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.
Fresh Harvest, LLC: Fresh Harvest for March 11th
To Contact Us
Fresh Harvest, LLC
Link to Fresh Harvest
Email us!
Tallahassee May
tally@wildblue.net
JohnDrury
john.drury@att.net
Recipes
John’s Sweet Potato Fries
1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the peanut oil on each of two rimmed baking sheets. Use a paper towel to spread the oil evenly over the entire surface and place both sheets in the oven.
2. Cut each sweet potato from end to end in eight thick wedges. Toss the sweet potatoes and the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large bowl to coat. Season generously with salt and pepper and toss again to blend. Carefully remove one baking sheet from the oven and place half of the sweet potatoes on the baking sheet cut-side down. Spread them out so that they do not touch each other. Return the baking sheet to the oven and repeat the process using the second baking sheet and the remaining sweet potatoes.
3. Bake until the cut side of the sweet potatoes touching the baking sheet is crusty and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove each baking sheet from the oven and carefully turn the sweet potatoes, using a thin metal spatula. Bake until the second cut side of the sweet potatoes now touching the pan is crusty and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Use the metal spatula to transfer the sweet potatoes to a platter and serve the oven-fried potatoes immediately.
Market News
Hello!
Well, it looks like spring is here to stay. It hardly seems like we deserve it, after such a mild winter. But the temperatures are lovely and the plants are ready to go in the ground. We’re putting out cabbages, onions, broccoli, lettuces, chard, beets, potatoes, and all sorts of good stuff. The strawberry plants are flowering, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for a good yield this year.
The seedlings in the greenhouse are growing nice and strong. We’ll once again have a nice selection of herb plants – lots of basil varieties! – and heirloom tomato starts for your garden. These will be available to you in late April, early May.
Tally is planning out the year’s flowers. If you like to buy flowers, please consider investing our Bouquet of the Week Club. This guarantees you a large mixed bouquet a week for 12 weeks, starting the end of May. Also, you are getting ithe bouquet at a reduced price by paying for it ahead of time.
We have so much great stuff for you this week, once again! The greens are really coming back in after the dark days of winter. And the carrots are just delicious. Don’t forget flowers for your table! We do have eggs listed this week from McDonald Farm. We will be switching egg suppliers in the coming weeks, but for now will still have their eggs available.
Isn’t it amazing what you can get locally this time of year – and all organic, grown and produced close to home without chemicals! Everything from mushrooms, to flowers, to meats and of course the veggies. By purchasing through Fresh Harvest, you are really making a positive impact on your carbon footprint – less chemicals and less fossil fuels. Thank you so much for the thought and effort you put into your food dollars. You really are making a difference!
We truly appreciate your support, and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
John and Tallahassee
Coming Events
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!
!
Northeast, Ga.: Locally Grown Availability for March 14, 2012
Hey Local Food Lovers,
Is anyone feeling energized about Spring? It’s starting to pop, and even though everything’s a little bit early, it sure feels nice to be gearing up for a busy growing season.
Over the last month or two local farmers have been meeting a lot in our region laying plans for what I expect will be by far the biggest local food year in NE GA.
- Farmers near Rabun County are gearing up for a super invigorated Simply Homegrown market up in Clayton this year starting sometime April-May. Check out their sweet new website http://www.simplyhomegrown.org/.
- Farmers from all over NE GA have been organizing a brand new GROWERS NETWORK that’ve gone to tour two farms to exchange ideas, had a potluck, established about 10 priorities to work on together, ordered a bunch of organic supplies in bulk, and are talking about hosting a GA MTN Farm Tour sometime in June. Attendance at these get-togethers has been 20+ growers every time.
- Quite a few folks headed up to the Organic Growers School in Asheville last weekend. These conferences and workshops are a great place to absorb new ideas to put into practice immediately this growing season. The Asheville food scene is really amazing.
I also want to welcome back a couple of growers that we haven’t seen hear for awhile. Marantha is back with her newly named Good Earth Farms. She’s got greens and honey and I’m sure lots more coming soon. Linda from Moonshadow Farms is bringing back her eggs from laying hens fed feed grown on their own farm. She’s also offering some seeds to wet your appetite for planting days ahead.
Speaking of planting days, today was a good day to turn a little earth. The Green Way Garden in Clarkesville has been cleaning up the garden spot, mowing our cover crops, moving compost piles, building new compost bins, tweeking our deer fence, breaking new ground, and starting tomorrow building our greenhouse (finally). Thanks goes to Chuck Mashburn for the expertise in getting this going and we promise to repay the favor big time.
But wait there’s more. A week or so ago a local farmer and I met with the school system nutritionist in Habersham County to discuss the possibility of one day having local sustainable foods fed to our school kids. A solid relationship was begun, and there’s a good chance that the Board of Education will be buying local food to feed 1,500 bicyclists during the Bike Ride Across Georgia event that is coming through here in June. This’ll be a great way to promote what we have here in NE GA, a burgeoning community of excellent food growers.
But wait…..more?!! The Habersham County Board of Education is getting closer to constructing their new cannery, and they’ve allowed us to work with the Dept. of Agriculture to have the facility built so that it could one day allow processing value added products that farmers could sell. Just to get the idea started we suggested an easy place to start would be installing a honey extractor that bee keepers could use since manual extractors are a chore, and many people could benefit. The GA Mtn Honey Bee Association offered to help find funding for the extractor, and so far it’s looking good. Laws for processing and selling jarred honey are quite simple, and it could be an easy start towards other products.
These are all small baby steps, but important steps to increasing our ability to produce, market, sell and prosper from local foods.
Before we sign off for the night I want to mention a couple of important developments. I don’t want to get too excited yet, but there’s a chance we may have a new local dairy producer listing here in a month or so. Not a done deal, but if it happens, I can’t wait to see how people respond to getting fresh cow’s milk, butter, cream and couple of other products. Keep your fingers crossed as we work with these great new folks.
The other idea we wanted to introduce is the rising need to raise our annual membership fee ever so slightly to $20. As many of you who shop regularly are aware, the market managers and our volunteers have started this market out of love and passion for local food and farms. However, we’re realizing that if we truly want this market to grow and more and more people to eat locally we need to invest more resources into the market. We have quite a few ideas on how to make that happen (many of which came from your surveys back in November) and we’re itching to make them happen. We also want the market (like our farms) to be sustainable. Our nearest locally grown neighbor in Clemson has a $20 annual fee, and our founding Locally Grown market in Athens charges $25. We kept it very low these first few years to make it super accessible. Give us your feedback, as we’ll probably institute this sometime in April when we go back to an every week schedule.
Last but not least, our wonderful market volunteer Teri Parker is making an exciting leap this week from customer (and hard working volunteer) to producer. This is very exciting as there is a food producer in many of you trying to get out. So try Teri’s Cookies (hopefully she figured out how to list them) and enjoy all the other products on Locally Grown this week.
EAT WELL,
Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun
Atlanta Locally Grown: Available for Saturday March 17
I hope this finds you all doing well.
I am sending out tonight’s email with out much fan fair. It has been a long day to follow a long weekend.
Remember you have at least 21 meals to plan for this week, 28+ if you include your snacks. We hope some of your selections come from our efforts.
We enjoy being your farmers.
Thank you for all your support. Please remember to have your orders placed by 8PM on Wednesday.
We will see you Saturday between 9AM and 10AM at the green market in Piedmont Park. Please make sure you arive early as we will only be bringing orders and would like to be on our way by 10:00 or so and don’t forget to share us with a friend.
Thank you,
Brady Bala
Market Manager
404-456-4333
Conyers Locally Grown: Available for Friday March 16
I hope this finds you all doing well.
I am sending out tonight’s email with out much fan fair. It has been a long day, following a long weekend.
Remember you have at least 21 meals to plan for this week, 28+ if you include your snacks. We hope some of your selections come from our efforts.
We enjoy being your farmers.
Thank you for all your support. Please remember to have your orders placed by 8PM on Tuesday. We will see you on Friday between 5PM and 7PM at Copy Central (1264 Parker Road, Conyers) and don’t forget to share us with a friend.
Thank you,
Brady Bala
Market Manager
404-456-4333
Athens Locally Grown: Availability for March 15
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 week, I thought I’d highlight a few features of the website you may have overlooked.
At the top of the Market page, there’s a carousel of “Featured Products”. Each grower can flag up to five of their products as “featured”, and they’ll show up on that list. In addition, if anything catches my eye (as market manager) that the grower didn’t mark, I can put it in there too. Up to ten of the items will be things I hand-picked to go in the list. Before I added this carousel, I was always missing items that were just coming into season or items that the growers wanted to highlight for the week. Now, I can guarantee you that when I do my shopping, before I go anywhere else on the site, I’ll be spinning that carousel around and adding items to my cart. Next, I’ll hop down to the “New Products” carousel right below, which shows the last thirty items that have been added to the site.
I understand if you might not want to do the same, though. You can shop however you want, in any section you want. This isn’t IKEA. So, if you’d rather not see the Featured Products carousel, or the New Products carousel, or your Order History, you can turn off all three of them. Just look over to the left side of the page, in the little section called “Display Options”. Click the links to hide what you want, and it’s done. If you change your mind later, you can turn them on in the same place.
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There’s another little-used feature of the site there in that same section. Did you know that you can turn off and on specific growers? You can do that, and it’ll remember your preferences every time you come back to the site (with that browser on that computer). One example I’ve seen is you can turn off all of the meat farmers if you want a vegan version of the site. I can understand that you might not want to be scrolling up through beets and suddenly see a thumbnail picture of beef cheeks. If you’d rather that not happen, uncheck the meat producers, and you’ll have a meat-free product listing. Or, if there’s a farm that for whatever reason you’d rather not order from, even on accident, just turn them off and be done with it.
Another nice thing over there is a link to subscribe to an RSS feed of the product listing. If you don’t know what that is, just skip over it. But if you do use a news reader to keep up with your favorite weblogs and news sites, add the ALG product feed, and you’ll see new products right as they get added to the site. It’s a great reminder, and a way to whet your appetite during the weekend, as the growers are busy getting the site ready to open for the 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!
Upcoming Local Food Events
March 31st: Athens Food Cart Festival On Saturday, March 31st, 2012, students from the UGA College of Environment and Design (CED) will stage a Food Cart Festival celebrating local and regional food production. An outgrowth of the CED’s CounterSPACE project, the street food festival is designed to raise awareness of the many benefits of mobile food vending for the Athens community. The event will feature food trucks from Atlanta as well as Athens food vendors, including FarmCart, La Fonda Dawgs, an empanada cart, and King of Pops. The festival will be on College Avenue between Washington and Hancock Streets from 12:00-6:00 p.m., in correlation with the CED’s annual Alumni Weekend campus activities. The public is invited.
Other Area Farmers Markets
The Athens Farmers Market has closed for the winter. You can watch for news during the offseason on their website. The other area markets are also all closed for the season too. All but Athens Locally Grown, that is.
Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!
Garden With Gnomes!
Hungry Gnome Gardenscapes is a small design/build/maintain firm located in Athens, GA. We specialize in edible landscaping, empowering people to grow their own food! We are passionate about teaching and we encourage all our clients to work and learn with us in the garden. We are also available for tree and shrub pruning, fence installation and repair, hardscaping, consulting and master planning.
New this year, we are offering a range of support programs for vegetable gardens. All support programs include:
- regular visits from a Gnome (the number of visits is program specific)
- 1 soil prep to start the year off right
- a soil test to check fertility
- all the seeds and starts needed for a bountiful garden
- a scale drawn map of your vegetable garden
- a monthly email newsletter with info on harvesting, pest control, planting, garden techniques and recipes
- thorough and complete weeding and pest management
Whether you are an experienced gardener or a back porch container pro, it’s not that easy to get your seeds and starts in the ground at the right time. We have done all the planning and we can set you easily on the path to a bountiful harvest. Check out our website – www.hungrygnome.org – for more information about our business and details on the support programs.
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!
The Wednesday Market: Wed Mkt March 14,2012
Market is open for ordering until 10 p.m. Monday.
Click
http://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
to see what your local growers have to offer this week.
StPete.LocallyGrown.Net: Market NOW Open - Mar. 12, 2012
Market opens Mondays @ 5 PM and closes Wednesdays @ NOON. We deliver on Fridays.
Due to rising fuel costs, The Dancing Goat products are available on our Market during the 1st & 3rd weeks of each month.
Please stock up on eggs & dairy during those weeks.
Organically Inclined is a co-op provider of ALL ORGANIC high quality nuts & seeds, berries and fruits. We are still assessing whether or not they will be on the Market weekly. So far they have been with us every week!
Where to Find Us
VISIT OUR Weblog page & Calendar of Events: http://stpete.locallygrown.net/weblog
CHECK OUT our Market Community Blog on Google: stpetelocallygrownnet.blogspot.com Learn to cook the familiar AND unfamiliar; like to author on our blog? send your request to tlevy@tampabay.rr.com.
Please LIKE US… On Facebook and tell your friends about us!
Message from Market Manager
CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS NOW ACCEPTED ONLINE
If you pay in person, we accept cash or checks. Please read this update from our Q&A page on payment options.
INVOICES PROVIDED ONLY ON REQUEST
Read about it here If you “must have” a printed invoice then please tell us—in the comment area—each time you place your order.
BEEF PRICING
The 100% grass-fed ground beef weighs between 1 and 1.5 pounds per package. When you order, we will charge your account $7 and then, prior to delivery, we will adjust your invoice for the remainder of the weight once we know the exact weight. Just a heads up that these packages can cost somewhere between $7 and 10.50 each.
STPETE.LOCALLYGROWN.NET PARTNERS IN FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
Since its inception four years ago, Eric Stewart’s Code Green Community website has expanded to form an online bio-regional community of like minded folk. Eric’s website has been instrumental in promoting our online Market’s Sunday Lecture Series. So we are happy to be included with a dozen or so organizations who are partnering with Eric to spread the news about raising funds to enhance the website with a new documentary to promote a more sustainable, resilient, and abundant Tampa Bay Area. Please read about Eric’s “Tampa Bay Green Living Economy Documentary/Web Series” project on Kickstart, email the link to your friends, and give serious consideration to contributing funds yourself. When this project gets funding, the organizations partnering with Eric will be included in a documentary focusing on the development of Tampa bay as a emerging green living economy. StPete.LocallyGrown.Net is honored to participate as a fundraising partner and to be included as a documentary subject.
New Growers
HELP US FIND GROWERS FOR THIS MARKET Grower Qualifications: We want both large scale growers and backyard gardeners who use only organic methods in their farming process: composting, etc. They also do not use synthetic chemicals to either fertilize or to control pests in their garden. Our range of search is currently within Pinellas & Manatee Counties but we will consider other areas. This is needed to meet current customer demands UNTIL St. Petersburg growers are more able to subsidize Market needs. Local growers (St. Petersburg) are still our main priority and highest preference.
Upcoming Events
SATURDAY WORKSHOP – March 17th, 2012 from 1 pm – 3 pm. “Successful Urban Farming in St. Petersburg” with Nathan Levy. Cost is $35 per individual OR pay $25 EACH when you bring a friend. (price includes copy of “What We’ve Learned”) Do you want to become more independent and self-sustaining? Then grow your own food! Nathan will speed up your learning curve by sharing his experience with:
- Growing vegetables year round regardless of temperature,
- Using free materials for most all of your garden needs,
- Harvesting weeds and seeds for extra bounty,
- Winning the “battle of the bugs”
A great refresher for garden veterans and solid advice for beginners! This 2-hour workshop is jam-packed with information for you to apply in your backyard vegetable patch as you plant and maintain your fall garden and consider growing next summer. LOCATION: Nathan’s Backyard Garden, 5305 20th St. N., St. Petersburg, FL 33714
QUESTIONS: Call Nathan at 727-403-1655
SUNDAY LECTURE SERIES – March 18th, 2012 from 2:30 – 3:30 pm. FREE LECTURE “Living Through a Hospitalization” with Rita Sewell. This FREE lecture focuses on what to do when we find ourselves inside the medical system. Most of us take good care of ourselves so that is not likely but stuff happens and when we are admitted we may not have a clue how the hospital system works. Rita has 30 years experience both in the health care system and insurance business. She plans to give you some gems of wisdom to help you navigate the system. SPONSORED BY STPETE.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!
Northeast, Ga.: Locally Grown Availability for March 14, 2012
Hey Local Food Lovers,
Is anyone feeling energized about Spring? It’s starting to pop, and even though everything’s a little bit early, it sure feels nice to be gearing up for a busy growing season.
Over the last month or two local farmers have been meeting a lot in our region laying plans for what I expect will be by far the biggest local food year in NE GA.
- Farmers near Rabun County are gearing up for a super invigorated Simply Homegrown market up in Clayton this year starting sometime April-May. Check out their sweet new website http://www.simplyhomegrown.org/.
- Farmers from all over NE GA have been organizing a brand new GROWERS NETWORK that’ve had toured two farms, had a potluck, established about 10 priorities to work on together, ordered a bunch of organic supplies in bulk, and are talking about hosting a GA MTN Farm Tour sometime in June.
Porterdale, GA: Available for pickup Saturday, March 17th
Hello everyone-
Hope you all had a great weekend! I finished up my Permaculture design class today, so I won’t need to miss any pickups again for a while.
Porterdale should be hopping this Saturday, they are going to have a St. Patrick’s Day parade at 1:30 and live music and wrestling at 2:30. Oh, and the community garden is having a workday and is always happy to put any willing hands to work! That is at 10:30.
Don’t forget that the in-person market starts on March 24th – we’ll still have the locallygrown pickups at the same time and place during the market.
Thank you all for being a part of this market, and please forward this to any of your friends who may be interested. Anyone can sign in, get the emails, and see what is available each week with no obligation.
Remember – ordering is open until Wednesday at 9pm and the pickup is from 10-11 on Saturday at the depot in Porterdale. See you there!
Thanks-
Helen
770-788-9120
Fresh Harvest, LLC: Fresh Harvest for March 11th
To Contact Us
Fresh Harvest, LLC
Link to Fresh Harvest
Email us!
Tallahassee May
tally@wildblue.net
JohnDrury
john.drury@att.net
Recipes
John’s Sweet Potato Fries
1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the peanut oil on each of two rimmed baking sheets. Use a paper towel to spread the oil evenly over the entire surface and place both sheets in the oven.
2. Cut each sweet potato from end to end in eight thick wedges. Toss the sweet potatoes and the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large bowl to coat. Season generously with salt and pepper and toss again to blend. Carefully remove one baking sheet from the oven and place half of the sweet potatoes on the baking sheet cut-side down. Spread them out so that they do not touch each other. Return the baking sheet to the oven and repeat the process using the second baking sheet and the remaining sweet potatoes.
3. Bake until the cut side of the sweet potatoes touching the baking sheet is crusty and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove each baking sheet from the oven and carefully turn the sweet potatoes, using a thin metal spatula. Bake until the second cut side of the sweet potatoes now touching the pan is crusty and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Use the metal spatula to transfer the sweet potatoes to a platter and serve the oven-fried potatoes immediately.
Market News
Hello!
Well, it looks like spring is here to stay. It hardly seems like we deserve it, after such a mild winter. But the temperatures are lovely and the plants are ready to go in the ground. We’re putting out cabbages, onions, broccoli, lettuces, chard, beets, potatoes, and all sorts of good stuff. The strawberry plants are flowering, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for a good yield this year.
The seedlings in the greenhouse are growing nice and strong. We’ll once again have a nice selection of herb plants – lots of basil varieties! – and heirloom tomato starts for your garden. These will be available to you in late April, early May.
Tally is planning out the year’s flowers. If you like to buy flowers, please consider investing our Bouquet of the Week Club. This guarantees you a large mixed bouquet a week for 12 weeks, starting the end of May. Also, you are getting ithe bouquet at a reduced price by paying for it ahead of time.
We have so much great stuff for you this week, once again! The greens are really coming back in after the dark days of winter. And the carrots are just delicious. Don’t forget flowers for your table! We do have eggs listed this week from McDonald Farm. We will be switching egg suppliers in the coming weeks, but for now will still have their eggs available.
Isn’t it amazing what you can get locally this time of year – and all organic, grown and produced close to home without chemicals! Everything from mushrooms, to flowers, to meats and of course the veggies. By purchasing through Fresh Harvest, you are really making a positive impact on your carbon footprint – less chemicals and less fossil fuels. Thank you so much for the thought and effort you put into your food dollars. You really are making a difference!
We truly appreciate your support, and look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
John and Tallahassee
Coming Events
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!
!