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Availability for July 10


I hope everyone had a safe and happy Independence Day. My family went up to Dahlonega (not that much further than Athens is from our house) where the whole town and then some turned out for an old fashioned Fourth that included public readings of the Declaration and the Constitution, stump speeches on the town square, spontaneous bluegrass jam sessions on the sidewalk, a concert in the park, and a great fireworks display to top it all off. It was just like “the good old days”. You know, the days of old when food was grown largely by people you knew and you weren’t beholden to international conglomerates, free trade agreements, and the price of oil for the food you put on your plate.

We’ve taken a few more steps toward our goal this week with the addition of a new farm, Dillwood Farms. You may have seen them the past two weeks at the Saturday market, and now their items are available through Athens Locally Grown as well. We’d grown to the point where most everything was selling out by Tuesday, so maybe this will help things spread out a little more. I’m also very, very happy to announce the first batch of pastured chicken from Nature’s Harmony Farm. It’s a small batch, but is hopefully just the first of many to come. Chicken is one of our most requested items, and I’m hopeful that Nature’s Harmony will show some of us other growers by example how to navigate the legal system and add poultry to our diversified farms.

And on the topic of the legal system, we are experiencing a shortage of eggs right now. A new GA Ag. Dept. inspector has taken over the Athens beat, and is (in my opinion) over enforcing the rules. I’ll spare you the details (it involves the distinction between “mechanical refrigeration” vs. “refrigeration”), but several growers are sitting out on selling eggs until everything gets straightened out. Hopefully we can get that straightened out soon.

Finally, I wanted to touch upon the issue of packaging. Now that everything is laid out right before you on Thursday, you’ve got a better idea of what is involved in organizing all of your orders. The growers pack and label each individual item (we’re not legally able to do that for them at market) for you, and that means a lot of bags. We all despise plastic as much as anyone, so we’re all doing what we can to make it more palatable. Some of us use bags you can easily reuse in your kitchen (such as “zip locks”). Some of us use paper. And some of us are experimenting with bags derived from cornstarch and other bio-degradable materials. And of course you can help out by bringing your own large reusable bags or boxes to take everything home in. If you don’t, we do have bags that are both recycled and recyclable (#2). In short, there’s more packaging that is ideal, but we’re certain that all considered we’re still much better than the grocery store.

Thanks again for all of your support of your local growers. We’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30 to 8pm at the old state farmers market on Broad Street!