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, let me announce again in case you missed it, that Athens Locally Grown will be closed next week. Thanksgiving week is the one week a year that we always close down completely, so we can all travel to family, prepare feasts of thanksgiving, and otherwise mark the holiday. That means if you’d like any ingredients for your Thanksgiving meal, you will need to purchase them this week! The Saturday Athens Farmers Market at Bishop park is also still open, so that’ll give you one last chance should something not come through from us on Thursday.

Of course the traditional centerpiece for a carnivore household’s table, the turkey, is extremely hard to come by from local sources. However, we do have more than enough veggies available to make a meal fit for a king. We have so many things to be thankful for in our community, and the abundance of locally grown food is right up there.

If your Thanksgiving menu isn’t set, take a look around the internet for seasonal recipe ideas. Even if you’ll be getting ingredients at the grocery store, it’s still feasible to cook with produce that is typically at its peak about now. Here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving pages to get you started:

• Thanksgiving Recipes from The Splendid Table
• Roasted root vegetable pot pie
• A soup-to-nuts plan for a homegrown holiday meal
• Rescue Thanksgiving Recipes

So, one last time: Athens Locally Grown will be closed next week. If you’d like any ingredients for your Thanksgiving meal next week, you will need to purchase them this week!

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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 always exciting to see local food producers embark on new business ventures to expand access to locally grown food. This week Tammy Burnell, or Burnell Farms, is opening her own store in downtown Royston called “Granny’s Farmers Market”. Her store will be open five days a week and will carry not only her own products, but also other locally grown and produced foods she has vetted. If you live out that way, or are just passing through, stop in and see what she’s got going!

I’ve often thought that there is room in Athens for a farmers consignment store, kind of a storefront all-week-long version of Athens Locally Grown. The closest we have is the Daily Co-op, but I think if done well it’d be a different kind of thing altogether.

Here’s another reminder that we will be taking Thanksgiving week off. We will be open as usual next week, so if there are things you’d like for your Thanksgiving meals, you’ll need to plan ahead and order them early. I’ve been asked if I know of any local growers with turkeys available. We have in years past has ALG growers raising turkeys, but most everyone has stopped trying. Domestic turkeys, even heritage breeds, have a really hard time with the heat and humidities of our summers, and so take an enormous amount of labor to raise well. As the holiday gets closer, I may get a few leads on a handful of locally raised heritage turkeys, and if so, I’ll share them with you. Daily Co-op is taking orders for Georgia grown turkeys, raised by White Oak Pastures. They’re good people.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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

Hello, and welcome to November! Now that we’re back on Standard Time, it’s easy to lose track of time in the evenings. We start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up their orders on Thursday at 7:30, a half hour before we close at 8pm. I’ve gotten a lot of disconnected and changed phone numbers recently while I’ve called, so be sure to check the phone number on your account and change it if needed. You can do that on the website on the Your Account page. We’ve also had a lot of people arriving early, even before 4pm. We don’t officially open until 4:30 on Thursday, but if the growers all arrive on time and we have everything set, we’ll begin filling orders as soon as they’re early. There’s no advantage to arriving early, however — if a grower runs short on products, they fill the orders in the order they were placed, not the order in which you arrive on Thursday. If you’d like to come early and hang out while we get things together, however, feel free!

We’re glad to have a favorite food producer back after a lengthy absence. The Comerian, now with an actual brick and mortar location in Comer, has returned to ALG. I know people who have made a special trip to the other markets just to get her products, and we’re glad to have her back with us again as well.

It’s hard to believe that November is here already, but it is. Here’s a reminder that we will be taking Thanksgiving week off. We will be open as usual the rest of November, so if there are things you’d like for your Thanksgiving meals, you’ll need to plan ahead and order them early. I’ve been asked if I know of any local growers with turkeys available. We have in years past has ALG growers raising turkeys, but most everyone has stopped trying. Domestic turkeys, even heritage breeds, have a really hard time with the heat and humidities of our summers, and so take an enormous amount of labor to raise well. As the holiday gets closer, I may get a few leads on a handful of locally raised heritage turkeys, and if so, I’ll share them with you.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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

Some of our northern growers got their first frost last night. I think even here in Athens the temperatures fell into the 30s, just barely, for a short time. A number of our growers have greenhouses and high tunnels that will let them extend the season, some all winter long, but for much of the gardens that supply our area markets, the summer produce are on their very last legs and the cool weather crops will take over.

Fall seems to be the traditional time for wanting to go visit a farm, maybe to pick apples or to find a good pumpkin, or to get lost in a corn maze. It’s true that most if not all of the agro-tourism spots nearby are conventional farms, but don’t let that stop you from paying them a visit, especially if you have children (or can borrow some for the day). So many kids think that their food supply begins at the grocery store, and farms are just something that they read about in picture books. Take them out and show them that farms are real things, that they’re worth visiting, and that they are near where they live. Farms shouldn’t be exotic places, relegated to storyland places like “The Dell” and “California”.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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’re coming into the traditional time of year where growers get together to share what they’ve learned from another season out in the fields, to teach new farmers how to get started, and to have a communal meal made with food supplied by those same growers. If you’re wanting to learn more about sustainable growing in the south, one of my favorite conferences of the year recently opened up for registration. The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group has a long history of education and activism, and their annual conference in January is a can’t miss event. This year, its 25th, it will be in January 27-30th in Lexington, Kentucky. You can learn more about the conference here http://www.ssawg.org/january-2016-conference/ and then register right here http://www.ssawgconference.org/. I’ll see you there!

Another great conference is much closer, both in time and space. The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association is a farmer-driven, membership-based non-profit organization that helps people in the Carolinas grow and eat local, organic foods by advocating for fair farm and food policies, building the systems family farms need to thrive, and educating communities about local, organic agriculture. Their conference moves around from year to year, but this year it is being held up in Durham, NC, and would be worth the drive. I attended years ago when it was held in Greenville, and learned quite a lot. It’s since expanded to include many tracks beyond farming, including general gardening, local food business, cooking, and more. It’s being held in just a few weeks, on November 6-8. You can find out more and register here: http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/sac/.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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

Only a couple notes this week and you can get right to ordering. Kathy at Beehanven would like you to know that she’s been a busy little, well, bee making a ton of beeswax candles for you for Halloween and for gifts for the holidays. She’s sold out of her popular designs quickly in years past, and so this year she’s added some new designs and hopes to have even more ready for you. There are quite a few listed on the website already, and she’ll be adding more in the coming weeks. She’ll also be at our “Meet The Grower” table during our October 29th pickup, so you can meet her and see her many candles in person.

Also, I know a few of you know the Dawsons in Watkinsville, and bring some of their raw Jersey milk home to your pets. They are joining Athens Locally Grown and will be bringing their milk into town on Thursday afternoons, saving you the drive out to their farm. Their milk is not yet on the website as I type this, but check back late Monday or Tuesday to see if we were able to get everything in place for a delivery this week. Some of my favorite pets drink milk from the Dawsons’ cows, and I’m looking forward to bringing some home for my own new kitten.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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 been the sort of rain lately where even the best drainage in your gardens isn’t enough to get the job done. It’s been a cold rain, too, thanks to the weird combination of massive hurricane and a perfectly placed jet stream bringing all the moisture right to us (and poor South Carolina). This may well spell the end for any summer veggies growing outside — they’re able to tolerate cool nights so long as the days are nice and warm, but cold soggy roots are just the worst for them. You may see some stragglers, but the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers will soon get a lot scarcer.

One favorite product we do now have plenty of is salmon and halibut from Doug Resetarits. He and his family are back from another successful fishing season in Alaska, and they stocked up a freezer here in town with the first delivery of their catch. The halibut is back, along with several cuts of salmon, including packages of ground salmon perfect for making your own burgers, croquettes, and other preparations. I expect he’ll be keeping the freezer well-stocked until he runs out again, just in time to go catch more next summer.

Another grower that’s returned to us is Burnell Farms. They’ve been out for quite a while with some medical issues that just made all the manual labor that goes into small-scale vegetable production impossible. The surgeons have been doing a great job and have cleared the way for some light farm work to resume.

That’s it for the news this week. Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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 cool misty rain might have kept us from seeing the beautiful lunar eclipse tonight, but it’s been great for all the leafy greens growing in the fields. There’s a chance we might hit 80 degrees once this coming week, so maybe the cooler days are here to stay for a while. I for one couldn’t be happier!

I don’t have anything in my notes for this week for the newsletter, so I guess I’ll just post these few sentences and let you get right to ordering. There is plenty to choose from!

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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

Welcome to Fall! Looks like the weather’s not going to waste any time getting to my favorite time of year, with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s later in the week, just like those glorious few days we had last week. This is the ideal weather for the leafy greens and brassicas of Autumn, now just young plants in the growers’ fields. It won’t be long now, with weather like this, for a flood of them to make it to your kitchens. Maybe I’m a little strange, but I’m excited by the prospect of making lots of salads again.

Oh, one thing I’ve been meaning to talk to you guys about… despite all of our best efforts, sometimes the things you order don’t make it into your baskets come Thursday. The growers try their best, but sometimes they aren’t able to fill orders for a variety of reasons. They almost always go into the system and remove the items they can’t fill by 2pm on Thursday, so by then you should be able to look at your order on the website and get a reasonable expectation of what we’ll have ready for you when you arrive. Even then, though, things can go wrong. A grower can leave a box at home, sitting on their kitchen counter, and when we go to fill your order, an item might be missing. We mark those items off on the spot, using our little hand-held devices, and try to tell you when we hand you your items. And sometimes, we mess up ourselves filling your orders and think we put everything in your box only to find a bag with your name on it at the end of the night. In that case, we take it off your order and automatically issue a refund to your account if you paid in person when you picked things up.

The majority of you are pre-paying these days, though, using cards online. That’s great for everyone, as it really streamlines the process. It’s a bit of a misnomer, though, because even though you placed your order on Monday or Tuesday, I don’t actually run the cards until the end of the night on Thursday, after all the orders have been finalized. That way, you’re never charged for items the growers took off, or didn’t bring, or that we left out of your box. You can see exactly what you were charged for, and what the status was for every item on your order, but looking at your order history on the Your Account page. There, you can see a PDF invoice for every order you have ever placed at ALG, a line-by-line accounting for every item, and the total you were charged (or paid in person).

And if you ever have any question, please don’t hesitate to ask them of me. Just reply to any email the system sends you, and it’ll come right to me.

Thanks 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 afternoons downtown at Creature Comforts. You can catch the news on their website. The West Broad Farmers Market from the Athens Land Trust is open Saturday mornings and their farm stand is open Tuesday afternoons. They have a website too. A new Athens Sunday market has opened up at the Classic Center, every Sunday from 11 to 4 now through October. They have a website here: http://www.sundaycentermarket.com. The Comer Farmers Market is open in downtown Comer on Saturday mornings. The Oconee County farmers market is open Saturday mornings in front of the Oconee County Courthouse in Watkinsville. The Shields Ethridge Cultivator Market is held monthly in Jefferson. If you know of any 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!