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.
The Cumming Harvest - Closed: Reminder: Place your co-op order before 8pm today!
Just a friendly reminder that the market orders are due today by 8 pm.
Thank you for placing your order and supporting local farms and businesses!
See you on Saturday!
Click Here To Order
The Cumming Harvest - Closed: Farmer of Day - Saturday - Heirloom Gardens
Paula Guilbeau, the one and only…Farmer Extraordinaire, will be visiting us at the market this Saturday. Paula’s specialty is propagating and growing organic produce and flowers in her 7 green houses. She would love to meet you and will be there between 9:30-12pm.
ALFN Local Food Club: The Market Is Open
Dear ALFN Members,
The market is open!
We are deep into January, but the market is still busting with beautiful produce. From Bok Choy to Cabbage to Arugula to Acorn Squash to Broccoli to Kale, there is a wide selection of fresh produce. We also have a wide selection of frozen goods that have sealed sealed summer inside.
Waste & Energy
In the same way our culture tends to hide and mask death from the living, perhaps for similar reasons, our living economy hides the waste of society in landfills seeded with grass. Waste is simply dormant energy awaiting transformation. The masses of bacteria and fungal communities are the miracle workers, but miracle workers are often viewed with the same suspicion as undertakers. Our society has cultivated a kind of mass phobia with bacteria and fungi and institutionalized discrimination towards all invertebrate communities. Yet, our unseen neighbors are what keep the revolving door of life spinning. They are resurrection workers, shamans guiding life back into birth.
Even the heinous products we forge can often be deconstructed and reconciled back into natural ingredients. I’ve been obsessed with fungi for a couple of years now. Mycologists continue to discover new fungi as well as new ecological functions of fungi. Scientists have found certain strains of fungi can breakdown oil and transform the long carbon chains into benign material. Or check out this video: Training Fungi to Eat Cigarette Butts. As the great “lovers of waste and death” (saprophytes), fungi take waste and recycle the energy back into ecosystems.
Do you know what else recycles energy in waste? Gardens. Our small, urban gardens take the substrates of waste and transform it into food and drink. The compost bin is both cemetery and birthing center. So, roll the stone away from our economic dead end, and let life come back from the grave. The gospel of gardeners suggests life comes from decomposition.
While I’m thinking about urban gardens, check out this Kickstarter for a community project called Earth Garden.
Have a great week and don’t forget to sign up for a Volunteer Spot
Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager
Suwanee Whole Life Co-op: Market News
Suwanee Whole Life Co-op
Our Website: suwanee.locallygrown.net
Pick Up Location: 4942 Austin Park Avenue, Buford GA 30518 on Tuesdays
Like Us on Facebook: Suwanee Whole Life Co-op
Have a question for other co-op members? Submit questions on our Google Group Discussion Board: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/suwanee-whole-life-co-op
New Items
Dish WIZARD-Dishwasher powder
HoneyBerry Naturals has spent 18 months formulating this, and now it’s ready for the world!! Rinses clean and clear, leaving no residue behind! (water types vary, you may use a rinse agent if you choose. We use distilled vinegar in our rinse agent compartment and everything comes out clear) This dishwashing powder is free of Chlorine, Phosphates, Fillers, and Fragrances. Item is for one (1) pound, which will yield approximately 32 loads when using one TBL per load. Directions for use: Use one (1) Tablespoon of Dish WIZARD per load in your detergent compartment of dishwasher. (Dish WIZARD is very concentrated so you may find you can use less) Load according to dishwasher manufacturer’s directions. It is recommended to wash silver articles by hand. Make sure all items are dish-washer safe. For really tough jobs, like baked-on food, soak item for 30 minutes or more in sink full of hot water and 1 teaspoon of Dish WIZARD. Safe for septic tanks. Store in cool dry place. Ingredients: Sodium carbonate, sodium chloride, sodium percarbonate, citric acid, soap powder, orange oil terpene.
Soap – Fragrance Free (Large 5 oz. Bar)
Southern Essentials handcrafted soap is made with some of the finest vegetable oils that are known for their ability to moisturize and soften the skin. Their formula has been over 25 years in the making and produces a very hard bar, cold processed soap that is very mild, lathers very well and moisturizes and softens the skin. They feel it has no equal! 100% Pure Ingredients from Responsible Sustainable Sources * No Artificial Fragrances, Dyes, Chemical Fillers or Preservatives * No Animal Products Contains: Distilled Water, Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Sweet Almond Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Avocado Oil
Market News
My Daily Bread is on vacation this week but will be back on the Market next week.
Group Buy Collagen/Gelatin order will be available for pick up this Tuesday.
Fry Farm Update- Fry Farm had to put all their produce listings on hold. They had some cold damage last week and lost some items and the others will need to recover. I’ll let you all know when they are back on the market.
Volunteers Needed
Please consider volunteering during market pick up. I can’t run the co-op without your help!
WE NEED 2 VOLUNTEERS THIS TUESDAY FOR THE 3pm & 5pm SHIFTS!!
THANK YOU Pam, Chuck, and Cindy for helping out last Tuesday! We couldn’t run the co-op without your support!
The schedule through the end of the year is posted. To sign up click: Vounteer Sign up
No packing is involved just need someone to be there to assist other members. You are welcome to bring your kids as long as they are supervised.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Upcoming Group Buys
Below is a list of upcoming co-op group buys to help with planning and budgeting. All dates are subject to change.
Grass Fed Cheeses – 1/22/16 – 1/24/16
Fermented Cod Liver Oil – 2/12/16 – 2/14/16
Vital Choice (seafood only) TBD
Plastic Milk Carriers TBD
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!
Fountain Fresh Dairy LLC: Market closed
Hello everyone,
The cold snap we just had finished our market’s winter season and it will now be closed until spring. We are thankful for those we were able to serve in 2015 as well as the beginning of this year! God bless!
The Cumming Harvest - Closed: This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
This week we’ll go over finances. This is pretty lengthy and much of it is copied from our mother market manager, Eric Wagoner, at Athens Locally Grown. He’s got this market thing down since this is his 16th year. We’ve been in business going on 6 years this coming August.
First off, we’re legally an LLC, and the market is owned and operated by me. You may have heard the market described as a co-op but it has never legally been one even though it’s run in a cooperative spirit.
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 put it bluntly) to cover most of the costs of having you as a customer: banking fees from depositing your checks, paper and ink for printing, web hosting fees, and that sort of thing. There really isn’t much left and I’m happy to provide those that ask, a copy of our budget.
By far the bulk of our funding comes from the growers themselves. They pay a 10% commission on their sales through the site. This money covers the storage we use, the tables and shelves used to spread out and organize your orders, the food allowance we offer our volunteers, rent and utilities, 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.
In 2014, the total sales and memberships combined through the market amounted to $168,509.00. 90% of the sales went straight to our growers, and the rest went to rent ($120/month), web hosting ($5,140/year), transportation, insurance and various small business expenses. The “profit” gets counted as personal income on my tax forms, and comes out to roughly $2-3000/year.
The growers get paid out of the shared cashbox for their 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.
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, and flexible. There’s not much 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 TCH, just pull me aside when you come by to pick up your order.
Many of the decisions I make for the market are based on how the founding market, Athens Locally Grown, is run. The ALG market manager is also the web developer for the website and is in their 16th year of running. We hope to be around for that long too. :)
LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
Google Map
PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
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!
Tullahoma Locally Grown: Market Closes Today at Noon
Your Market Closes Today.
Your Tullahoma Locally Grown Market is open today until noon. Please ensure you place your final orders by that time. You still have time to order fudge, coffee, bread, eggs, dairy, candles, and other items.
Pickup will be tomorrow (Thursday) from 4:15 to 5:15.
Here is the link to the market: Tullahoma Locally Grown Market
Thank you for your support. Have a great day,
Fuel So Good Coffee Roasters
Martin's Farmstand: Dried Apples
My dad (Luke) has about 4 acres of orchard over on the homefarm. In this orchard you will find all kinds of old heirloom apples growing along with pears, blueberries plums etc. He also has various fruit trees tucked into all sorts of corners and along fence rows etc all over the farm. All this orchard is manged without the use of any chemical fertilizers or sprays. Mixed into this is all sorts of wildflowers and in general a huge diversity of life.
In the winter I take some of these fine heirloom apples (mixed kinds) and dry them. They make a lovely snack food when you are driving or walking out to the field to work etc. You can also use them in the more tradional ways for pie etc. In bygone years dried apples were a major industry here in New York. Somehow in the rush for progress many of us have skipped past this fine, healthy snack food and now eat soda and chips instead.
I have a homemade apple dryer that I use to do the drying. After supper on winter evenings or first thing in the morning when the cookstove is going, we slice a batch of apples. (I need warm, dry air for the drier to work) It takes about 8 lbs of fresh apples to get 1lb of dry apples. The price is $2.50 for a quarter pound bag or $8.00 per LB. We also sell them in larger amounts (10lbs) for $6.00 Lb. DanielCLG: CLG Pickup Reminder & Crimmins Family Farm Update
Good morning,
This is a pickup reminder for those of you who ordered this week. Thank you for your order! You can pick up your order from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. today at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church at 925 Mitchell Street in Conway.
If something comes up that you cannot personally pick up your order today, please contact someone to pick up for you.
Remember to bring your EGGSHELLS, glass jars for recycling, egg cartons, and bags for ordered items. Reduce, reuse, recycle! See you this afternoon.
Come early for the best selection from the EXTRAS table!
Thank you,
Steve
At the market last Friday, many members of CLG asked what they could do to help the Crimmins family that suffered a total crop loss due to flooding. I reached out again to them to let them know about the huge interest in supporting their operation. Lucrecia informed me that Tammy Keith had come to their place and written an article about their experience. Here’s a link to that article:
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/jan/10/heifer-floods-gardens-no-livestock-lost/?f=rivervalley
And here’s a note from Lucrecia Crimmins: We’re very touched by everyone’s offer support, but we all feel as Chuck says in the article: “no, no, no, to donations… there are many others much worse off than we are.” Please thank everyone once again though. We hope to see everyone again later in the year.
I think you’ll agree that this family exemplifies the kind of grit it takes to be a farm family, now and in years past.