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

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I’ve known many hard working laborers in my day, but probably none that work harder than our farmers. Please send a few extra thanks their way next time you’re able.

I don’t have anything specific for the newsletter this week, so I’ll let you get right into ordering. 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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

All’s still quiet on the farming front. The mornings have a little bit of chill to them, which means the leafy greens ought to be coming in strong before long! Until then, we’re happy to have the last few weeks of summer veggies. It’s hard to believe that the first frost is only six or eight weeks away!

I did get a letter this week from a long-time ALG member, former farm worker, and now new farmer Aura Morris. She’d like me to share it with y’all, so here it is:

Sister Fox Farm was established in Fall 2017 in Athens, GA. We are Aura and Dave, aspiring homesteaders and lovers of nature. We raise organic-fed pastured American Guinea Hogs for pork, as well as vegetables and eggs.

Our main product is pork. We raise heritage-breed American Guinea Hogs, which are a small homestead-sized lard pig that used to be popular for small farms and homesteads. We run two herds that live on pasture all the time; one is supplemented with Certified Organic feed, and the other is supplemented with conventional feed. We offer two feed options to meet people’s cost and food preferences. We are so excited to be able to offer pork that is fed organically, as we were not able to find organic pork anywhere in Georgia before we started raising our own pigs! We sell pigs by the quarter, half, and whole share (approximately the equivalent of 15 lb, 30 lb, and 60 lb of meat each). Each share includes your pick of cuts such as sausage, belly, roasts, ham, boston butt, pork chops, and also lard for rendering, bones for soups, and organ meats if desired. Shares must be reserved in advance and are limited since we have a small herd.

Sister Fox Farm is located on what used to be family farmland on the north side of Athens. This land was farmed in cotton for many generations, and then, like much of the land in the area, it was divided up and sold in parcels and allowed to grow up in trees and brush. The house was left in disrepair, until the previous owner bought it and put years of time and energy into restoring it to beauty. Our name, Sister Fox Farm, is both a tribute to the fox who led our friends to this land and shares our home with us, and a representation of the philosophy that we strive to live out as we caretake this land. We consider the fox, the hawk, the songbirds, the trees and green plants, and even the insects to be kin and community members here, and we respect their right to live and thrive here. We do not use any herbicides, pesticides, or poisons on our land. We see ourselves not as “owners,” but as stewards of this small parcel of earth. We hope to leave it better than we found it.

Please contact us to purchase pork or to be added to our mailing list. We look forward to feeding you!

www.sisterfoxfarm.com
sisterfoxfarm@gmail.com

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

Not much news on the farming front this week. It’s been hot, but not abnormally so for August, and we’ve had enough rain to keep the ground from drying out. My eldest turns 15 tomorrow, and that had me reminiscing — I’ve been running our little market for longer than Vivian’s been alive, and some of you who have been on this journey with us will remember me filling orders with a baby strapped to my chest, first on the lawn outside Kudzu Coffee, and then on the patio of Big City Bread. Much has changed since those days!

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

The new school year brings many new people to Athens, and many new people to Athens Locally Grown, so I thought this week I’d give a brief primer on how ALG works. Those of you who have been with us during these last seventeen years probably already know all this, but I’ll try to keep it interesting for you too. In January, I’ll spend several weeks going into much more detail about all this.

First off, ALG is best thought of like a traditional farmers market, because except for the lack of tents and tables that’s very much how we operate. The growers are putting their own items up for sale directly to you, at prices and quantities they have set. The market volunteers and I are here to make sure it all happens smoothly, but the growers are selling their products directly to you. Growers do have to apply to sell through the market, and I personally approve each of them before they list their products. Here’s a summary of the standards we have set:

• All growers must use sustainable practices and never use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
• All growers can only sell what they themselves have grown or made
• All growers must be from the greater Athens area. Right now, this means within about 50 miles
• All animals raised for meat or eggs must be pastured
• Handicrafts must be made primarily from items produced or gathered on the farm
• Prepared foods must use organic ingredients if at all possible, and locally grown ingredients if at all possible
• All proper licenses, when required by law, must be obtained
• All growers must first participate in the market for a few weeks as customers, so they can clearly see how it all works

When I’ve turned down requests to sell through ALG (and I have turned down many), the items clearly broke one or more of those standards. There are a few edge cases that I take on a case by case basis, such as coffee. In cases like that, we set the standards as strict as we can. With coffee, for example, the beans must be sustainably grown, they must be roasted locally, and the roaster must have a direct business relationship with the farm that grew the beans.

So, the growers list their available products and set their prices. For most all of the products, they do this before they’ve harvested the items, so they have to estimate how much they will actually have. They’ve gotten pretty good at this guess, but it is a guess, and the unpredictable nature of farming means they may have far less than they thought (thanks to deer, a hail storm, etc.) or they may have far more than they thought (a nice rain can double the growth of lettuce overnight, for example). Most of them are conservative with their estimates, and so they let you continue to order even if they’ve already sold more than they guessed they’d have. That’s why popular items may have a quantity in the negatives when you look at the listings. The system will still let you order on the chance that they’ll actually have enough, but you’ll get warnings along the way that you’re taking a gamble.

I do not collect items from the farms, and do not know myself until Thursday afternoon what the growers were able to harvest and bring in to town. The growers do have each other’s contact information, so if one grower is short and another has a surplus, they may arrange with each other to get all the orders filled, but in general, if a grower cannot fill an order for something, they’ll remove that ordered item and you’ll see a comment on your invoice indicating that. Since I’m not a middle-man, I can’t arrange for substitutions myself.

When the growers bring in the items you ordered on Thursday afternoon, packaged and labelled with your name, I pay them on your behalf out of our shared cash box during the hour before we open the market for their sales from the previous week. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order this week. We deposit the money you pay (via cash, check, or credit) into our bank account so it will be there when we write checks as the cycle begins anew. As explained elsewhere on the website, you are really ordering directly from and paying the growers yourself, but our shared cashbox system makes things convenient for you and them. (Imagine if you ordered from ten growers having to write ten checks when you picked up your items!) This shared cashbox system does mean that if you place an order and then never arrive to pick it up, we’re left holding the bag. For that reason, you are responsible for paying for orders not picked up, and that amount is automatically added on to your next order for your convenience. We do accept credit card payments on the website, and many customers take advantage of that and skip the pay table. The cards don’t actually get charged until after pickups on Thursday, so your charge will reflect any adjustments that had to get made along the way.

For a number of legal reasons, ALG never takes possession of your ordered items. We don’t buy them from the growers and resell them to you, nor do we repackage them in any way. The growers drop off your items for you, and you arrive and pick them up. The market volunteers facilitate that happening. Because of the need to maintain that separation, we cannot deliver, nor can we generally hold your items later than 8pm on Thursday if you fail to come pick them up. We start calling those who haven’t arrived by 7:30, and quite often we just get answering machines and voice mail. Anything still at our pickup location at 8pm will get divided up among those there at the time, primarily our volunteers, and then we finish loading up the truck and leave. There are some things you can do to insure you won’t get charged for things you didn’t come get:

1. If you know prior to Tuesday at 8pm that you won’t be able to come get your order or send someone in your place, send me an email and I will cancel your order.
2. If you find out later that you can’t come, send me an email. So long as I know before market begins, I can put the things you ordered on the “extras” table, and your fellow customers will almost certainly buy them for you.
3. If you discover Thursday while we’re at market that you can’t arrive, give me a call at 706-248-1860. I’ll put your items on the “extras” table, and if they sell, you’ll be off the hook.
4. If you have a cell phone, make sure that number is the number on your account. You can go to the “Your Account” page on the website to be sure. If you’re out and about and I get your home phone or your work phone, no one gets helped.

Finally, ours is a paperless system, so we do not have paper receipts for you when you pick up your order. An electronic receipt is generated, though, and can be found on the website. Go to the “Your Account” page, view your order history, and you’ll see an invoice for each order. By 2pm on Thursday, it will show what we expect to have for you that evening. After we fill your order, it will show exactly what we packed for you, and what, if anything, was missing. You can view that at any time, even years from now. If we didn’t get you something we should have, or if anything you got was of unacceptable quality, please contact me ASAP. I’ll share the problem with the grower so we can insure it won’t happen again. If you’re logged into the site, most of the growers have their contact info on their profile page (off the “Our Growers” page), so you can contact them directly if you choose.

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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 back to school week for both the Athens public schools and UGA, and the town is already a madhouse. It’s easy to get caught up in the new routines and forget about the old, like picking up your ALG orders on Thursday. Please check the phone number on your account to be sure it’s one you can be reached at on a Thursday evening. I start making calls about 7:30, and every week there is someone who has forgotten completely. I know I’d forget myself sometimes if I weren’t already there, so there’s no shame in that.

Try to enjoy the back-to-school madness this week. Even if you have no little ones yourself in school, the town certainly changes this week from the sleepy small town it’s been the last few months. 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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

Seems like every year about this time, the whole town suddenly realizes that summer is almost over and the new school year is almost upon us. I’ve got two girls in school, but even if I didn’t this community is based far more on the academic year than the calendar one. Even though we might have the hottest few days of the summer ahead of us, it’s time to start thinking about cool season school uniforms, waiting outside for the busses, and trying to keep packed lunches hot.

The new school year brings new people to town, and new ALG customers. Welcome, all of you! We’ve already seen quite a few new faces these past few weeks. If you ever have any questions about how our market operates, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email or talk with me during Thursday pickups. The new year also changes existing household routines, so it’s easy to forget it’s Thursday and you’ve got an order waiting for you at Ben’s Bikes. I do make phone calls to everyone who hasn’t arrived by 7:30 and I’ve begun sending text message reminders even before that, and every week catch at least one person who has completely forgotten. I also get a lot of home phone answering machines, though, so now’s a good time to make sure you’ve got a mobile number on your account if you have one. You can change your contact info and several other account details on the Your Account page of the website.

When August draws near, I usually issue a warning that nearly all of the favorite summer veggies are about to be in short supply. Once it gets really hot for long stretches, many plants just shut down flower production, and without flowers, there are no fruit. So, when the hot still days of August roll around there is often a sudden decline in tomatoes, beans, squash, peppers, and pretty much everything but okra. This year, though, we might be ok. It’s not been particularly hot, and there has been just enough rain to keep things from getting too dry. If we stay lucky and the trend holds for a few more weeks, the bounty we have now just might be with us right into fall.

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

I really love celebrations of local food, whether I’m traveling or close to home. One of my favorites lately, and not just because I’m currently the reigning champion, is the garlic pie contest at the Clayton Garlic Festival. It’s being held this Saturday at the Clayton Farmers Market, held at the Food Bank of NE Georgia. It’s small compared to the Athens Saturday markets, but the people there are wonderful and any excuse to go visit Clayton is a good one. If you come by, a donation gets you samples of all the pies submitted for the contest, including some by highly regarded restauranteurs. I was lucky enough to win last year with a mock chicken garlic pot pie, and I’m going to try to win it again this year with something completely different. I’d love to see you there, from 10:00 to 12:30!

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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

Tanya from Cultured Traditions wrote to let me know that she was back this week after a longer-than-usual absence. She had a mechanical problem with her walk-in cooler, one that made it get below freezing in there for a bit too long. A fair number of her items in there, sealed in glass jars, froze and burst open. She caught it before she lost everything but she still had quite the mess to clean up and had to start the fermentation process over again for quite a few things. But, she’s super happy to be back, and would like you to enjoy special pricing on her inventory this week only.

Apart from that announcement, we’ve reached the lazy days of summer, and I’m going to take that to heart and let you get right to ordering!

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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 time again for “Tomatoes at Terrapin”, the annual fund raiser for the Athens Nurses Clinic. A week from Saturday, in fact, July 20th from 4:30 to 7:00. The Athens Nurses Clinic is a quiet but hugely important group in town, and attendees at this event get to help them continue their cause of providing free medical services to our community by eating deliciously fresh, locally grown tomato sandwiches and drinking refreshing, locally brewed Terrapin beer. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the amazing tomatoes that local farmers donate to the event and help those who need medical services. There will also be live music, provided by The Common People Band. In years past they sold tickets at $25 a pop but this year the event is free to all! They’d love your donations, and they’d love to see you even more. Find out all about it at their website: tomatoesatterrapin.com — Bring your chairs, blankets, and kids!

One other note: I’ll be out of town next week, and Doug’s Salmon keeps his freezer at my house. So, if you think you might want fish next week, go ahead and grab it now.

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 is open on Saturdays at Bishop Park, and Wednesday evenings downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is back as well, Saturdays from 9 to 1, and you can watch for weekly news here: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/west-broad-farmers-market/. The Comer Farmers’ Market is open on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. Check www.facebook.com/comerfm for more information. The Oconee County farmers market is held every Saturday 8 to noon in downtown Watkinsville. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on Saturdays from 9 to 2pm. You can learn all about them here: www.washingtonfarmersmkt.com Folks to the east can check out the Hartwell Farmers Market, which starts bright and early on Saturday morning from 7am to noon, and Tuesday afternoons from 11 to 3pm. 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!