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

Things worked well enough last week that we’re going to try to have order pickups at Ben’s Bikes again this Thursday. Incase you just woke up from a month-long nap, we’ve had to make a few changes to keep everyone as safe as possible. We know that now more than ever it’s important for you to have fresh, locally grown food direct from our area farmers, and we’re here to facilitate that as best as we possibly can.

First, we will be working to gather all of your non-refrigerated items together before you get there, ready to pick up in paper grocery sacks. We’ll be working as quickly as possible, but we do need a little bit more time than usual. We’d love it if you wait until 5pm to arrive. The coolers will be full of cold and frozen things that we have to dig through, so if you all arrive right at five, not only will you have to socially distance yourselves across the parking lot, but you’ll also have to wait as we try to find everyone’s things in the coolers. We’ll be there until 8pm as usual, so feel free to come any time between five and eight.

We also want to minimize the amount of things that get handled. That’s why we’ll be pre-bagging your items instead of using your baskets or our bins. Also, please hold on to your recyclables for the foreseeable future. Even better, recycle them yourself at the various ACC locations about town.

We’d also rather not handle cash, checks, or cards in person. We understand if you really need to pay in person with paper money, but if at all possible, there are two better options for payment:

First, you can add a credit or debit card to your account, on the “Your Account” page of the website. It’s secure, powered by Stripe, and ALG never possesses your number ourselves. The downside is they charge us 3% for processing, and we have to pass that along to you.

Second, you can pay via Venmo on your phone. This is totally free to you, saving you from that 3% surcharge, and we treat it same as cash. You can find us there as @athenslocallygrown. You can pay via your phone right when you pick up your order, so you have the amount exactly right. If you want to add me as a contact first, go for it! If it asks you for my phone number as confirmation you actually know me, use 706-567-8954. Don’t try calling us, though — that’s the hotspot we use for our tablets.

Finally, we went to minimize the crowd waiting for food. To that end, please only send one person, and leave the kids in the car. We’ll be as quick as we can handing out orders, but if you want to text me to let me know you’re on the way, send me a message to 706-248-1860. Be sure to say who you are! Last week I got so many messages from people not in my contacts that my phone decided I was being spammed, and I didn’t actually see most of your messages until I got home. It turns out we did manage to pre-bag most everything so it didn’t really matter, but if you still want to text me to say you’re on the way, go for it. I added everyone from last week to my contacts, so not only will my phone know who you are, it also looks like I have lots of friends.

On our end, we’re minimizing our contact with the items, will wear gloves, and be washing our hands and using all the hand sanitizer we can have available. Speaking of which, I know that stuff is the most valuable substance on earth right now, but if you happen to have a bottle in your bunker that you can spare, could you please donate it to us? Thank you!

Like for everyone else, this is new territory for us, and we’re having to adjust on the fly. Last week saw three times the normal amount of sales for our growers, which would be logistically challenging for us in normal circumstances. Please be patient with us on Thursday if things don’t go the most smoothly, and if you see something we could be doing better, please tell us. We don’t know how long we’ll be able to do this, but we’ll keep it going as long as we possibly, and safely, can.

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!

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

First off, I hope you all are doing well, staying healthy, and are able to weather out everything going on. It’s positively surreal how life has changed for us in a week. Hour by hour, things change even more, and it’s hard to imagine what all might happen between now and Thursday.

Without knowing if we’ll actually be able to have pickups on Thursday, I’ve gone ahead and tentatively opened up market. We all need to eat, and our local farmers have the best food for us. Their ability to get that food to you will be severely tested over the next few weeks, or even months. The Saturday Athens Farmers Market is supposed to open this coming Saturday, but in light of the guidelines issued by the CDC tonight that all events with over 50 people should be cancelled for the next eight weeks, I’d be very surprised if that would still happen. Our pickups aren’t near as crowded, but there’s plenty more than 50 coming to see us each week, and I know many of you are in the high risk category for this virus. The back room of the bike repair shop isn’t the ideal environment for sterilization, either.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. I will aspire to find a way in the next couple days to safely conduct order pickups on Thursday, and will let you all place your orders with those hopes. Odds are very high however that I won’t find a way forward, and in that case I will close market down and cancel your orders for the week. You (and the growers) will know for certain by Tuesday evening.

One possibility I’ve seen discussed with other growers around the country is “pop up” markets with individual farmers set up in separate parking lots and green spaces, removing the dangerous concentration of people at one place at one time. If that makes the most sense for our area, I’ll do what I can to help facilitate and publicize that effort.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, and you’ll hear more from me before Tuesday night.

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

This week our town takes a collective pause, what with pretty much all of the schools in town at all levels taking spring break. I know many of you are leaving town for the week, and I hope you have a grand time! Even though spring break is here before spring, the warming weather has our growers working overtime, and they’ve got plenty of items listed for you folks staying behind.

It also looks like it’ll be a decent week, weather-wise, at least compared to the last few weeks. That is to say, it’s only forecast to rain five days out of seven. I’m hoping to get some garden time in this week, pulling out the winter weeds and putting seeds and seedlings down in their place. I’ve had gardens large and small pretty much every year of my adult life, and this time of year I want to spend every moment out in them. My space is much smaller now than it was a few years ago, but it feels just as good with a few raised beds as when I had a full acre under cultivation.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

Today was just beautiful, a brief respite before we get another four days of rain. I saw the other day that we’re already well over double the average yearly rainfall for this time of year, and we’re just going to be adding to that surplus, it seems.

If you, like me, took advantage of the blue skies today to do some gardening, don’t let the balmy afternoons we’ve been getting fool you. There are several more frosts ahead of us, no doubt, starting with a bit of a freeze this coming weekend. Garden centers will be happy to sell you tomato plants this time of year, but keep them indoors for a while. There’s nothing outdoors they like right now.

I’ll be out of town this Thursday, leaving the market pickups in the hands of our capable and hard-working volunteers. I did have to take the salmon off for the week, since it’s stored at my house, but have no fears — it’ll be back next week. Doug has restocked the freezer one last time before heading out this month to Alaska to go catch more.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

For a few glorious hours this afternoon, I was reminded that while it seems like it has always been raining and will always be raining, sometimes it is actually not raining and I won’t always have to rely on these gummies I’ve been chewing for my Vitamin D. Other than trim some brambles that popped up in my asparagus patch, I’ve not done any of my own gardening yet because it’s just been too dreary. It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow, but that may be it for the week. And while it’ll be nice to get out there and garden some, keep aware that winter’s not done with us yet, and we’ll be seeing nights dip down below freezing again this weekend. Spring is nearly upon us, but it’s not here yet.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

This week, I’d like to highlight a feature of the website that you may have missed. When we started filling orders paperlessly a several years ago, I revamped the “Order History” that you can view by looking at the Your Account page. Back when we had a sheet of paper with your order on it, you could see right then if a grower couldn’t fill an item you had ordered. Now, we try to tell you (we can see that on our little screens), but I do sometimes get asked days or weeks later about missing items (often when someone else picked up the order, and word didn’t get passed back). The system records every time a grower takes something off your order by adding a note to the comment section of the order. Sometimes they’ll also email you in person, but not always. Additionally, the system records when we put an item in your basket or bag, and how you paid. If something turns up missing because the grower didn’t bring it, or if we later discover a bag with your name on it (usually because we accidentally gave you someone else’s), it’ll record that too. We automatically issue refunds for items you paid for but didn’t receive (and you’ll get an automated email each time), and that gets recorded also. You can see all these notes and details about your order by pulling it up in your order history and clicking the link for the PDF Invoice.

If you want to double-check our packing as we hand you your order, you can print out that invoice and bring it with you or load it up on your smart phone. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we welcome your diligence. By 2pm on Thursday, it should accurately reflect what you’re going to be getting that day. I will say that the paperless system has improved our order filling accuracy tremendously. We still have to refund a thing or two each week, but well over 99.9% of the items are getting to where they’re supposed to go.

If you have entered your credit card into our system, we do not run those cards until after pickups close on Thursday night, and the total charged to your card reflects any adjustments that had to get made along the way. If there is any question, the PDF has an item by item accounting of everything you received and was charged for, so we can go back over that at any time.

If you’ve ordered something one week and want to order it again, but can’t quite remember what it was called or who sold it, there’s a simpler version of your order history right on the market page. If you never use it, you can hide it, but what makes it really useful is the items you ordered previously will have an “add to cart” link right next to them if they are currently being offered for sale again. If you like to buy the same things each week, it can really speed up your shopping 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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

This last week was a great one for local food in Athens. Everything that we have build together over the last 20 years was on full display for people around the country in town for the annual Georgia Organics conference. Friday saw tour busses fan out from the Classic Center to visit farms, community gardens, markets, food businesses, research plots, and more. Intensive workshops were held at sites about town teaching others how our treasures were created and how they could go back home and build on our experience. Alice Waters, pioneer of the organic and farm-to-table movements, gave a Saturday lunch presentation where she recreated her school lunch program for all the attendees. Saturday also saw dozens of instructional sessions taught by nationally known experts (many of them Athenians). And the topper was the renowned Farmers Feast, always one of the best meals I have all year.

All through the weekend we heard from people who were new to Athens marveling at all our community has done to build a local food system, and also from those who have been here many times marveling at how much more we’ve done since the last time they visited. It’s easy to get lost in the routine of daily life, such as ordering carrots from a favorite local farmer and picking them up a few days later, and forgetting that what we have available here, while far from perfect, is still the envy of so many other communities. We should be proud of what we have available here, even while working to make it better (pushing for food justice, starting and supporting local food businesses, and introducing your neighbors to the joy of really fresh lettuce).

The annual Georgia Organics awards were given out during the farmers feast. The Barbara Petit Pollinator Award, given to someone, not necessarily a farmer, who has made a difference in promoting sustainable agriculture and local foods, was given to Jacqui Coburn and Alex Rilko of Front Field Farm. They’re ALG farmers, mainstays at the other area farmers markets, and founders of Collective Harvest, a model of farmer cooperation and collaboration. I just love seeing locals who have been so instrumental in building the food system we’re lucky to have here. Following that, Rashid Nuri gave a wonderful keynote address about his path to becoming the driving force behind urban agriculture in Atlanta and the challenges (and benefits of overcoming those challenges) still ahead.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

By some calendars, spring is here! In Celtic tradition, this weekend marked Imbolc, the half-way point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and the beginning of spring. Some years, weather wouldn’t cooperate with this astronomical event, so people would watch for badgers coming out of their burrows for guidance. If one came out and didn’t like what they saw, back they went and there’d be six more weeks of winter. Most of the other traditions of Imbolc have passed away, but we still make a to-do about Groundhog Day.

We may be in for several more weeks of cold, but the daylight hours are long enough now that plants are taking note and waking up. Seeds can sense the daily cycles and those from cool weather plants are starting to sprout on their own. Time for me to finish weeding my garden and put my lettuce, pea, radish, and carrot seeds in the ground!

Georgia Organics is in town this coming weekend for their annual conference, and I’m really looking forward to that. When I first started going to their conference in 2002, it was a tiny affair, with all of the attendees fitting in the lodge at Unicoi State Park up in Helen, learning from each other in two small classrooms there. Now, well over a thousand people come from all across the country to learn and celebrate the thriving local food systems that have sprung up across Georgia. The movement in Athens has grown during that time from a handful of farmers and gardeners selling to a small but dedicated group of customers to one that’s a model for cities all across North America. Athens Locally Grown has been part of that growth, starting in 2002 as the world’s first online farmers market and now the flagship of a system that is used by around 400 communities world-wide. We have so much to be proud of here in Athens, and I’m happy we get a chance to show it all off this weekend when the GO conference rolls into town.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!

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

It’s going to be a cold rainy week for us here, and that rainy weather really gets me in the mood to get out and garden. Not in the rain, no, but it’s the perfect weather for going through my favorite seed catalogs, organizing my tools, and getting everything ready for when the sun shows up and warms things up again. I can’t wait! In the meantime, our farmers have got you covered, with leafy greens from their outdoor beds and warmer weather crops coming out of their hoop houses.

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 on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Other Area Farmers Markets

The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in the Spring, and you can catch the news on their website. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours from 1-4. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com. If you know of any other area markets operating, please let me know.

All of these other markets are separate from ALG (including the Athens Farmers Market) but many growers sell at multiple markets. 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!