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 a week of transitions, what with UGA done for the semester (and Maymester starting up) and the public schools starting to wind down for the year. With sudden changes in schedules and routine, it’s also a week that more people that usual tend to forget to pick up their orders. It’s a good time to check the phone number on your account, over on the Your Account page, to make sure that it’s current and preferably a cell phone. I start calling people who haven’t arrived at 7:30 — we are open until 8 — and every week there are folks I reach who completely forgot it was Thursday. There are also usually people I’m not able to reach at all, because I have a number for a home phone or they don’t answer and don’t have voice mail set up, and 8 o’clock rolls around and their food is still sitting there. When that happens I have to give the food away and charge them anyway, because the growers deserve to get paid. I’d much rather you get the food you order, even if we have to work out an an arrangement when I reach you with the reminder call, and that’s much easier if I can reach you before we leave for the night.

I don’t have any other news this week, so I’ll 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 has returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park and Wednesday afternoons at Creature Comforts downtown. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market has returned, and you can catch the details on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. 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 didn’t think it was possible May was here already, but I keep seeing people around town in caps and gowns, so it must be true. This is by far the busiest time of the year for our farmers. They’re out working in the fields weeding and harvesting the delicate spring veggies, trying to protect them from the daytime heat. It’s a challenge to give them enough cool water and shade to keep the greens crisp during the day when it’s over 90 degrees in the afternoon, and it looks like w’ell be seeing that this week. At the same time, they’re putting in all the seedlings and seeds necessary to maintain a steady supply of summer veggies for the months ahead. They’re preparing beds, thinning seeds, watching over starts in the greenhouse, doing their best to keep bugs off the new growth, and doing what they can to shelter them from the cool night air. While doing all this, they’re going to the many farmers markets that are all now up and running. Some of them attend three or four markets a week, including ALG. Some of them even more. Wherever you might bump into your local farmers, please give them a thank you for all their hard work, especially this time of year. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the best thank yous come in the form of a cup of coffee.

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park and Wednesday afternoons at Creature Comforts downtown. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market returns this weekend, and you can catch the details on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. 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 got to spend some quality time out in the garden this past weekend, before the deluge started today. Year before last I moved to a rental house on the west side of town, and I was lucky enough to find one with raised beds already established in the back yard. They were overgrown and there wasn’t an easy way to get water out to them, but just having them there was a great start. Even if the beds weren’t here, I could have a little container garden on the patio, which is an easy way to grow a surprisingly large amount of veggies when you don’t have any land to grow in. But if you don’t have space of your own for a garden in the ground and growing in pots doesn’t sound like a “real” garden to you, you’ve got another option: community gardens.

There are a number of community gardens around town, though I suspect some have fallen into disuse. Like any project that runs on volunteers, the amount of gardening getting done will ebb and flow with the hands available. If you’d like to get involved in bringing and maintaining public gardens for Athens communities, I’m sure the Athens Land Trust and the Community Garden Network would love to hear from you. They have a website where you can find out more: http://www.athenslandtrust.org/community-agriculture/community-garden-network. They have descriptions and other information about some of their current active gardens, and I’m sure they’d love more hands.

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park and Wednesday afternoons at Creature Comforts downtown. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market returns this weekend, and you can catch the details on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. 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 average last frost date for Athens falls this week, but you never know when a weird cold front will blow through, wreaking havoc on the little plants. It may be that tonight and tomorrow will be the last blast of cold for the year, but ten days from now we might have to crank up the heaters again. If you’ve put out summer plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and eggplants, keep an eye out on the forecast for the next week or two, just in case you need protect them. The average last frost date for some of our growers won’t come for another month, further up in the mountains, but that just means more variety for our market.

It’s really never too late to put something in the ground, and it’s prime planting season now. I was one of the founding farmers of Athens Locally Grown, back in 2002, but these days I’m living back in the city of Athens and lucky enough to have a rental house with a few raised beds right outside my back door. Springtime weather makes me want to throw seeds in every bit of dirt I can find, wherever I find it, so maybe this week I’ll also make some native wildflower seed bombs for use in bare patches I run across while walking through the neighborhood.

If you’ve been preparing your garden, or just thinking about starting one, be sure to check out all of the live plants offered by our growers through Athens Locally Grown and the other area farmers markets. Sure, you could run off to Home Depot and buy some mass-produced seedlings soaked in synthetic fertilizers and sprayed with fumigants, but you can also get hardy seedlings grown by the same people cultivating plants for their own vegetable beds, free of synthetic chemicals, for the same prices.

Why am I encouraging you to grow your own food when I’m in the business of helping growers sell you food they grow? For one, studies have shown (and my own experience confirms) that people who grow their own gardens tend to actually increase their yearly purchases at their local farmers markets. Once they take an interest their food so strong that they begin growing what they can, they find that they can rely even more on their local growers for things that they used to get at the grocery store. And besides, my goal for writing the software behind our market is for every community to become less reliant on food grown elsewhere and shipped in from long distances. And you having your own little patch of garden in your yard is a big step in helping Athens do just that

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park and Wednesday afternoons at Creature Comforts downtown. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is still closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. The Oconee County Farmers Market is still closed for the season, but will return soon. 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

We’ve got a consistent crew of volunteers every Thursday filling your orders, but sometimes one of them catches a bug or needs a week off. When that happens, I start calling the backup crew to take their place. I’d love to add a few more people to that list, so if you’re generally free on Thursdays from 3pm to 8pm and would like to earn an occasional market credit in exchange for filling orders for fellow customers, please let me know! We’ll get you all trained up one Thursday, and then you’ll be on my go-to list when one of the regulars needs a week away.

The weather this week looks like each day will be a bit warmer than the last, and I’m planning on spending time in my garden getting things ready for the summer seedlings. It’s still colder (and wetter) than they’d like, so I’ll hold off on planting them for a bit longer, but the time is getting closer!

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park, and the Wednesday market will open this week. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is still closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. The Oconee County Farmers Market is still closed for the season, but will return soon. 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 weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful. Just perfect for getting outside and enjoying a day at the park, or walking through the neighborhood, or working out in the garden. You might think, what with the daytime temps nearly hitting 80 degrees and the traditional farmers markets all opening up again that it’s the perfect time to put those tomato seedlings you picked up at market or the plant sale into the garden. It is prime gardening season, but hold off on those summer plants just a little bit longer! We’re going to have a night down in the 30s this week. That’s enough to severely damage those summer veggies, most of which are tropical plants that can’t handle even the slightest bit of cold. For tomatoes, I’d recommend hold off until the nights are reliably in the 50s for optimal growth. You can start them sooner and they’ll survive nights in the 40s, but it doesn’t do them any good at all and generally stunts them for the rest of the year.

I know when you see those gorgeous plants listed at ALG and elsewhere the urge is strong to go home and put them right into the ground when the weather is like it was today. I have to fight that urge off every year, too, and I’ve had a garden going most every year of my life. Go ahead and buy them and get to know them, but keep them in the pots and bring them inside at night for just a little while longer. They’ll thank you later.

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park, and the Wednesday market will open next week. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. The Oconee County Farmers Market is still closed for the season, but will return soon. 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 the time of year where all the other area farmers markets are beginning to open up from their winter slumber. The Athens Farmers Market opened this past Saturday at Bishop Park and will return to Wednesdays at Creature Comforts downtown on April 11. The Oconee County Farmers Market also opens up soon on Saturdays in downtown Watkinsville. The Comer Farmers Market is another long-time market, and it too is filling up with spring goodies. During the winter months, we’re the main market around but now the growers have to figure out how to split their crops among multiple places. It’s a tricky part of the job that takes practice, much like the rest of the farming business.

Asparagus and (any day now) strawberries are slowly making their first appearances here and at other area markets. The recent cold nights have both coming in nice and slow (which is good for them, as hot weather can make both quit producing altogether), and I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty in the coming weeks.

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 returned to Saturday mornings at Bishop Park, and the Wednesday market will open in a couple weeks. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. The Oconee County Farmers Market is still closed for the season, but will return soon. 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

If you got a Spring Break last week, I hope you had a good one! Me, I’ve got a regular 9-5, and stayed in town and enjoyed the quiet. That was nice. Spring officially starts this week, and hopefully the deep freezes are behind us. We’ve got another month until our average last frost day (two months for some of our outlying growers), so we’ll no doubt see some cold nights — possibly even some light frost in town later this week. Frosts are one thing, but deep freezes are much harder on our growers and the plants they’re cultivating. I was out hiking in the botanical gardens today and saw some blueberry bushes in bloom, and was reminded of our late March deep freeze last year that did serious damage.

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

Most other area markets are closed down for the season or have moved to winter hours. The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return on March 24, and you can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. 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, with a few cold nights giving way to actual Spring-like (not Summer) temperatures and scattered bits of rain. I’m hoping to get some more garden time 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

Most other area markets are closed down for the season or have moved to winter hours. The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return on March 24, and you can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on April 28 on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running Saturdays from 9 to noon. 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 noon to 4pm. 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

Isn’t this weather wonderful? I spent some quality time out in the garden today, and was happy to see so many flowers in the strawberry patch. If mine are blooming, that means our growers ought to be harvesting theirs any time now. And that means the asparagus ought to be starting to come up about now, too!

I don’t have any news to share this week, so I’ll 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

Most other area markets are closed down for the season or have moved to winter hours. The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the season. They’ll return in April, and you can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market is closed for the season, and you can watch for their return on their website 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. Washington, GA also has a lovely little Saturday market, running on winter hours now on Saturdays from 1-4pm. 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 noon to 4pm. 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!