The Weblog

We send out cool articles and farmer highlights using a different email program. You can see the archives of those emails here and through our facebook page! We use this “weblog” every Friday evening to let you know the market page is accepting orders (look for the little add to cart buttons next to products). Northeast Georgia Locally Grown was officially OPENED on Monday, April 26th, 2010 and we are so thankful that you are helping support fresh local foods each week.



 
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Locally Grown Availability for April 2nd, 2014


Hey Local Food Lovers,

Spring is a busy time of year for local food farmers, and this year is no exception. Everyone I’ve talked to lately has that buoyant energy that comes in the spring where plans are being set, and new growth is coming on vigorously. The highlight of my day was pulling weeds. Garlic planted back in October and asparagus beds that haven’t been touched probably since then either needed some attention. The sun, the warmth and rain combined has officially brought on our first flush of wild strong growth. Those who have been fortunate to be outside have seen it. The grass is growing tall.

The big news this week was BEETS. Three different farms have them, but the cute little ones with greens on top look like they’ve already sold out. I’ll be faster next week. There should be more and more coming.

We’ll be launching the official opening of the LOCALLY GROWN 2014 season the weekend of EASTER (April 20th) for the pickup that Wednesday the 23rd. For those of you who shop year-round that doesn’t mean much but we do like to send out a few press releases to remind folks that we’re here. In a few more weeks we ought to have enough produce to invite a few more folks to enjoy the party.

If all goes well we’ll launch the Gainseville Market about a month or so after that, either late May or early June. We have been recruiting new farms and food producers to join the market around this time so it should be a quite exciting event.

Another exciting event is a farmer network meeting that’ll be happening on Monday. Our Georgia Mountains Farmers Network is now just over 2 years old but it’s made a lot of progress in a short time. Monday’s meeting will be our 10th official get-together and we’re celebrating incorporating into an official organization by sharing a meal at Jamie Allred’s new restaurant in Clayton, FORTIFY. You can bet I’ll be describing that meal this time next week and I’m certain it’ll be fantastic. The Locally Grown market is now officially a program of the Georgia Mountains Farmers Network, since our #1 priority for the network from our inception has been marketing collaborations, especially those that increase retail sales to urban markets. That’s where our Gainseville expansion idea came from.

Last but not least, we are beginning to plan our 3rd annual FARM TOUR. This is the best opportunity of the year to go out and see many of the farms that you buy from here on Locally Grown. We’re locking in the dates of June 28-29, which is just 3 months from now. One of the most important ingredients to this being a great event is volunteers. We had over 30 volunteers at last years TOUR and we’l need at least that many again. Not only will you get a free t-shirt for donating about 4-5 hours of your time, you’ll also get to attend the TOUR the other day for free. And you’ll probably make some of the best friends of your life and have a fun time in the process. That’s a win-win. If you’re interested in volunteering it’s not too early to put your name on our list. Send an e-mail to Maggie Van Cantfort at gmfnfarmtour@gmail.com
or
gmfnfarmtour@gmail.com

Ok, that’ll do it for tonight.

Thanks for supporting local food and farms and EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun