Locally Grown - Availability for September 17th, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

You may not know it, but local food farmers are planning big things for the future. These plans come in all sizes and forms. Sometimes it’s as simple as growing a new variety of squash or carrot or potato that did especially well in a trial run. For some it means preparing new ground (believe it or not this is the time of year you start doing that for next spring). For a few, it’s constructing a new greenhouse that’ll open up a whole new way of growing, and opportunities to grow more, and for more months of the year.

These days farmers don’t just work in isolation on their own farms. They like to collaborate, trade ideas, go in together on an order of supplies. All these little efforts add up to more knowledge, better farming and hopefully more fun.

One of the things that local food farmers give more thought to than other farmers is markets. Getting food to the right customers at the right times is trickier than you might think. For one it’s gonna involve time, and it’s gonna involve driving. It’s also gonna involve telling a story.

One of the things we’ve tried to learn to do better as a group of farmers, rather than just each individual farmer on their own, is learn to tell the story of North Georgia local food farmers. It’s an interesting story and getting more interesting all the time. Our annual farm tour is a great way we’ve learned to tell our story together as a group.

Another thing happening in our story of North Georgia farms is there are more and more people interested in farming and/or producing good local food. Heck, you may even be one of these people and I encourage you to give it a try. The year that my wife and I had time to grow watermelons, tomatoes, fennel, cucumbers, beets, cabbage, squash, okra, potatoes and go hunt wild mushrooms in the woods was one of the best years of our lives, and it was the joy of going to markets and selling to people that made it so special. We were wannabe farmers for a moment (we still grow, we just hoard it for ourselves now). I guarantee that over the next 6 months you’ll see some brand new foods from some brand new faces. It’s not unrealistic that one of you reading this might decide to make that you.

I say all this because the organization behind our Northeast Georgia Locally Grown is called the Georgia Mountains Farmers Network and we’re having a meeting of our board tomorrow night. We’re pretty new, having just started back in January 2012 and formed our first board this past February 2014. Sometimes opportunity drives you to do more than you thought you would and our little group realized several things. First, that if farmers didn’t take leadership in local foods, then somebody else would. As local foods become more popular, like everything, there’s a risk of co-optation. You know how such things go. It’s happened before with conventional farms and our grocery store landscapes. It’s important, very important for FARMERS to play the central role in how Local Food Landscapes develop and grow, to insure that their needs are met.

For two years, our little farmer network identified two things as their primary needs 1) Cooperative Marketing so that more farms could get more food to more urban customers. Hoila, that’s where we got the idea for expanding to Gainesville. 2) To host public events that promoted Local Foods in our region. That’s the FARM TOUR. We can’t believe how well that’s gone. We have about $4,000 earned from our last two events to invest in our future collaborations whatever they may be. Obviously our group does a lot more than these two things. We also visit each others farms every other month 8 months of the year. That’s fun. We share food and stories and get to know each other.

We’re not really sure what’s next (ha ha, that’s only a half truth). But we do know we’re having fun moving forward. And we also know for the first time we have a bit of money to promote Local Foods in a significant way (our USDA grant I mentioned a few weeks ago – hurray!). We’ve never really done much outside of a press release here and there, a business card or flier, a few signs. But it’s time for us to get the attention a few more people. Maybe a few more hundred, maybe a few thousand. It’s hard to say. As we try and learn how to do this (we are farmers after all) we’re gonna need a lot of help. If you or someone you know wants to offer some suggestions on how to make local foods a fixture in more people’s lives, tell us. If your idea rises to the top of all ideas, we may just do it.

We’re at the very beginning of something wonderful, and challenging and exciting. But we’re working together to build the Local Food landscape that sounds good to us. We want it to sound good to you too, because after all you are the folks we count on to…..

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Sept. 12

Good Evening Locavores,
This is another great week for shopping local products. The summer vegetables are still abundant and now is the time to savour them before cool autumn weather replaces them with fall crops.
There may be a record high number of meat selections on the market this week.
After a short break Lynda
Brady,BG Farms has restocked and updated her listings of beef, pork, and chicken. Lynda was the first meat provider for Northeast Georgia Locallygrown and through hard work and persitence she has been a real market mainstay from the beginning. Thanks Lynda for being there for us.
Have a great weekend and enjoy fresh local food.

Locally Grown - Availability for September 10th, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Peas, fennel, sorrel, peppers, okra, potatoes, lots of asian greens, beans, these are just a few of the things you can find during early Fall growing Locally. There’s also a plethora for great cuts of chicken and pork right now (or a whole chicken too).

I’m extremely fortunate right now that my inlaws from Taiwan are here and incorporating all the excellent local ingredients into some Asian style dishes. Other than the freshness of the ingredients its all in the incredible sauces that are made in the wok. Don’t ask me to describe them because they are way over my head and skill level, but tonight we had a whole bunch of red peppers cut up with some of Mill Gaps baby corns (fresh baby corn sauteed in a wok is heaven), mushrooms, and just a strip or two of turkey bacon we had left over. Oh how I miss the local mushrooms that Julius Miller used to deliver. Oysters were my favorite.

The seasons are starting to turn as evidenced by more and more leaves in the streets, and all my watermelon vines giving it up for the season. That meant hauling nearly a dozen watermelons out of the garden this morning, clipping back the sweet potato vines to sautee for dinner and clipping the first small handful of okra that we’ve been sharing too generously with the deer. Deer love okra greens, and since I noticed they are listed on the market this week, perhaps you should try them too. Deer usually have pretty good tastes as they love sweet potato leaves and beet greens too. They come back for the same things again and again. Many of our customers (and that includes me) follow similar trends. For instance, I never get tired of Mill Gap’s padron peppers. It’s still tomato season and I’ve been eating them every week, every way I can think of, but my favorite is simply in between two slices of good bread with mayo and a little fresh ground pepper. We’ve got less than two months to enjoy such bliss. And if you don’t put tomatoes in your eggs, or as I do, cook the tomatoes first, then add the eggs, and then the cheese of course, then you’re missing out on the best way to have eggs with breakfast. My wife’s family does something similar only they eat it for dinner over rice with a little ketchup mixed in. It’s good!

Ok, gotta run. Order big this week….and

EAT WELL,
Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Sept. 5

Good Evening Locavores
It’s another great day for salivating over fresh local food products.
Treat yourself and you will also be supporting your local farmers and we all appreciate that.
Have a great weekend and eat local!
The market is now open for orders.

Locally Grown - Availability for September 3, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Oops! Looks like I took a holiday in getting the weekly message out in time. But you still have 30 minutes to shop if you happen to get this e-mail the second it comes out.

Also want to put in a quick plug for our newest vendor to Locally Grown. The Herb Cottage Garden has an impressive 28 bath and beauty products listed which includes lotions, salves, creams, body butter, hand sanitizer, mosquito repellant, massage oil and scrubs. Many of them include herbs, leaves and other natural botanicals that Lynne grows on her property. Give ’em a try and soothe your skin the natural way.

Thanks folks and hope you had a LABOR FREE Labor Day!

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Aug. 29

Good evening Locavores,
It is hard to believe that Labor Day weekend is here already. It may be the traditional end of summer for us but, Mother Nature obviously is not ready for fall weather just yet.
If the heat will bring some rain with it, our local farms and gardens can keep flushing with summer vegetables.
Even though we are planting fall crops we hope to continue with our summer favorites at least through September.
Have a great weekend and a safe one and enjoy local food.

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

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Aug. 22

Good evening Locavores,
The market is now open for orders. Stay cool if you can or just enjoy the sun late summer sun.
Have a great weekend.

Locally Grown - Availability for August 20, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Another gorgeous weekend here in North Georgia. One of the highlights was a performance of Half Mile Down a play by Rob Brooksher and company performed at the Lake Lanier Olympic Venue in Gainesville Friday-Sunday. It’s been fun getting to know Gainesville better since starting the new market down there in June and I have to say the more I get to know it the more I like it. No local food tie in, just an observation. The play was a great love story set in a historic foothills town to be covered by the waters of Lake Lanier. All the music was written for the play. We were able to plug Locally Grown before the play and the crowd was very interested in the market which was fun. Hopefully a few new customers may join us in the weeks ahead, or heck maybe even this week.

This afternoon, the whole family hiked down to our garden and spent time pouring water on the crops since it’s been a bit dry. Watermelons, sweet potatoes, okra, cucumbers, a couple of pepper plants and carrots all got a decent dousing. We have family coming to town on Wednesday (that’s market day!) and we wanted to be sure we’d have watermelon and other yummy crops for them while they’re here.

We also probably need to bump up our purchases for the next several weeks to accommodate our guests. That’s one of our favorite things about Locally Grown is showing off how good local food is here when people come to visit. But we’ve got to be quicker if we want eggplants. Those always go super, as are several other items in scarce supply on the market. You probably really enjoy it when you know you got one of the last ones. That’s part of the fun is trying to get the rare stuff. Hopefully more growers will have more of these type items in the weeks ahead. As mentioned before, August is a transition month for many farms so we’re kind of in between the height of the summer season and the beginning of the fall season. Many more goodies are coming. And keep enjoying the tomatoes and lots of beans. And there’s hot peppers so some local salsa would be a mighty fine thing to make this week. Promised Land just listed more colorful bell peppers. Garlic galore too! Oh yeah, Smart Chick is back so please welcome them by buying lots of cuts of chicken. We’ve always really loved their options and are glad to see them back after a long hiatus. Don’t forget the potatoes. Somebody post a killer potato salad recipe to Facebook or the Recipe page on Locally Grown. I love potato salad and only made it one time. Need to branch out.

Well, before I sign off for the night I’ve got one last kind of fun thing to share. A couple of weeks ago the Georgia Farm Monitor, a television show produced by the Georgia Farm Bureau (the state’s largest association of farmers) asked to do a story on Northeast Georgia Locally Grown after being forwarded the Gainesville Times article by some folks with Hall County Extension and Farm Bureau. We sure do appreciate this attention, and thought the story did a good job of capturing our excitement about our expansion to Gainesville and the potential the market has to continue to help rural farmers in North Georgia find long lasting customers.

Check out the Video by visiting YouTube
Or you can see it on our FACEBOOK

Hope you enjoy this week’s offerings and don’t forget to EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Aug. 15.

Good Evening Locavores,
Friday evening has rushed upon us again. Amy and I just got out of the garden, picking for Clayton’s Saturday tailgate market, Simplyhomegrown a Farmers Market. You can bet that most of your local farmers have also been working late prepping for a Saturday market.
Your internet market is now open for orders. Be sure to check Locallygrown again later this weekend for items you may have missed and late or new entries by your favorite farmers.
Have a great weekend and enjoy fresh local food.