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 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.

Locally Grown - Availability for August 13, 2014


Hey Local Food Lovers,

I’ll start tonight with the killer dinner my wife cooked. Very simple and very Locally Grown. Chanterelle mushrooms (from Mill Gap Farm) in a white wine cream sauce over pasta, corn on the cob (from Shade Creek Farm) and sauteed sweet potato greens (from Promised Land Farms). YUM!

We had some good rain this weekend which we needed. August is a transition month on many farms. Those first crops of squash and tomatoes and cucumbers are beginning to peter out and the second crops, more like early fall crops are beginning to come in. Things like eggplant, peppers, winter squash, sweet potatoes and okra will start coming in like crazy. There will also be the second plantings of tomatoes, squash, and cukes. Because I write this message 3/4 through the shopping period I always hate to mention items that have already sold out. But then again they are usually gone because everyone is excited about them, and if I talk them up maybe you can try and shop early to get them next week. That’s fun right! The early shopper gets the BABY CORN, the EGGPLANT, the EGGS (though Lazy L Ranch still has ‘em as of tonight). One item I’m real excited to see is Mill Gap’s PADRON PEPPERS. And there’s actually a few orders left. Read the description to learn how to cook them.

Andrew has put together another great video that may help many of you who are new to Locally Grown and still trying to master the website learn a few tips. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve actually learned some things from Andrew’s videos. The website is so well designed and has so many features I haven’t even taken the time to discover them all myself. There are some great navigation tips that can really speed up how you scan the market items each week.

Click here
or use this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye1V7zw4TA0&feature=youtu.be

I think that’s it for tonight!

We hope you enjoy this week’s offerings and don’t forget (that means you Julie) to…..

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for Aug. 8


Good Evening Locavores,
Finally we are getting some much needed rain at Mill Gap Farm in Tiger and hopefully it is widespread across North Georgia. This will give a nice boost to late summer crop production and help to keep vegetables sweet and tender for this weeks market.
Have a great weekend and enjoy fresh local food.

Locally Grown - Availability for August 6, 2014


Hey Local Food Lovers,

It has to be a short and sweet message this week.

The three things I want to plug this week is tons and tons of garlic from many of our growers, whole chickens from O’hana Farms (love the artwork too), and carrots from Shade Creek Farm. That’s it! Told you it was simple.

We hope you’ve been enjoying and will continue to enjoy this summer’s fine offerings of fresh food. Enjoy it while it’s here!

EAT WELL,

Justin
Chuck
Teri and Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown Availability list for Aug.1


Good Evening Locavores,
Many of your summertime favorites are available this week. From squashes and beans to tomatoes and meats for the pot or grill.
If you enjoy BBQ make plans to be at the 18th Annual Dillard BBQ and Blue grass festival. The festival began today but Saturday is the big day for fun, food,and music from 10:00am to 8:00pm.
This is the KCBS Georgia State Championship with local as well as international BBQ Teams competing.
The festival is at the grounds of Dillard City Hall in Dillard, Georgia.
Have a great weekend, be safe and enjoy fresh local food ,and BBQ!!

Locally Grown - Availability for July 30, 2014


Hey Local Food Lovers,

Ayla and I are sitting here writing the message tonight. That is to say, I’m pecking one handed while she sort of dozes intermittently on my shoulder, and momma tries to get a half hour nap before next feeding.

I’m having a ball with my new family. We took grandma and grand aunt blueberry picking today and ate tons of tomato sandwiches, fresh salads, squash casserole and other tastes of the season over the weekend. The highlight for me was using Promised Lands hickory wood to smoke some pork. Been wanting to try that since it was offered and it made a mighty fine flavor. I highly recommend it as a gift for your grilling men out there. It’ll make them feel their primal selves a little more deeply.

Last week was a record breaking week for Locally Grown, in sales that is. And we had some great new volunteers in Gainesville, Cale, Hildreth and Ron. Huge thanks to them and all our volunteers that make market possible. We had so much stuff that I’m guessing I couldn’t have fit more than 30-40 lbs more in my vehicle!

We like to let you know about little things (and big things) we’re considering adding or changing to help grow and improve the market. It looks like a TRAILER for both hauling and possibly storing stuff may be in our near future. In fact, I added a trailer hitch to my vehicle last week just in case its sooner rather than later. We thought we’d mention it just on the off chance that any of you knew of a trailer that could be bought for a bargain. Needs to be no bigger than 5×8. Could be open or enclosed but as light as possible. We’ll keep you posted. We’re enjoying the challenge of hauling more local food!

Well that’s it for tonight. Baby duty calls. Thanks for shopping and…

EAT WELL,
Justin
Chuck
Teri & Andrew

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for July25


Good Evening Locavores,
Time has swept upon us again this week and it is market time.
Tomorrow is the 3rd Annual Garlic Festival at Simplyhomegrown Farmers Market in Clayton. The market and festival are at the Covered Bridge Shopping Center in Clayton, beginning at 9:00am until 1:00pm. Stop by for some great garlic and garlic products.
Northeast Georgia is now open for orders.
Have a safe weekend and enjoy fresh local food.