The Weblog

This weblog contains LocallyGrown.net news and the weblog entries from all the markets currently using the system.

To visit the authoring market’s website, click on the market name located in the entry’s title.



 
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CLG:  Tuesday Reminder - Market Closes Tonight after 10pm.


Hello friends,

Fresh ground Coffee and Goat Cheese now listed. Make another order now for pickup this Friday! There’s still time to place your order for pickup this Friday, January 12th.

The market closes TONIGHT after 10pm, maybe even midnight! Come early on Friday for the best selection from the Extras table. See you Friday!

How to contact us:

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Instead…

Phone or text: Steve – 501-339-1039

Email: Steve – kirp1968@sbcglobal.net

Our Website:

www.conway.locallygrown.net

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com

Russellville Community Market:  Don't Forget! The Market Closes at 10PM!


Russellville Community Market closes at 10 p.m. this evening – be sure to place your order!

Pick up is Thursday at All Saints Episcopal Church on Phoenix from 4 – 6:30 p.m.

Russellville Community Market

FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.

6635 StudeBaker - Virtual Farmstand:  The farm stand is closed for orders.


The farm stand is now closed for orders. We will re-open Wednesday evening.

Siloam Springs, AR:  Time to stock up on Pastured Chicken! Online Market is Open!


www.siloamsprings.locallygrown.net

R Family Farm chicken is selling quickly. This is the last of the chicken until Spring so be sure to stock up while you can. Bone broth is great to have year round, but especially good during the winter with all the colds and flu going around.

You can purchase honey, farm fresh eggs,Lefse, beautifully knitted/crocheted kitchen items, and all natural products for personal and home use.

What is Lefse you ask? Lefse is a traditional soft Norwegian flatbread. It is made with potatoes, flour, butter, and milk or cream. It is similar to a tortilla, maybe a bit larger. You can use it as a wrap for sandwiches, breakfast burritos, or slathered with butter and honey.

Enjoy the warmer temps this week as it looks like we will be experiencing cold temps again by Friday.

Have a great week and see you Saturday!

Foothills Market:  The Market is Open - January 8


Let’s hope the coldest part of the winter is behind us after last week! The growers at Foothills Market are starting to make plans for the spring gardens and dream of the planting season.

For now, though, the market has plenty of locally-grown beef and pork, along with an assortment of baked goods.

Browse our offerings, make your selections, then hit the “Place Your Order” button. Your order will be ready for pickup Friday afternoon between 4-6 at the Food for Thought Garden, 815 N. Hillcrest, in Clarksville.

Champaign, OH:  Winter


And it sure been a cold, cold winter
And the wind ain’t been blowin’ from the south…
(Winter-The Rolling Stones)

Little local market of love customers…it’s a winter day, out there!!

I am just planning all of my meal plans for the week, while the wind blows, and the snow swirls. I like a week of planned out breakfasts, planned out dinners. If that part of my life is set, it allows me to continue at the pace I call my other life. My business life.

Summertime is all about winging it, throwing something on the grill, chopping up fresh vegetables, slicing up local fruits as they come into season, but winter…winter is a tricky bag.

I cook much differently in the winter. I like richer sauces, heartier textures, deeply colored vegetables.

I love to menu plan for the week, and, I love cooking/baking large, on the first day of the week, so that I have options, on hand, for the rest of the dishes of the week.

Summer is all about playtime. Winter is all about get me home, pronto, and when I arrive, I want a dinner plan, a glass of wine, candles lit, and the ability to ease into a comfort kind of dinner.

The best way to have the things on hand to accomplish this? Order much of it from our market. The ordering is easy, the pickup is a breeze, the food is all of amazing quality, and it’s local…

Go ahead…menu plan your week, and then place your orders…

It will make these winter days a bit easier…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Athens Locally Grown:  ALG Market Open for January 11


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’m devoting the newsletter these first few weeks of the year to documenting in detail just how ALG works. I’ll spend some time next week talking about how growers get allowed in the market, and what standards they have to meet. But this week, I’ll get into the details of how the market sustains itself financially. Many of you ask about that from time to time, and I’m happy to oblige.

First off, we’re legally a sole proprietorship, and the market is owned and operated by me. In years past, it was rolled into my farm, and reported on my Schedule F in addition to my regular tax forms. For now, while my gardens have dwindled, it’s an item on my Schedule A, like many other small home businesses. When the market started in 2002, it was named “Locally Grown Cooperative”, but it was never legally organized as a co-op. Dan & Kris Miller, the founders from Heirloom Organics farm in Watkinsville, were always sure to run things in a cooperative spirit, and since they handed the business to me in 2004 (I’ve sold as a grower since day one), I’ve tried to do the same thing. I’ve since renamed it to “Athens Locally Grown”, but you’ll still hear a number of people refer to us as “the co-op”.

We’re not a non-profit, either, but we’ve structured things so that over time the market can just barely cover its own expenses. Just like all of our member farms are sustainable growers, the market itself needs to be sustainable. So how do we cover its expenses? One small way is through the memberships you pay. The $25 a year you give to the market is enough to cover the costs of having customers: banking fees from depositing your checks, paper and ink for printing, web hosting fees, and that sort of thing. What’s left over goes to helping fund farm tours, food donations to like-minded area groups and events, etc. We currently have 236 paid members out of the 3594 active accounts on the website.

By far the bulk of our funding comes from the growers themselves. They generally pay a 10% commission on their sales through the site. This money covers the many coolers we use, the tables and shelves used to spread out and organize your orders, the truck we bought at the end of 2007, gasoline, the food allowance we offer our volunteers, rent and utilities at Ben’s Bikes, etc. During the slow parts of the year, the sales are usually not enough to cover our weekly costs, but in the busy times (late fall and early spring, for us) there is extra. If we plan things out well, it pretty much all evens out in the end.

Last year, the total sales and memberships combined through the market amounted to $152,191. This is a slight decline from last year, and I’m ok with that. The continual rise of so many other markets in the area is the biggest reason for this. We used to be the largest farmers market in this part of the state, but only because the others were so small. Now, not only are there several very large Athens-area farmers markets throughout the week, but there are many other locallygrown markets serving customers that used to drive to Athens. About 90% of those sales went straight to our growers, and the rest went to a food allowance for our volunteers ($200 a week), rent ($350/month), web hosting, and transportation. The “profit” gets counted as personal income or loss on my tax forms, and almost always comes out even.

The growers get paid out of the shared cashbox for their previous week’s sales when they drop off their items, during the hour before we open the market. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order. We used to then rush to the bank to deposit the money to cover the checks we just wrote to the growers, but now the growers get paid the following week (money you pay via credit cards takes up to a week to reach our account). 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 has so far satisfied the tax man, but it 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. On the books right now (going back to 2007) is about $3644 of produce ordered but never picked up and so far never paid for at all (or picked up but paid for with bad checks). That might seem like a lot (and it is), but considering that the market’s sales total, that’s not so bad. In fact, it’s about a sixth of the US retail industry’s “shrinkage” rate, and almost all of it is owed by only ten people. Only $65 came from this last year. On the flip side, $4631 has been pre-paid into the cash box by people who pay online via credit card or who write large checks in person, and then draw down on that balance over time.

There were 4323 orders placed last year, so that averages to $35.20 spent per order. There are many people who asctually place several small orders each week that we combine when we fill them, so really the average is quite a bit higher than that. There are no good studies on this number, but I’ve seen a few surveys conducted by the USDA indicate that the average customer spends $25 per trip to a farmers market. We continue to far exceed that average, which I think says a lot about the advantages ALG offers over the traditional market. And to your dedication to supporting our growers.

So, in probably far too much detail, that’s how we operate financially. Our market might be more expensive to run than a traditional “booths and tables” farmers market, but that price buys a system that’s simple, time-saving, flexible, and in my opinion, just better. There’s no money in the bank, but the market is paying for itself and that’s my primary financial goal. If you’d like to talk with me in person about this or any other aspects of ALG, I’d love to do so. Just pull me aside when you come by to pick up your order.

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 might still be up and running, Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, and you can find out more 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!

GFM :  FARMERS MARKET POTLUCK LUNCHEON


FARMERS MARKET POTLUCK LUNCHEON

All Current Vendors,Customers, Farmers, Direct Sales, Artisans, Crafters, Food Trucks, and Anyone interested in becoming a VENDOR or just finding out more about the Events, we offer during season, or more about the market in general such as our FRE$H SAVINGS/SNAP PROGRAMS you are invited to attend this Potluck Luncheon.

Anyone interested in learning more about our online market and how to sell year-round, or becoming a Customer, is also invited. (you do not have to be a regular vendor to sell with our online market, however we would welcome you to join us) Please Bring a Dish to Share. GFM will provide silverware, coffee, tea, and paper products.

Please RSVP to Judy @ 423-552-3023 by January 12, if planning to attending (I need a count in order to provide enough drinks and Paper products) or to ask questions.

Please, if you have not already contacted me, please do so and let me know what you will be bringing to share.

When:Sun Jan 14, 2018 starting at 1:30pm – 3pm Eastern Time Where:All Creatures Country Club Training Center , 345 Kitchen Branch Rd, Greeneville, TN 37743, USA (map)

Winnsboro, TX:  Happy Monday! Market is Open Again


This week we are happy to announce that Embry Family Farm has fresh produce available again including arugula, spinach, kale, red butterhead lettuce, gallon bags of loose leaf lettuce, radishes,and beautiful turnips!

We also have yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, milk, and chocolate milk from Jersey Girls.

Check out the meat section for all kinds of cuts of pastured chicken and pork and grass fed beef. We even have beef and chicken bones for bone broth.

NEW pickup location: Depot on Main and Broadway – main entrance on the WEST end of the building. Last week I got my directions wrong and said East entrance – my mistake; it’s the west entrance. Time remains the same – 4 – 6 pm.

Thank you for your business!

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

Dawson Local Harvest:  Happenings This Week at Dawson Harvest


Dawson Local Harvest for January 12th

Happenings This Week at Dawson Harvest

HI EVERYONE!

January, Brrrrrr! But what else do you expect for Winter? Fortunately we have lots to talk about this week.

COPPERHEAD HOMESTEAD has re-stocked, with grass-fed T-Bones and Ribeyes, Chuck and Rump Roasts, Beef Tips, Cube Steaks, Ground Beef, and lots more. Then BRAMBERI FARM has several cuts of pasture-fed Lamb with Lamb Chops, Rack of Lamb, Ground Lamb, plus Goat Liver. Finally, BACK IN TIME FARM has several different varieties of Chicken available now. See it all in the Meats, free-range pastured listings.

Want some great-tasting, at least kind of healthy Desserts? Check out MY DAILY BREAD’s Dessert Breads, like organic Apple Bread, Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Pumpkin Spice Bread, and Banana Walnut Bread. Decadent-tasting treats without too many calories!

THE MARKET IS NOW OPEN!

REMEMBER! You can now order until Tuesday night at 9 pm. Pick up your order at Leilani’s Gardens Friday afternoons from 4 to 6 pm.

You’ll find the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST at http://dawsonville.locallygrown.net

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! We guarantee your satisfaction with all products in the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST.

Best thoughts for you and yours this season!

Alan Vining
Market Manager