Locally Grown - Availability for December 12, 2012

Hey Local Food Lovers,

I want to start out this week by plugging a few items, then I’ll get into some other fun news and updates.

We’re listing Split Creek Goat Cheeses and other dairy products this week. Every year for the past several years I have gifted friends and family some of Split Creeks feta in oil as Christmas presents and every year they beg for more. If you’d like to give a unique gift I really encourage you to think about giving cheese….and then tell them you think they ought to just open it right there and share some with you. The salad toppings mix even looks like an awesome gift. Or, you can never go wrong with their assorted fudges. (Those of you ordered from Split Creek last week your orders are still coming so no need to order twice.)

Here’s another idea. I’ve also given as presents Sylvan Falls Mills cornmeal, whole wheat, spelt, or rye. They come in these cute cotton bags with a local artists drawing of the grist mill that ground the grain. Yes, you may not have known that all of Sylvan Falls Mills grains are not only CERTIFIED ORGANIC, they’re also ground fresh using energy from falling water. How’s that for sustainability. It’s a super gift that says, “we are so lucky to live in the mountains and have all these awesome places nearby, and I just wanted to share some of that with you!”

My neighbors the Sandven’s gave me an iron skillet as a house warming gift when I moved in (3 years ago) and it included this Perfect Cornbread recipe that has never failed once. So think about getting some serious southern charm for your loved ones….via a sack of flour and cornmeal….ha..ha..ha! You can tuck this recipe in with the gift.

Perfect Cornbread

1 cup sifted all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar (or sub honey)
4 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup milk
¼ cup melted butter

Oven at 425

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
Add eggs, milk and butter
Beat until smooth do not overbeat
Heat cast iron pan in oven until hot
Lightly grease and pour in batter
Cook for 20-25

Last but not least, I really encourage folks to support our honey producers. Good Wild Earth Gardens has 3 sizes to choose from 8oz, 1 pint (16oz), and 1 quart (32oz). I’ve given dozens of jars of honey and its a great gift. And be sure and keep one for yourself. (They also have dried mushrooms if you’ve got a foodie relative I guarantee they’ll be pumped to have chanterelles all winter)

Ok onto the news. We had a great Locally Grown FARMERS POTLUCK last week. We brainstormed many, many, many ways we want to tweek and improve locally grown in the year to come, and many of these ideas may involve you.

To keep this e-mail from being too long I just want to touch on a handful of the items that we’d really like your INPUT on. Here’s the two most important:

• VOLUNTEER needs – we are currently looking for one or more people to assist on market days every other week at the Clarkesville location from 4:30-6:30. There is a small food stipend. We are also interested in looking into accepting food stamps (EBT) making fresh local food more readily available to those who would like it. This will require some research and possibly some fundraising and we’re looking for at least two people to work together to find out how challenging or easy it may be. We’d also really love to have some help in marketing Locally Grown throughout the mountains. One of the most common things we encounter is people still have no idea we exist. We hope to change that this year. If you’re interested in marketing, logos, artwork, working with FACEBOOK, we could use your help.

• Expanding to GAINESVILLE – we are considering adding a 3rd pickup site in the Gainseville area this spring. This will require considerable planning and maybe a little luck and we’d like to have you involved from the beginning. For one, we’d likely add several farms in addition to increasing production at the farms already involved in LG. Our first idea is to coordinate a drop point at the GAINSEVILLE HOSPITAL. We have some contacts and leads, but we’d like to have as many allies as possible, especially those with an interest in food and farms. If you know someone you think we should contact or would like to help with this let us know.

• Survey of Products you want more of coming up last week of December through mid January. We’ve been promising a survey for awhile but we also wanted to be sure we knew what we wanted to ask. One of the main questions is what do you want to buy? Don’t answer now, but be prepared to take a short survey once it’s completed later this month.

I think that’s enough for now. As you can see, there’s a lot on our minds as we wrap up the year. We’ve learned a lot and formed quite a tight knit community over the just 3 years that Locally Grown has been around. We look forward to having our best year coming up.

Thanks for supporting us, and make LOCAL FOODS part of your GIFT GIVING in 2013!

EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun