Suwanee Whole Life Co-op:  Market is OPEN for orders!

Happy Independence Day!!!

ORDERING:
The market is now open for ordering!
suwanee.locallygrown.net

If you do NOT receive a confirmation email immediately after you placed your order, then your items are still in your cart and your order is not complete. All orders must be placed by 5pm on Sunday.

PICK UP:
Pick up is on Tuesday at 4942 Austin Park Avenue, Buford 30518 from 1pm to 6:45 pm. PLEASE NOTE NEW PICK UP ENDING TIME at 6:45 PM

PAYMENT:
We take checks, cash, credit card and Dwolla

If you are planning to pay using Dwolla please make sure your deposit includes the 25 cents fee. For example, if your order total is $22.50 make your deposit for $22.75.

Please make sure you understand our pick up policy before you order.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Nora

Champaign, OH:  America

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw…I’ve gone to look for America
(Simon And Garfunkel – America)

Lovely song, all about searching…and a search that led across America. All with a lovely song to lead the way..

Simon and Garfunkel. I was so obsessed with them. They remind me of two very stand out teachers that I was lucky enough to encounter in my school journey. The first was a student music teacher that we had in 3rd grade. She came to us as a college student and she was so chic, so bohemian, so totally in tune with the times. The time was 1973.

She taught us all of the Simon and Garfunkel songs in our music class. She planned a student production with all of us singing songs from the late 60s and early 70s. As you can imagine, I was elated!! She was my idol, her music struck a chord with me, and I worshipped her. Sadly, on a rainy Monday morning, we got to our music class only to find that our lovely Miss G. was no longer there. She had been dismissed. Some parents felt that their children didn’t need the music education that she provided. Many were sad…I was heartbroken.

My other favorite teacher was, ironically, another student teacher of music. He came to us much later. We were all in high school. He was teaching us in band. I love and adore music. I did not love band. To me, it was just torture. But, then, walked in a young Mr. G (again…music, the letter G in the names). Mr. G let us explore rock and roll songs. Our drummers were coming alive in drumming that was so foreign to our ears. The chords and notes for all of us were now all about rocking and rolling and exploring the works of the 60s and 70s even though we were now in the late 70s and early 80s.

He even had an end of the term cookout/party at his big old house for all of his band kids. I am pretty sure it would be frowned on, now, but it was 1979, and it’s how we did things. I remember looking at his extensive album collection only to see his collection of the Simon and Garfunkel albums with the same songs of my lovely Miss G.

Mr. G noted my interest, my almost tears, my smile. He let me pick out two of his albums to keep. I still have them, tucked into my very vast album collection, to this day.

The kindness of two G’s, both out to make the world a bit brighter with their love of music. Their wonder, their excitement, their quest…isn’t that what life and the everyday should be about?

As we celebrate our country’s birthday, tomorrow, as we embrace this little local market, as we think about how we all are connected, how we all come together, how we all help out…the way it should always be, to make each day in this country and in this little market that we call home…just put a little song in your hearts.

Make each day just a little brighter by keeping that song in your heart. Make each day a bit of a celebration by keeping that song in your heart.

As I open the market, this evening, I want to say, Happy Fourth of July…think about all that it means, and celebrate in song…

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Local Farms First:  Weblog Entry

Greetings Local Farms First food lovers!

Thistle Whistle

Check out Thistle Whistles AWESOME produce on our market this week!! Begin enjoying summer with the bounties of Local Farms First produce and MORE!!

Thanks for supporting local family farms,
Amy Konash- Market Manager
LocalFarmsFirst.org – a 501c3 non-profit
970-641-7682
click here to start shopping on the website:
www.LocalFarmsFirst.com

Suwanee Whole Life Co-op:  News

Happy Independence Day!! We wish you, your family and loved ones a very happy, fun and safe 4th of July!

Jonesborough Locally Grown:  Online Market open for July 7th delivery!

Ordering is open! Shop now thru Sunday at noon, pick up & pay for your order Monday 7/7 from 5-6pm at the Jonesborough Visitor’s Center.

This online ordering cycle is a special holiday weekend substitute for our missed Saturday market July 5th.

Have a safe and happy weekend, and hope to see you Monday!

Gwinnett Locally Grown:  OUR MARKET IS GROWING!

The Market is open Thursday Noon – Monday 9:00 a.m. After that, ordering is disabled until Thursday noon-ish. 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.

EXITING NEWS!
Our market is growing! Since I became market manager in October, I’ve been tracking our sales and we are showing a general upward trend in order $$$. This is exciting because as our market sales grow, we can bring in new vendors. I have been assured that Rancho Alegre Farm is kind of far out in the country, which I continue to try to wrap my head around – being from what now seems as a fairly remote part of Ohio (23 miles round trip to grocery, 52 miles round trip for my kids to go to school, very difficult to see a neighbor from the kitchen window). We moved on purpose to an area where we have better and closer access to everything.

My point is that there’s a symbiotic relationship between farmers and customers – we have to have good farmers to attract a lot of customers, and we have to have a lot of customers to attract a wide variety of farmers. This latter makes it difficult to have specialty items listed on our market. Although I don’t have a problem with some competition among farmers when it comes to offering products, I am much more concerned with creating an ever-increasing variety of products.

Be sure to pick up market brochures when you come Tuesday to share with your friends, family, co-workers, and random people on the street :-) The more customers we have, the more variety we will be able to offer! We are definately on our way, and it will take all of us to grow the market!

MARKET NEWS
We have pastured chicken from Mother Earth Meats in stock again. Be sure to order as early as possible because it is a popular item! Sadly, we cannot stock as much as I would like – we simply do not have the freezer space to store it. They have a really good $99 package you can order directly from them and have shipped to Rancho Alegre for pick-up on the fourth Saturday of the month. I have not confirmed July’s schedule yet, so be sure to call Tracy first if you have a tight schedule. No. 1 on my list of future purchases is a small chest freezer so I can start ordering in bulk!

Mother Earth Meats also has elk, seafood (frog legs anyone?), wild Alaska salmon and other items. I really like elk, its’ taste is much more similar to beef than venison.

If you do try something from MEM besides chicken, let me know what you think, I’d love to talk about it here.

For those of you new to the market, our in-stock Mother Earth Meats is a group buy, and as such, is not listed under Fresh & Local. Go to Group Buys — > Mother Earth Meats, to make your selection. Bulk orders directly through MEM should have our farm listed as the delivery address.

FARM NEWS
I have copied the following info from the farm newsletter I sent out over the past couple days concerning a farm project in development with a non-profit organization. One of Pilar’s biggest passion is teaching about farming and healthy food and our partnership with Project Generation Gap will help more kids be able to attend our farm summer camp. If you do not get our newsletter, please give the following a read:

Project Generation Gap has teamed up with Rancho Alegre Farm to send deserving kids to Farm Camp.

Project Generation Gap believes that traditional growing methods are being lost and our food supply is being compromised. Using the garden as the genesis, PGG intends to ‘bridge the gap’ between our elders and our youth, food producers and consumers. Our vision is to create a community of intergenerational gardeners; cultivating relationships as they cultivate the land using sustainable, respectful growing practices. Through educational programming, volunteerism and hands- on workshops, we intend to reinforce the three main pillars of any sustainable community: education, stewardship and respect.

Please help us achieve our goal of giving deserving children an opportunity they might not otherwise have. By purchasing one of our stylish, organic t-shirts, you are becoming a part of our grassroots effort to support the next generation in becoming healthy, well informed, contributing citizens. Every 5 shirts sold means one child goes to camp! 100% of the profits from this campaign go to the kids. Our goal is to sell at least 100 shirts by July 13th. To purchase a shirt, visit here

To learn more about the vision and goals of Project Generation Gap visit here.

To register your child for Rancho Alegre Farm’s amazing camp go here.

• If you have questions, please email Learn@ranchoalegrefarm.com.

Thank you all and have a wonderful, safe and healthy Fourth of July week-end!

CLICK HERE NOW to Shop Gwinnett Locally Grown!

Debbie Moore
Market Manager
grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com

Fresh Wishes,
Pilar Quintero
Market Host
Rancho Alegre Farm

If you are interested in Goat’s Milk and can pick up any day but Tuesday, contact Nik The Goat Guy at 404-542-0981. Goats have to be milked every day and a week-end pick-up would be lovely. Please contact him first though, we can’t accommodate walk-ins due to hosting private events almost every week-end!

Please contact grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com for questions pertaining to Market or Raw Milk. It is very difficult to return phone calls. Remember to interact with us on Facebook and follow us on Meetup to get notification on all our wonderful events and news.

Champaign, OH:  I and Love and You

Your dreams to catch the world, the cage
The highway sets the travelers stage…
All exits look the same…
(Avett Brothers – I And Love And You)

This song…I have it on constant rotation, some mornings, when I am baking. I have been a huge Avett Brothers fan from way back. Back when they were a nobody band. A struggling bluegrass band. A tiny little record label. Playing tiny, little clubs, pubs, etc. They just kept at their craft. Playing to tiny venues, on the road, singing their passionate bluegrass melodies. The perfect example of the little machine that could. Look at them now.

Just like this market, look at us now. We started tiny, we started timid, we followed our passion, we got strong with your confidence in us, your support of us, and we grew from it.

I chose this song, today, for the lyric that I printed. It is a holiday weekend, I want to wish our lovely customers, vendors and YMCA staff a lovely time away. If your journey and adventures put you out on the roads, be safe, enjoy, come back to us.

I also chose this song because it reflects just how I feel about this market, and all of you. It takes all of us, the vendors, plus a certain kind of love, plus all of you, the customers, to put this equation all together.

So, pack your bags, hit the road, or just stay around and relax. We will be here when you return waiting to hear from you and ready to take your weekly orders.

With this, I also announce our Market Love Playlist winner…this week we see…Mike Corbin!!

Go in love, go in fun, we will see you after the holiday.

If you have an order to pick up, we will see you, tonight, at the YMCA!

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

New Field Farm's Online Market:  Shell pea update

Good morning,

I just picked about 30 lbs of shell peas with more available to pick so we should have plenty for those who want some.

Let me know by noon today so we can add them to your order.

Thanks,
Tim

Jonesborough Locally Grown:  July 4th Weekend Notes

Happy July 4th weekend to all!

The Saturday market will not be open this weekend as the town celebrates the 4th and Jonesborough Days…but online ordering will open at noon today for delivery Monday the 7th. Stay tuned for that in a few hours!

And please come to Main Street on Friday at 10am to see the debut of our ‘Marching Farmers’ and the market’s first parade float—featured in today’s Johnson City Press!

Click on the story below for a transcript of the full article!

Fisher's Produce:  Independence Day

Hello Friends,

Tomorrow is the day before the 4th! The perfect time to stock up on roasting ears and home grown tomatoes for your celebration.

We will be bringing a pick-up load of sweet corn and alot of tomatoes to town with us tomorrow. Our corn this year is a triple-sweet, bicolor, non-gmo variety called Providence.

0.50 cents an ear

5.00/dz

22.00/bushel (5 dz)

4 bushels for $80.00

Also we have alot of nice tomatoes. 2.00/lb or 20 lb for $30.00.

This week’s CSA share will include:

4 ears of corn
1 cantaloupe or honey dew
choice of okra or green beans
1 sweet pepper
and 5 lbs self serve choice of: tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, cucumbers, cabbage, beets, carrots, eggplant and basil.

Luke