Athens Locally Grown:  Availability for February 22

I spent pretty much the entire weekend outside working the vegetable beds. It really felt nice to be back in the dirt again. As many of you know, I took the last year off from growing so I could work on the rewrite of the Locally Grown site as well as FarmNotebook.com, a site for growers to manage their plantings and harvests, and keeping their customers informed. With most of that work behind me, I’m back to the garden.

Naturally, after sitting for so long, the tiller wouldn’t start. Considering that it’s older than I am (and half of it is older than my parents), I guess that’s not too surprising. It’s at the shop now, getting a brand new engine. Hopefully that’ll mean we’ll get another 35 years out of it.

In the meantime, I got out the tiny Mantis tiller and got to work. Two beds are now prepped and planted, and we’ll have Amish snap peas, purple and orange carrots, purple and red radishes, golden turnips, and albino and chiogga beets before too long. You can see for yourself what’s going on at my place at boannsbanks.farmnotebook.com. I’ve given the other Locally Grown growers free use of that system, so maybe you’ll get to see what’s going on at all of the member farms in pretty much real time.

There isn’t a whole lot again this week, but you will find a couple new items on the list. McMullan Family Farm has a few bags of mixed asian greens, perfect for braising. Double B Farm is offering inoculated shiitake logs if you wanted to try growing some for yourself this year.

In addition, we’ve got cabbages, coffee, nuts, beef, soaps, candles, and jams and jellies.

One final note: the annual Georgia Organics conference will be going on in three weeks down in Douglas, Georgia. It unfortunately starts on a Thursday this year, so we’ll be closing down Locally Grown that week (March 8th). I’ll be sure to give you several more warnings between now and then.

Thanks for all your support! I know many of you have been out there spreading the word about Locally Grown. It looks like this could be a good year for supply, so keep letting your friends know about us. We’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30pm to 7:00pm at Gosford Wine!

Athens Locally Grown:  Local growers selling locally good for all

The recent trend of local growers selling their produce, poultry, pork and beef locally, keeping local dollars in the local economy, is gaining momentum and attention.

Athens Locally Grown:  Availability for February 15

It is a very light week this week, as the recent freezes are combining with the normal dip in productivity as the overwintered items run out before the spring items come in.

We do have some new items this week, including baby cabbage heads from McMullan Family Farms (our sole entry in the greens category for the week).

We also welcome a new grower to Locally Grown this week. Double B Farm is located in Oxford, Georgia (to the south-west of Athens), and started operations last season. Their spring veggies are still to young to harvest, but they are offering dried and powdered shitake mushrooms from their own cultured logs, honey from hives located throughout Madison county, and wax, candles, and soaps made from thier own beeswax. You can see a photo of their shitake logs in the “Our Growers” section of the website.

We’ve also got milk, buttermilk, and cream from Milky Way Dairy, soaps and candles from Songbird Designs, milled products from Mills Farm, and jams, jellies, and pickles from TaylOrganics.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to the “Weblog” portion of the website. Some entries, such as the weekly availability announcements and breaking Locally Grown new, get emailed out to all the accounts, but it’s also a space where I’ll post links to upcoming events, news stories, and other items you might find of interest. Those will appear on the website only, so take a look at the weblog when you’re visiting the site to place your order.

Thanks for all your support, and we’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30 to 7pm at Gosford Wine!

Athens Locally Grown:  The Myth of Grass-Fed Beef

Julia: Hi, do you have any grass-fed beef?

Butcher: Hmm, grass-fed? I don’t think you can feed grass to cows.

Athens Locally Grown:  Climate Change Speaker Series

Furman University and Upstate Forever are kicking off their new speaker series on climate change next month with a presentation by Jim Kunstler on “Climate Change and the End of Oil: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century”. The talk is from 7:00 to 8:30pm on Wednesday, March 14th.

Furman University is right up the interstate from us in Greenville, SC. It’s not that far—I’ve made the drive in an hour (granted, my wife was in heavy labor at the time).

For more information, visit this link.

Athens Locally Grown:  Availability for February 8

The cold nights and overcast days have slowed the growth of the greens in the gardens, so you’ll see that we don’t have as much this week as we did last week. While Athens just got a bit of slush, Hartwell got several inches of sleet and snow, and that’ll make for a slow week.

Still we do have one new item: the first arugula of the season. On top of that is broccoli greens, some more lettuce, beets, shelled pecans and walnuts (and whole walnuts for those of you with strong crackers). There is also soap and candles (Ansley has been busy adding new photos to the website), milled products, baked goods, and processed foods.

If any of you have friends in Atlanta who are jealous of your source for locally grown foods here in Athens, you can now point them toward Moore Farms and Friends, who are starting taking orders this week using this website, with four pickup locations in Atlanta. Their website is http://moorefarms.locallygrown.net—pass the word!

Athens Locally Grown:  Pickups Postponed until Tomorrow

The roads through NE Georgia and into South Carolina are unsafe to drive this morning, so we will postpone customer pickups until tomorrow (Friday).

I am still contacting the growers to confirm the new schedule, but at this point we do expect to be at Gosford Wine from 4:30 to 7pm tomorrow. If this changes for any reason, I will call those customers with orders to let them know.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to pick up your orders on Friday, drop me an email or give me a call (706 248 1860) and we’ll try to make other arrangements for you.

Thanks!—eric

Athens Locally Grown:  Bad Weather Tomorrow

The weather forcasters are calling for sleet and freezing rain tonight and through the day tomorrow. It might not be so bad in Athens, but they’re saying it’ll be worse in Northeast Georgia and into South Carolina, with the high temperature barely making it above freezing.

Of course, that’s where almost all of your food is coming from this week. I’d say there are at least even odds that it will be too dangerous to go pick things up, but we won’t know for sure until noonish tomorrow.

If that’s the case, we’ll postpone pickup unitl Friday afternoon—same place, same time. If we do postpone, I’ll send out another email, or you can check the weblog section of the website, or you can call me at 706 248 1860.

Thanks, and stay warm! -eric

Athens Locally Grown:  Availability for February 1

I heard nothing but good things from you on the new website last week—the switchover was very smooth. I have made a few minor improvements this week, including an RSS feed for the weblog and tweaks to the product listing.

I’ve made some adjustments behind the scenes as well. Most notably, I finished the ability for your accounts to carry balances. There have been times (including last week) when I go to pack up and find a bag of produce that should have gone home with someone. I can now issue you credit, which will be applied to your next order. Likewise, if you come to pick up and forget your money (it happens), I can carry your amount due forward. One thing this means is you’ll soon be able to pre-pay as much as you wish and then “draw down” your balance as you order, and not have to worry about money on Thursdays at all. Using PayPal, we’ll even be able to take charge cards. More on all that later…

This week looks much like last week, with the addition of dairy products. We’re visiting Split Creek for their excellent goat cheeses, milk and fudge. We’ll also swing by Diamond Hill for their raw Jersey cow’s milk. We’ve also go lettuces, beets, mustard, broccoli greens, and other items fro McMullan Family Farm, Mills Farm, Songbird Designs, and TaylOrganics.

Thanks for all your support, and we’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30 to 7pm at Gosford Wine.

Athens Locally Grown:  Availability for January 25

Hello, and welcome to a new era for Locally Grown!

Today we start taking order on the new website, athens.locallygrown.net. If you’re reading this in your email, you’ve already created an account and you are ready to go. If you’re reading this on the website and haven’t already done so, you’ll need to create a new account before you place your order.

We do have a few new items this week. Michael McMullan has shepherded lettuce through the recent ice and now has beautiful heads of red and green buttercrunch lettuce to offer you. He also has baby beets with tops, two varieties of mustard greens, broccoli greens (and maybe, possibly, some heads will be ready by Thursday), pecans, and beef.

We also have milled products from Mills Farm, freshly milled and baked items from Whole Earth Granary, soaps from Songbird Designs, and processed foods from TaylOrganics.

If you have any troubles with the new site, don’t hesitate to let me know, either by replying to this email or calling me at 706 248 1860. It’s a bit different from the old site, but hopefully superior in every way. If you find that’s not the case for you, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for all your support! We’ll see you on Thursday from 4:30pm to 7pm at Gosford Wine.