Locally Grown - Availability for November 19th, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

This is shaping up to be an excellent week at Locally Grown. I want to thank all of you from our growers and producers to the customers for listing new products, and ordering BIG this week! I think if we get just another 6-12 orders in we’ll exceed our goal to sell $2,000 this week!

So here are a few of the items that make this week so exciting if you haven’t had a chance to check the website yet.

• Wildflower Honey in nearly a dozen sizes
• Kohlrabi – If you’ve never tried one, do it!
• Loofah sponges – scrub a dub
• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pies – yum, yum and yum!

I want to add one more thing about these Pumpkin Pies. Yes, this is the first time we’ve ever had Pumpkin Pies which is very exciting! What is making it happen is a beautiful collaboration that has lead to the Pumpkin being grown organically by one of the farms that sells here to Locally Grown, Promised Land Farms run by Tom Ingraham, and the gluten free pies baked by his daughter Christy Bowen who runs Keep it Simple. I bet many of you have ordered products from both and never known that we had a father and daughter both contributing to the market. Occasionally they help deliver each others products too! In the spirit of the Family Holiday coming up soon, you can support two producers at once from this good food family with a purchase that I bet will feel real good when you sit down to eat it with your family!

I also want to put in another plug for buying a WHOLE CHICKEN from Smart Chick Farms for the holiday! This is just about the simplest way to cook it you can find, and consistently my favorite. 3 ingredients, fresh rosemary (you can buy the rosemary bundled with sage from Wild Earth Gardens), butter and lemon. Chop up the rosemary, mix it with soft room temp butter, and spread it under the skin of the chicken (but leave the skin on). Take half a lemon, squeeze it inside the skin or simply in the cavity and leave the rind in the bird. Bake at 375 for an hour or until your meat thermometer tells you its done.

Eating good food is just one of the best things you can do for yourself and your family. When I’m in a hurry and not eating well, I can feel it! When I slow down and make a really good meal with really good ingredients it can make my whole week. I love to tell people the stories behind the food when we have guests. It’s just such a privilege to know anything about your food these days, and even if you haven’t met these farmers you all have learned things about them from talking with us at market or reading these e-mails.

For instance, Tom Ingraham of Promised Land is building a greenhouse currently. That is a real good thing because that means that soon, he’ll be able to grow more food during these colder months, and he’ll be coming up with new items to grow for those of us lucky or smart enough to keep an eye out for his hard work.

Two of our cutest growers, Chuck and Michele Taylor just gave birth to a new farm hand, Logan. Earlier this spring they brought some of the best early season crops I can remember, cabbages, fennel, all my favorite crops I was too lazy to grow myself, thank heavens they grew for me. Congratulations to them and we can’t wait to see the littlest Taylor!

Two more cute growers, Harold and Joni Kennedy of Melon Head Farm just got Catholic married! That’s like a whole nuther level from regular married. Those of us who know them aspire to their level of laughter and happiness in a marriage or a relationship of any kind. And they grow really great stuff like winter melon, and funky asian squashes that no one else will grow (and of course tons of melons). She told me not to tell anyone but I’ve been eating their loofah squashes all summer. Apparently before they are turned into loofahs they are delicious! Congratulations to you both. I hope you enjoyed a Catholic Honeymoon whatever that may entail.

Yes, it’s pretty cool that there are actual hardworking, cool people behind all the food (and other items) posted on market this week. Keep that in mind as you order. You’re not just eating better, you’re supporting a local economy. We hope to grow this little market bigger and better, or I should say as big as these farmers want to grow it. It’s all up to them. Make ‘em feel good by ordering a little extra this week. We guarantee it’ll make you feel good too.

We’ll be closed the week following this one for Thanksgiving. We hope you all have a safe and blessed holiday.

AND DEFINITELY EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew