is being held on October 3 from 11am – 5pm. You can find more info about Field of Greens at their special website, http://www.fieldofgreensfestival.com/

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 likelihood of home-brewed beer, and the possibility 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.

Also, Watkinsville has a thriving farmers market every Saturday morning, behind the Eagle Tavern. And further east, Comer has a nice little market Saturday mornings as well. 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!