Champaign, OH:  A Day In The Life

Hello, lovely little local market of love customers!! Can you believe it’s Monday? Can you believe that your market manager is just getting the Weblog out? Can you say that your market manager is still recovering, er, regrouping from her night in Columbus watching the simulcast of the Grateful Dead’s Farewell Tour? Yes…dancing, twirling, wine consumption, all equaled a very happy Fourth Of July weekend!!

So now…time to get my groove on!!

This week, we feature the story, and day in the life of the Pullins family of Champaign Berry Farm! Their farm is just up the road from my house, I have loved getting to know Cathy and Mike, and I loved reading their story…

So, here you go…the latest in the Days installments!!

Also, after reading, remember that the holiday weekend is over, the market is open, and it’s time to get those weekly orders ready!

Champaign Berry Farm, located on State Route 29 near Mutual, is a family run business featuring red raspberries, black raspberries and gooseberries. The farm started in 1993 as a Future Farmers of America project for the eldest son, Matt. At the time, Matt’s father Mike was the Executive Director of the Ohio Fruit Grower’s Society and was aware of the consumer demand for fresh, farm grown fruit. We began with the planting of 2 ½ acres of raspberries and added another 2 ½ in 1994. Matt graduated from Triad High School in 1997 and was off to OSU. He continued to help with the farm on weekends and during the summer. Meanwhile, the youngest son, Kent, managed the farm while he was in high school and college. Both are now grown and live and work away from the farm however they continue to be an integral part of the operation.
In the early 2000’s we realized the demand for fresh berries was growing beyond the capacity of the original 5 acres so we purchased the current farm and planted 23 acres in 2002 and 2003. The location is excellent with easy access to I-70, and State Routes 29, 36, 161, 4, 68, 54 and 56. Over 80% of our berries are sold as Pick Your Own. We hire local teens, college students and others to pick for customers such as those who use the virtual market or those who stop by to purchase pre-picked berries.
Our website www.champaignberryfarm.com was launched in 2005 and is updated often to enhance viability and sales. Check out our harvest section for recipes! We are also using social media to reach our customers. Kent’s wife, Lindsay, is the designer and webmaster of our website and she also creates Facebook posts as well as emails for our customer base. We are members of the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association and annually attend trainings and seminars to learn about current trends and research in fruit production as well as to understand and comply with food safety regulations. We are also members of Ohio Proud and The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.

Fresh Harvest, LLC:  Fresh Harvest - Delicious Organic Blueberries and Tomatoes Still Available!

Market News

Hello!

There is still time to place an order if you haven’t done so already! Now is the time to stock up on blueberries – frozen for winter or canned in jam. Or pie – there is always a need for pie, right?

There’s other lovely items as well – heirloom tomatoes, cooking greens and cabbages, and freshly dug garlic.

You have until Tuesday evening to place an order.

Thanks so much – and we’ll see you on Wednesday!

John and Tallahassee

Coming Events

Tullahoma Locally Grown:  Order Reminder

Hello,

The Tullahoma Locally Grown Market is currently open for orders.

Please remember to place your orders before noon on Wednesday. This will give our growers sufficient harvest time. You can place multiple orders; our system will combine them automatically.

Here is the link to the market:
http://tullahoma.locallygrown.net

Have a great day,
Fuel So Good Coffee Roasters

GFM :  On Line Market Open

The Market is now open for your shopping convenience.

Please place your orders before Thursday afternoon at 3 pm. for pickup at Saturday’s Market @ the livestock pavilion of the Greene County FairGrounds.

Thank You,
The Vendors & GFM

Spa City Local Farm Market Co-op:  Volunteer for Friday

We need one more volunteer for this Friday’s pick-up day. To sign up, please visit our online calendar at http://tinyurl.com/Co-opVolunteers or email me at kgharbut@aol.com.

Thanks,
Karen Harbut
Volunteer Coordinator

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown:  Locally Grown - Availability for July 8th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Well I don’t know about you guys but it feels like we’re almost at the height of summer production. This is the time of year where we see nearly all the diversity of local foods converge. When you can still get a few of the cooler season crops like cabbage, beets, fennel, carrots, but most of the summer stuff is here like tomatoes, cukes (that’s short for cucumbers by the way), eggplant, peppers, corn, and beans.

As is typical for me, it’s the rare and somewhat hard to get stuff that makes me happiest. For example I went down to the Clarkesville Community Garden last week to take a quick look at things and noticed that the raspberry bushes that I planted 3 years ago (and have been weeding and mulching that bed every few months since) was just chocked full of raspberries. I was a bit surprised as a kids group had been by earlier that week and I assumed the gardeners would keep a close eye on the bushes and nibble every time they went. Lucky for me I think most folks don’t know that you gotta get down on your hands and knees and reach deep under the vines to see all the berries. Raspberries are not an easy fruit to pick. By the time I was done I had well over a pint of beautiful red berries. Well everyday for the last 7 or 8 days I’ve had a smoothy with fresh local strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, milk from Mountain Fresh, honey from Mtn Honey, and then non-local bananas, yogurt, and sometimes a bit of ice-cream and squirt of lime. I absolutely love fruit season. Since not many farmers do raspberries I encourage anyone with a sense of adventure to plant your own. You do have to trellis them which can take some practice. But if you plant 2 or 3, they quickly will become 8 or 12, and you can start giving them to your friends. In fact, find a friend with raspberries and ask for a small rooted plant to get you started.

Also had Wauka Pork Chops this last week that we let marinate in fresh herbs from our garden. Chopped up rosemary and thyme and I mean a lot of it, like a cup or more. Then just pat that on the chops thick with olive oil. I add a little pepper and salt too. Let ’em sit for a half hour. Longer lets the flavor penetrate even more. Then on the grill on low, low heat. Succulent. The left overs were even better as the herbs just keep penetrating.

Chanterelles. I spend a lot time outdoors….my work fortunately has me tromping through the woods a bit from time to time, and after all the thunderstorms this week I was happy to finally find my first patch of Chanterelle mushrooms. These shrooms only grow wild and they are a true delicacy. Cook them in butter of course with a bit of garlic. Then add some cream and cook on low and put over pasta or my favorite is on toast of some really good bread.

You may notice from my writings here that I love to eat food from local farms, but wow, what joy in eating foods grown yourself or even better found through your communion with nature. That’s my kind of worship time, just being thankful that the world provides food if we cultivate our knowledge of it. We all could cultivate a lot more with just the tiniest of efforts. And that is a more sustainable way of living, and perhaps most importantly a more enjoyable way of living. Crusting my food with my own local herbs kind of makes my heart sing.

Also this week, the birds have been eyeing my blueberries. No way about it, I’ll have to share. In fact, they, the birds, are probably watching me thinking, I hope that tall human doesn’t eat OUR berries.

It’s not too late to enjoy some Shade Creek Farm red white and blue potatoes in the spirt of the 4th of July Holiday. Also Shade Creek’s zephyr squash are my favorites. Got two pounds coming on Wednesday.

Been improving my flower and garden beds lately and thought I’d plant some interesting and sometimes medicinal plants from Holman Holllow. Black Cohosh and Wild Ginger should be both beautiful and useful in the years ahead. I love the service they are providing helping to educate us on native plants. Buy one or two and expand your plant brain!

Thanks again to all who enjoyed the FARM TOUR just over a WEEK AGO. Please share with us your ideas to improve it next year by taking our survey at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/eatwellbuylocal2015

And don’t forget to post photos from the TOUR to
the GA Mtns Farmers Network Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMountainsFarmersNetwork?ref=hl

We hope you have a great week….. and EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Martin's Farmstand:  More strawberries

The online market is open for orders. We have all sorts of the early summer produce. The red beet greens are coming into their prime now. We have started cutting cabbage and are picking both early beans and peas now.
I don’t have a good explanation why we have beans now. These plants were well on there way when we had that freeze in the end of May. All my past experience says that beans don’t take frost- these bean plants lived.

There are a lot more ripe strawberries in the field than I expected for today. If anybody wishes to come u-pick strawberries today we have berries available.

We live in a beautiful community. I see many examples of people loving and caring for each other. I also see sometimes where community fails. Spouses divorce, neighbors fight. People act in selfish ways.I was pondering a bit about how all this works. Mostly it is pretty simple, we already know what it takes. Mercy and forgiveness are so lovely, Thoughtfulness, gentlenss, and giving others space to try and fail go a long way. Daniel

South Cumberland Farmer's Market:  Market Tomorrow (Tuesday)

Tomorrow’s market is quite large. Please allow the growers to check in before coming to get your order. The pickup times for orders is 4:30 to 6:15. If you are not there by 6:15, your order will be placed in the kitchen and subject to the left-behind fee.

If you cannot pick up your order by 6:15, please contact us by noon (unless, of course, there is a last-minute emergency).

Payments for all left-behind orders need to be received and posted before the next market’s opening on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Envelopes are on the side of the fridge in the community center. If we have temporarily run out of envelopes, you may make your check out to CFM and mail it to Kir Strobel, 744 Timberwood Trace, Monteagle, TN 37356. Because all the mail goes to Chattanooga before being delivered up here, make sure you mail your payment no later than the day after market.

Kir and Linda

Yalaha, FL:  Market Open July 6-9 ordering window

Market Open for Ordering!
We still only have the Aquaponic Lynx LLC farm products and not many customers yet but the Market is open for ordering.
Since there will be so few possible orders at this point, I will contact anyone who orders to arrange a pick up time. (Could be Friday, Saturday or Sunday, I just need to know when so I have the order ready and I can contain the puppies and open the gate to be ready for you.)

New customers and farmers welcome, just click sign in to create an account.

Princeton Farm Fresh:  The Market is Open

What a wonderful weekend we have had. The rain held off and allowed all of the festivities to go off without a hitch. Including the traditional farmers market. The rain started 5 minutes after the market closed last week. We had 150 people go through the market last week, which is impressive for a holiday week. In case anyone missed the market, you should come on out and check us out on Thursday between 4-6pm at the Princeton Park (in front of the senior center). We are expecting more farmers this week and more produce will be available each week after this. Your farmers and vendors thank you for your support of this event.
I will see you on Friday,
Angela