Green Acres Atkins:  Opening Bell....spring is begining to pop up!

Here at Green Acres Atkins we are counting down till spring…..and trying not to float away with all this rain! We are so excited to continue expanding the listings on the market.

Again this week if you refer a friend we will give you a $5 coupon for your next order!

Please remember to place your orders by Noon Wednesday at
greenacresatkins.locallygrown.net

Thanks so much for shopping with us! Have a great week.

Tom and Kami Green

Winnsboro, TX:  Embry Family Farm Featured on the Winnsboro Online Market

Welcome back to Embry Family Farm! This week they have carrots, scallions, mustard greens, spinach, beet greens, radishes, lettuces.

Also available online are products from Jersey Girls raw milk dairy including raw milk, cheese, and yogurt.

We have local raw honey, jams and jellies from Grannie Annie, Glover Family Farms, Texas Gold Honey, and Laughing Flowers Farm.

Plenty of fresh farm eggs and baked goods are available too. Check us out.
Shop Monday (from 8 am) through Tuesday (7 pm) and pick up Thursdays in downtown Winnsboro (4 – 5:30 pm).

www.Winnsboro.LocallyGrown.net

Debra Aaron, Manager
903.629.3332 (home office land line)
312.307.0114 (iphone with no service at home office)

The Wednesday Market:  Happy Sunday! Place Your Orders Today

Good afternoon.

The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market

Thank you for supporting locally grown agriculture. We’ll see you at the Market!

Thanks,

Beverly

ALFN Local Food Club:  Market Is Open!

Happy Sunday!

The market is open and ready for your orders! Take a look at the new seedlings available to pre-order from Amandaland Farms.

Up on the blog today is a brief overview of Certified Organic vs. Certified Naturally Grown. It may become clear why so many small farms avoid the process of being Certified Organic and choose Certified Naturally Grown instead!

Thank you to all our volunteers who served with us this weekend. If you’re interested in earning credit or membership for your account, sign up to volunteer with us in the future.

There’s still time to join our board and help direct our organization! Interested in finding out more? Contact Claire at littlerockfoodclub@gmail.com.

Follow us on Facebook for more offers and events, or visit our website to learn more about our organization.

Claire Admire
Program & Market Manager

Russellville Community Market:  Market is Open and Upcoming Event!

March-ing to Market

Our market on Thursday puts us into March! Spring is around the corner which means things are going to get busy for farms and farmers markets. The team at Russellville Community Market would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our customers for their support. Thank you for helping us to support food producers in the River Valley who are working hard to provide us with healthy, local produce, meat, dairy, eggs, and small craft goods. We have a lot of exciting events and opportunities planned for this season and we can’t wait to share them with our community!

As always, you can contact us with comments, questions, or concerns at russellvillecommunitymarket@gmail.com

Downtown Russellville Art Walk!

The first Art Walk of 2018 is Friday, March 2nd and Russellville Community Market will be there! As we ready ourselves for the move to the Train Depot at the beginning of May, we are participating in several events downtown and this will be the first. Please stop by, say hello, and check out some of the fabulous local goods we will have on hand. For more details visit their Facebook page – Downtown Art Walk

Help support the Russellville Community Market!

We are looking for events to participate in during the coming year in order to increase our presence in the community. Please contact us if you have a great food, farming, or fitness event that we should know about! All ideas are welcome! Please email russellvillecommunitymarket@gmail.com.

To ensure your order is placed, make sure you click the “Place My Order” *button once you have completed your shopping. *You have until 10:00pm Tuesday evening to place your orders.

REMEMBER PICK-UP IS THURSDAY FROM 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. AT ALL SAINT’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON SOUTH PHOENIX.

Russellville Community Market

FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.

Suwanee Whole Life Co-op:  Reminder- Order by 6pm TODAY!

Just a friendly reminder, if you haven’t already placed your order, that market orders are due online by 6 pm TODAY. Place your order now so you don’t forget!

*BOGO SALE on Nature’s Kitchen products (Sauces & Marinades) Buy one, get one free – please put in the Comment section at checkout the saucinade/marinade you would like for free. Choices are: ESPRESSO SAUCE & MARINADE,ISLAND SAUCE,JERK MARINADE/WET RUB, OR JERK SAUCE & MARINADE

Thank you for placing your order and supporting local farms and businesses!

Click Here to Place Your Order For WEDNESDAY pick up in Suwanee

THIS ORDER IS FOR WEDNESDAY PICK UP AT SUWANEE LOCATION FROM 1PM to 6:30 PM (1300 Peachtree Ind. Blvd, Suite 1104, Suwanee 30024 at Cultured Traditions)

Greener Acres Farm:  Why Lard???

Freshly Made Lard Processed This Week

Green"er" Acres Farm made two huge batches of their own home processed lard this weekend (approximately 100 pounds of beautiful pure white lard.) Our lard is not hydrogenated like some brands seen at your local grocery store.

So why use lard? Isn’t it unhealthy? My doctor would freak out!

We hear this quite frequently as the asking person is turning their nose up. Home processed lard is actually making a come back in favor of many health professionals.

In recent generations, lard has seemed to completely disappear from home kitchens. Until the early 1900’s, lard was a staple cooking fat across the globe. It was the secret to perfectly flaky pie pastry, crispy fried chicken, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits and luscious gravy.

Now, when people hear the term lard, they immediately conjure up a vision of clogged arteries. It’s time to set the record straight – lard is a healthy cooking fat and deserves to make a comeback in kitchens everywhere.

According to a recent article found on the Prevention Magazine website (https://www.prevention.com/food/should-you-be-eating-lard,) Recently, lard has come back into fashion and become a fat of choice for many nutritionists, Paleo dieters, and hordes of famous chefs, including the Food Network’s Alton Brown, who proclaimed lard to be the best cooking fat ever.

Isn’t lard full of the saturated fat that doctors warn can clog up your arteries?

Well, not really. Saturated fat makes up only about 40% of the fat in lard and actually isn’t as bad for your health as doctors used to think. In fact, many experts now argue that eating saturated fat is good for overall health. Recent studies have found that eating more saturated fat doesn’t increase the risk of heart disease at all, while some studies show it can raise good HDL cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease when combined with a low-carb or low-sugar diet.

Besides, lard is lower in saturated fat than other animal fats like butter and tallow, and higher in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat—the type that gives olive oil its health halo. Lard is made up of 50% monounsaturated fat—compare that to only 32% in butter and 6% in coconut oil. Plus, in its natural form, lard has none of the trans fats that we know are bad for you.

Also, according to information found at the Empowered Sustenance website (https://empoweredsustenance.com/lard-is-healthy/), 1) An analysis of more than 300,000 people published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that there is no evidence that saturated fat consumption raises the risk of heart disease, 2) A low fat diet has been shown to increase triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease, 3) The director of the large Framingham Heart Study concluded, “We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”, 4) Saturated fat intake raises HDL cholesterol, which is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, and 5) The “diseases of modern civilization” including heart disease and diabetes skyrocketed as animal fats were replaced with factory fats including vegetable oils and margarine.

Using lard in cooking

Because lard contains more saturated fat than veggie oils, it doesn’t go rancid as quickly and has a higher smoke point, making it better for frying and high-heat cooking. “The chemical makeup of saturated fats is very stable,” Nichols says. “Unsaturated fats like those found in vegetable oils, on the other hand, tend to go bad and change structure the longer they cook.” This means oils like canola, corn, or olive cooked at a high heat or used repeatedly (like in restaurant fry cookers) can start to break down and release free radicals, which then lead to inflammation.

If that’s not enough to convince you, lard also just makes things taste better—there’s a reason your grandma used it in everything from pies to scrambled eggs. Due to the neutral flavor, it also works exceptionally well in baked goods.

So why buy lard from my local farmers?

First, most brands of lard sold in your local grocery or “big box” stores is hydrogenated. Hydrogenation, complete or partial, is a chemical process in which hydrogen is added to liquid oils to turn them into a solid form. Partially hydrogenated fat molecules have trans fats, and they may be the worst type of fat you can consume.

The lard produced by Green"er" Acres Farm is made from the hogs that we raise for our own consumption and to make the whole hog sausage that we sell once a year. Our hogs are treated well and killed in a humane manner. We then boil the lard on-site, rendering and pressing it though lard press that has been used for generations on the farm and filtered through cheesecloth, We then freeze the blocks of solid lard (it naturally hardens from a liquid state when left to sit at room temperature) in vacuum-sealed bags. This allows the lard to be kept for up to 3 years without going rancid. You can then simply remove it from the freezer, cup off what you need to keep on the counter in a jar, and return the rest to the freezer for longer keeping.

Try some lard today!

We offer our lard in several sizes. Try some today. We are so confident that you will find it a superior cooking oil that we offer you a money back guarantee. If, for any reason, you are not happy with Green"er" Acres Farm’s home processed lard, simply return the unused portion, and we will issue a refund of the entire purchase price.

Independence,VA:  Milk is back up and Market closes for orders tomorrow night at 8 pm!

Good morning!

Be sure to place your order no later than 8 pm tomorrow night. Remember, orders will be ready to be picked up this Wednesday, February 28th at the Grayson Landcare office (108 Courthouse Ln.) between 4 and 6 pm.

If you tried to order milk this week and it was unavailable, I apologize. It’s back up on the Market and ready to order this week!

We have raised $355 so far on our Go Fund Me! page! Thanks to everyone for donating and sharing the link!

To Donate: IFM Go Fund ME!.

To Shop: Independence Farmers Market.

Thank you for supporting the Independence Farmers Market!

Abby

Stones River Market:  The market this week!

Market News

Good morning! Is everyone feeling this early Spring? Our farmers are carefully watching early crop already in the ground or greenhouses. Sprouted seeds are coming up and egg producers are happily laying again!

Botanical Harmony Farm has a few dozen duck eggs listed this week.

So far Sanders Bros. Coffee has offered only light and medium roasts, of which the Honduras Pacavita Organic has been a big hit. But now there is an option for those of you who like a dark roast! The Brazil Cafelandia micro-lot comes from a single farm and will be roasted dark to present a nutty, chocolatey coffee with a subtle red apple sweetness. A rich and complex cup!

If anyone wants to special order beef for Easter dinner, please check out Farrar Farm’s special orders. Quantities will be limited between now and Easter so get your orders in now.

Linda from Dogwood Valley Greenhouse sends this Springtime note:

The first blooms of spring are always a bit tricky to predict. I was watching my daffodil garden, as well as the weather report, and listed the Spring Daffodil Bouquets on the market last week. On Tuesday I had a few dozen flowers, but on Wednesday, it seemed that half the buds opened at once! They may only be available for three weeks because of early hot weather. I’d love for you to enjoy them along with me!

I’m starting to see buds here and there in the greenhouse too. It’s a bit early to set plants in the garden just yet, but these have been in an unheated house all winter, so they’re used to the temperatures. As soon as the weather gets nice enough for the gardener, these early beauties will be ready to go: Dwarf Coreopsis, Creeping Phlox, Pulmonaria, Primrose, and Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus). Most of these will be in bloom in the next two or three weeks. Watch the “Featured Products” at the top of the page to see what’s in bloom this week (but I can only list the five most recent; many of them will stay in bloom for many weeks.)

As a reminder, we appreciate when customers return containers for reuse! Thank you for being conscientious earth dwellers! WE love you!

There’s likely so much more on the market you may not have realized we have! Take a few moments to browse a new category today :)!

See ya on the porch!!

Tracey & Ashleigh

Champaign, OH:  Sunday's Best

Every day is just like the rest but Sunday’s best…
(Sunday’s Best-Elvis Costello)

Sunday really is the best day of the week. It’s one of those days that when you wake up, you first are freaking out because you think you overslept. Then, your brain finally kicks in to let you know that it’s still the weekend. But, not just the weekend, and not like Saturday.

Sunday is all it’s own to do with it what you will. Some Sundays, I am a total bum, hide out, drink coffee, watch mindless tv, take a million naps, and linger in the kitchen, working on a recipe or two. Tinge the whole day with music, rumpled clothes, and messy hair.

Other Sundays I am all about the crazy organization of my life. If I know I have a super busy week, ahead, I do everything that I can, on Sunday, to ensure that I pull the week off. That means house cleaning, planning/prepping dinners, making a detailed list for each day to come. Sometimes my own relaxation comes from this kind of Sunday craze.

And, while I am getting my life all worked out, I make sure to sit and place my market order at this little local market of love.

If I know my ordering is taken care of, I can mark that task off of my Sunday list.

Why not give yourself that same sense of accomplishment? Go ahead…take a little time, today, out of your Sunday, to make it the best…

On a side note…my products are all on Vacation Mode for this week. I have back to back events that started, last night. On Thursday, both of your market managers will be involved with Empty Bowls. Our combined business of Hippie and the Farmer will be offering two of the soup selections for the evening. And, yours truly, will be the evening’s bread baker, once again, and that means I will be busy baking for that. I had to take time off, this week, from you, my lovelies.

But, I will return, for next week’s ordering!!

Okay…make your Sunday the best!

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam