Joyful Noise Acres Farm:  Market closes at 8pm.

Good afternoon everyone,
Just a reminder to get your orders in as the market closes at 8:00pm. See you Wednesday and thank you for supporting your local farmers.
Know your food, know your farmer.

Blessings,
Mary Beth

South Cumberland Food Hub:  Open for Orders

Don’t forget to place your order for the South Cumberland Food Hub today.
Click here to go directly to the Rootedhere Locally Grown Market Page

Have a great day!

Risa

Jonesborough Locally Grown:  Birds Eye view of Farm to Table

For those of you who aren’t following the market on Facebook, didn’t want you to miss this!

Aerial view of our 216 ft Farm to Table Table!!

More photos by Woven Studios here

Princeton Farm Fresh:  The Market is Open

This heat makes me feel like I have moved back to Georgia. What has happened to my seasonably warm Kentucky? As we are drawing down on summer I thought I would post a recipe for Tomatoes and Okra. I have never liked Okra (maybe I have never had “Good” Okra before), but when I made this at the beginning of summer I was an Okra convert. It is so yummy that I am sorry that I snubbed my nose at it before.

The Lady and Sons Okra and Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 slices bacon diced into small pieces
1 small onion peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (I used cut up cherry tomatoes)
1 tablespoon chicken base
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups fresh okra cut into 1-inch pieces (may use frozen, if fresh not available)
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:
Cook bacon slightly. Saute onion and garlic with bacon until tender. Add tomatoes, chicken base, sugar and pepper. Stir well and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning if needed. Meanwhile wash okra and remove fuzz if using fresh and cut into pieces. Add the okra and simmer until okra is done, about 20 more minutes (less if using frozen okra.)

See you at the market on Friday!
Angela

Gwinnett Locally Grown:  Sunday Market Reminder

:This email is a gentle reminder that ordering through Gwinnett Locally Grown will close tomorrow at noon.

The Market is open Thursday at 9 – Monday at noon. After that, ordering is disabled until Thursday morning. Pick up your order Tuesday 4:30-6:30 p.m. only at Rancho Alegre Farm at 2225 Givens Road, Dacula, GA 30019. New to The Market? Learn about how it works here.

MARKET NEWS

So many new things are happening at the Market!
We are carrying natural laundry products, jams and are working to bring more items in the coming months! So watch for that!!

I’m reaching out to see if anyone is interested in purchasing Fermented Cod Liver Oil from Green Pastures and Certified Organic Expeller-pressed Coconut Oil from Wilderness Family Naturals? We buy in bulk a few times a year to help everyone save on the cost because it is pricey on small orders, but the health benefits of these products are amazing! Please email or call us if you are interested in placing an order with us!

Look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday!

My best to all -

Shop often and eat well!

Market Manager
grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com

Fresh Wishes,
Pilar Quintero
Market Host
Rancho Alegre Farm

Please contact grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com for questions pertaining to Market or Raw Milk. It is very difficult to return phone calls. If you are interested in Goat’s Milk, contact Nik The Goat Guy at 404-542-0981. We generally have some goat’s milk available during market hours, whether you have placed a market order or not. Please contact him first though to confirm. Remember to interact with us on Facebook and follow us on Meetup to get notification on all our events and news.

Heirloom Living Market Hamilton Mill:  Have you ordered? Market Closes at 6:00pm!

Market Closes at 6:00pm Today!

Thank you for your support!

See you at Market on Wednesday!

Heirloom Living Market Lilburn:  Have you ordered? Market Closes at 6:00pm!

Market Closes at 6:00pm Today!

Thank you for your support!

See you at Market on Thursday!

Tullahoma Locally Grown:  watermelons and spaghetti squash!

Hi everyone,

Double Tree Farms has Watermelons and Petalland has some spaghetti squash on the market this week! Crow Mountain Orchard Peaches and Apples from last week were delicious.

Fountain Springs Farm has Chicken Wings and they still have a few Thanksgiving turkey deposits available as well.

The Market closes noon on Wednesday, what’s in your fridge??

Get started here: Tullahoma Locally Grown Market

CSA Farmers Market:  Metro Detroit Flooding

Many metro areas got hit including Clawson with the major flooding recently. The systems were overloaded and some areas flooded with storm drain water and others became flooded with sewage water. If any would like to help with clean up or to donate furniture of clothing email me and I will get your information to the appropriate parties.

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown:  Locally Grown - Availability for August 27, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

It’s been a great summer for Local Food in Northeast Georgia. Next weekend (Labor Day) always marks the end of summer to me, so now seems like a good time to reflect on just how significant a year it has been for our little movement.

Even though our expansion of Locally Grown to Gainesville that began on June 11th has at this point met and exceeded every expectation we had, this was far from the only momentous achievement of the summer for Local Food. Perhaps we should go back as far as March 31st when the Georgia Mountains Farmers Network held by far our best meeting to date. It was a celebration of sorts. It marked the launch of the Farmers Network from a fledgling group that met for the first time at Sid Blalock’s farm back in January 2012 to a newly formed non-profit with a board of directors with a focus and determination to deepen our collaborations. It also marked the opening of Fortify, Jamie Alred’s very own restaurant. In fact, rather than a potluck like every other farmer gathering we’d ever had, we all ate a meal at Jamie’s using food grown by the attendees. You can guess how outstanding that meal was both for the food and the company. Georgia Organics was a lovely sponsor making it possible for us to afford such an impressive farm to table meal.

As the summer heated up and the Gainesville expansion was being scouted out (lots of visits to meet new people and look for the ideal spot -thanks very much History Center by the way) we were also planning the Georgia Mountains Farm Tour our annual tour to 14 farms throughout the region with proceeds going to the Network. The event was smashing success in every way. Better press, incredible crowds (over 500), lots of volunteers, an incredible new video and I dare say more fun for everybody involved. It made us realize that we really do have something special going on in Northeast Georgia, and by golly we should be proud of it. When other people show so much interest in what you do, it helps remind you how special it is.

Not long after this the Best Chefs of America declared Rabun County GA the “farm to table” capital of the state and came out to do a full spread on all the great restaurants and growers in the County. I haven’t even seen this publication yet, but can’t wait to.

The Farm to School program in Habersham County went so well in 2013-2014 that they are expanding it to the other two middle schools this year. More and more young people are going to be exposed to eating healthy and eating local. Rabun County I believe is starting a program this year as well.

Then just a few months ago another farm to table restaurant this time in Clarkesville opened up, Harvest Habersham. It is outstanding and another place for local growers to sell food.

This is only the successes I can think of without digging through my memory banks to much. It feels like the tide is turning in some tangible ways.

All this leads me to a couple of important points. First, the real inspiration for all of these things is first and foremost the farmers that are out there in the sun, the soil, the heat and the rain toiling away at their passion day after day after day. If you know a farmer do something nice for them. Tell them you think they are awesome. Give them a gift for all the times they rounded up your order to just over a pound (when it was supposed to be just a pound and they probably made it over a pound and a half and closer to two). Farmers are the most generous people I know. To be honest they are the people I like the most. They are the one’s I admire and look up to, and try and emulate. For a few reasons this is the case. They are that perfect balance between loving nature, loving the earth, loving to work hard, and wanting to do all of it because they love people and want them to eat something that’s worth something. Farmers make me want to be a better person. In fact, the more I’m around them I can’t help but a little of it rub off, lucky me. Even if it’s only a little it feels great. Our farmers think about the experience we all have with their food. It makes them happy to hear you’ve enjoyed it, that you’ve shared it, that you’ve looked forward to it. So if you can, do something that says thanks for a farmer sometime. It’ll make you feel good to do it I assure you.

One small way you can do that is keep eating local every week of the year. One of our favorite things about this crazy Locally Grown market is that it keeps us connected to good food all year round. This is good for all of us. Why should we go back to the grocery store as cold weather sets in. Instead more and more farms are building greenhouses and growing year-round. So if you don’t know how to eat kale, collards, turnips and their greens, etc. you need to. I’ve got a turnip green pesto recipe that’ll make you never wanna go back to basil pesto it’s so good.

Ok, second important point. I’m being long winded tonight. Everthing I described above is only the beginning of what this farming movement is capabl of. Even though Locally Grown has been around for 4 years and 4 months, and GMFN is just 4 months shy of our 3rd year, we are baby organizations, just getting started in fulfilling our missions which is to collaborate to increase the impact of Local Food in our region.

So now for our BIG NEWS!

Last week we received word (after many months of waiting) that we are to be awarded a 20 month grant from the USDA that will allow Locally Grown to grow our market in ways that should make it a permanent fixture in our communities for years to come. The minimum goal of this grant is to double the size of Locally Grown during that 20 month time! That doesn’t just mean sales, or customers, it means farmers and products too. We’ll be recruiting new farms and making relationships that should continue to diversify the types of foods you can order all year long. We’ll also be focusing for the first time on marketing Locally Grown to a slightly larger audience. To do that means we’ll have more FEATURED FARMER opportunities where we hope you can meet some of our farmers in PERSON. Another opportunity is for those who really want to gain some organic gardening experience from experts to come out to the farms for some FARMER FOR A DAY workdays. There’s nothing a farmer appreciates more than a few hours of work during the height of the crazy season and their happy to share their expertise in exchange.

I could go on and on about how this means in a few months we’ll be going paperless at each market location, or that we plan to buy a trailer for hauling more food, or all the marketing ideas we have, but you’ll see all this soon enough.

As we do evolve into the next phase, we want you right there with us. Those of you who have been with us since the beginning, this summer’s success is owed to you as well. We wouldn’t be here without the dedicated local food eaters in this community. Here’s to growing this movement a little bigger, making new friends and changing the world. Or at least our little piece of the world. One yummy bite at a time.

Before I go, the hot item of the week is Shade Creek’ Farms potatoes. I ate a whole mess of them in a curry dish this week, both the Mixed Medley and the Yellow Germans and they were delicious. Get you some and…..

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew