Copy of Athens Locally Grown Newsletter

Folks, this could be us in a couple of years! Eric tells me that we have started even faster than they did, and that we have a larger potential in Greenville area than they do in Athens.
HERE IS ATHENS LOCALLY GROWN NEWSLETTER:

Hello!

We spent all of today celebrating our daughter’s fourth birthday, and that got me to remembering how things were four years ago. Vivian was born early in the morning on a Thursday, market day, after four hard days of labor. Dan Miller, founder of Athens Locally Grown, had already passed the market on to my wife and I, but he generously filled in for me that day. Back then, we had maybe two or three dozen orders each week, and pickup was in the de facto park where the Cobb House was leter reconstructed. Back then, everyone’s orders fit into a couple ice chests, and Thursday pickups were a lazy affair. Some of you may remember later that year, as we went year-round for the first time, Vivian bundled in her parka and strapped to my chest as we handed out orders to a handful of people at the patio at Big City Bread in the dead of winter.

Everything has grown since then. Vivian’s learning to read and swim and helps in the garden every chance she gets. Athens Locally Grown is closing in on 1500 customers and it takes essentially a fleet of trucks to get all the produce to the pickup site. (Speaking of which, thank you all for your patience when our own refrigerated truck gave us a scare and made the dairy items show up fifteen minutes late.) We now have eight people filling orders at a time, and still the line, though fast moving, is daunting right at 4:30. Some people who were market customers four years ago are now selling produce from their own gardens, adding to the list of growers that is now over 50 strong.

It’s so nice to see things grow and take hold, whether it’s the market, cauliflower seeds in my garden, or my own daughter. It’s nice to know that enough people know what’s involved in putting the market together each week, and have had a major hand in pulling it off, that it’s pretty much certain that Athens Locally Grown is an Athens fixture. Should circumstances conspire to keep my wife and I from managing the market, I know that it’ll keep going on its own, and that gives me great peace of mind. Not that we’re planning on going anywhere, mind you.

I see a number of new items on the site this week. The winter squashes are really coming in, I noticed someone has pears, there are even more varieties of tomatoes, field peas have returned, there’s yet another type of garlic I’ve never tried, and more. The weather has stayed just cool enough that while the overall quantity of produce has dropped a bit, the usual August doldrums have stayed away. In fact, on Saturday Cedar Grove Farm hosted us for our August “Farmer for a Day” event, and it was just a perfect day to be out on the farm. If you missed out, our next even will be next month at Backyard Harvest. It’s on a Sunday this time, too. We’d love to see you there. It’s free, but limited space makes us take reservations, and you’ll find more details on the website in the “Event Reservations” category.

Thank you all for your continued support! We’ll see you on Thursday, from 4:30 to 8pm at the old state farmers market on Broad Street.

AVAILABILITY/NEWSLETTER

Hello!
tHE mARKET IS OPEN FOR ORDERING FROM NOW UNTILL tUESDAY AT 8 PM.
At the end of the newsletter is a list of the available products for this week. You may go to www.upstatesc.locallygrown.net to order; also to read more about the products, how they are grown, and about the growers themselves. This week, Pick-up will continue to be on Thursday evening from 4:30-6 pm at West End Coffee Company, 18 Markley Street, Greenville, or, an alternative pick-up is offered at the Saturday Market, Main Street, Greenville, 8-11am. You will choose after clicking on “Process this order”

OUR GOAL is readily available Locally Grown foods DIRECT TO YOU from the farmer. We are geared toward sustainably grown; that which is not only free of chemicals, but in practice, reduces our footprint and returns the tilth to the soil we farm. Small growers need a way to deliver to you without becoming huge, impersonal, conglomerates. We think the Locally Grown network is a good vehicle to do this.
We are growing rapidly! In order for this to work well, we need more growers, more variety, more members, and more help in the operations. At first, this will be in the form of volunteers like you. Your help could be in the form of ideas, or pitching in to help pack orders once a month, calling to remind members of pick-up, getting a group together as some have, to pick up orders for each other.
Publicizing our market, and bringing a friend along…these are all ways that some of you have helped in the past and can do in the future. “Can do” is the key. We CAN DO this, together.

BRAIN STORM MEETING REPORT:
We had a fine turn-out at Leopard Forest Coffee Company last Saturday afternoon. Margie Vest headed up the meeting. Thanks, Margie! There were several guests, who have given their endorsement to our efforts. In the group were at least three marketing professionals, as well as business owners, growers, environmental activists, and very enthusiastic members! The discussion was lively, upbeat, and enthusiastic. This fantastic group, along with you great members who have contacted us with ideas plus offers of help, have shown us that upstate locally grown is needed, alive, well, and has a fantastic forcast for future growth!

If you weren’t able to make this first session, you are still a part of everything that’s going on, as much as you want to be. This is an open group, open to ideas, open to all suggestions for growth, open to you and your needs. We really want to hear your voice in all matters.

The “core” comittee will be meeting again shortly, also will be clicking away on line, taking action on many of the ideas presented. If you would like to have a voice, too, please shoot me or Margie Vest an Email so that we may keep yoiu in the loop.
Thanks to all for the support!
Donna and the gang from Upstate SC Locally Grown Market!

Availability List/newsletter

Hello. You have been in a rainstorm; have you ever been in a “Brainstorm”? It happens when a group of people get together and start making lists of ideas about something without anyone saying “that’ll never work”, but just coming up with ideas, crazy or not. It can be quite refreshing and fun. Out of these sessions come some of the greatest ideas! (Especially after we enjoy some of that free-trade coffee to perk us up!)
Members and guests are all encouraged to come and enjoy the STORM!
Remember to attend our “Brainstorm” at Leopard Forest Coffee in Traveler’s Rest, next Sat afternoon @ 3pm. Bring your coffee cup and some ideas, a sharp pencil, and some enthusiasm. We will be brainstorming for about 15 minutes and then we will tackle these ideas to see what might be workable for us. Thank you Ildi, for inviting us to your place.
There will be some surprises, some treats for you, and some interesting guests! Get there early, to socialize and snack, as we will start promptly at 3. We will be done with the business by 4.

Please feel free to read Hugh Weather’s article on eating local, copied and pasted on the web log of our USSCLocallyGrown site.

Our offerings this week include a new, beautiful eggplant from Bioway Farm.
Hope you are thinking “Salsa”, because tomatoes are in their prime, with a large variety and all organically grown. No GMO’s. No packing still green in wax-lined boxes , nor gassing, nor shipping thousands of miles to warehouses. None of that. Our produce is picked to your order for you at the peak of freshness, ripe and ready to eat. All the picking is by hand. These veggies have been raised by folks who care about quality.. and who place their name on every order. You know exactly where your produce was grown; and how. Visit “our Growers” on the site to read about the methods used in raising your dinner. You will be pleased.
Even our meats have been raised here in the upstate by great, hard-working farmers who care about their animals and give them a fine life. The animals never see cages or feed lots. They are raised in fresh air and sunshine, with freedom to socialize, graze, root, or chew their cud in comfort. And no growth horomones nor antibiotics are used to speed growth. They just grow the old fashioned way, the way they were meant to. None of our farm animals live in crowded conditions. All are pasture raised. We believe that it is healthier that way; healthier for them, and healthier for you.
More than likely, this costs a little more, because we deal in small, well-tended flocks, herds,and gardens… and much of that tending is done one-on-one. We hand-pick your produce. We know the condition of each and every animal in our care… and that takes time. We see to it that they are fed and watered and provide humane living conditions….Because we care. We are small farms making a difference in the Upstate, “thousands of miles fresher”.

Look over the lists if you like, and then go to the website to shop and to order. You may choose to pick-up either on Thursday or Saturday.

We know that you want to keep the market in the black. Be sure that someone will pick up your order, because we have to charge you anyway, as we hav already paid the growers before you pick-up. Y(our) market operates on a very small percentage, and if your order isn’t paid for, it puts a strain on us to pay for the products and to run the market.
Remember to pool your resources; share pick-ups with friends, bring your egg cartons to refill so they won’t end up being rubbish in the landfill (the plastic ones were once 2 liter bottles and are dishwasher safe, and the cardboard ones are already recycled cardboard.)

Speaking of refilling rather than recycling, (which sometimes makes more greenhouse gasses than the first manufacture), you are invited to bring your vases of any kind for re-use, as well as your black plastic pots for plants. We will give them a second-or third life. Plastic pots, I read, will never go away for thousands of years. So, let’s re-use them until they fall apart!
Sometimes we forget those new ‘Green" shopping bags when we go to the store, and end up with plastic bags. If we re-use these, it will do much to clean up the planet, as it takes energy to melt and remake. So, just bring those along, too, and we will re-use those for all sorts of things…Besides for carrying things, these bags make great padding for fragile objects when wadded up and stuffed between things. I have also seen people crochet these things into purses, bags, coasters, and welcome mats, but I’m not all that crafty..Are you? :0)

Enjoy your shopping, remember to order early, esp. before Tuesday evening, and especially the bakery goods, which must be baked individually for you. A little fore-warning might help Jeff, the baker, and may even spread some good will.
Love to y’all!
Donna

Brainstorming Session Aug 23

Where: Leopard Forest Coffee Co 26 S. Main St Travelers Rest, SC

When: Saturday August 23 @ 3 p.m.

What: Donna needs some help!

Incredibly, Donna has been managing the Upstate Locally Grown market almost single handedly. It’s time we organized some volunteers to help. Those of us who value a sustainable way of life and want fresh, locally grown, chemical free food, want to do our part. Please join us on Sat. Aug. 23 at Leopard Forest to give us your ideas on how we can help make the Upstate market even more successful. Plan to enjoy some FABULOUS Leopard Forest coffee and bring your thoughts and ideas!

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions at sidda40@yahoo.com

Thanks! Margie

Small US Flocks and the Avian Flu

Small flocks are among the most isolated of animals with regard to Avian Influenza, according to Dr. Rob Porter, veterinary pathologist for the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Right now, since there is no H5N1 Avian Influenza on this continent, there is no danger that they will be infected.

Killing healthy birds to avoid the remote possibility of future infection is unjustified. Small flock owners are encouraged to contact the SPPA, christine.heinrichs@gmail.com, 608-243-8178, if their flocks are threatened. Ask for time to get a second opinion. SPPA will do all it can to help you.

About poultry

It seems outrageous, but the big poultry companies are actually trying to use AI to do away with the competition. Margaret Say, Southeast Asian director of the US Poultry and Egg Export Council said, “We cannot control migratory birds but we can surely work hard to close down as many backyard farms as possible.”

Correction about "Web Log"

Woops! I will try not to impose my beliefs on you in the newsletters that I send to you. I didn’t make it clear that the weblog is something on the website that you have to make a choice to read. Donna

Hugh Weathers Article on "Eat Local" Copied From the SC Market Bulletin

Eat Local and Celebrate SC Farmers Market Month by Hugh E. Weathers, Commissioner of Agriculture August 5, 2008

You probably learned about carnivores and herbivores a few years back in school, but have you heard of locavores? Locavores are individuals who make a conscious effort to eat only food grown or produced within 100 miles of where they live. This new term has really caught on throughout the country. In fact, the New Oxford Dictionary named locavore the word of the year for 2007.

Eating a locavore diet positively impacts your health, the environment and our state’s economy. We ought to realize just how lucky we are to have an abundance of fresh Certified SC Grown produce available at our local farmers markets here in South Carolina. In fact, Governor

Sanford proclaimed August as SC Farmers Market month, an extension of National Farmers Market Week, August 3rd to the 9th.

We want you to make this a personal celebration for your family as well. We’re encouraging all South Carolinians to “Eat Local for a Day – The Certified SC Way” during Farmers Market month. Sort of a locavore initiation.

Locally grown products are fresher, healthier and safer. Often grown only a few miles from where it is sold, local produce has more ripening time and less travel time therefore it tastes better. Unlike products that are shipped from other states and countries, local products do not require any preservatives or additives and are less susceptible to harmful diseases or bacteria. So, you shouldn’t have to worry about watching a food scare saga unfold daily in the news.

Eating local promotes a healthy lifestyle, something that we should be concerned about in South Carolina. Unfortunately, we were just named by the CDC as the seventh most obese state in the nation. We used to be fifth, so we’re improving on this front.

Going local is also going green. According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, food typically consumed in the U.S. travels an average of 1,500 miles from production to consumption. By choosing locally grown foods, we reduce the distance and the carbon footprint of our food system. With fuel and food prices on the rise, buying local makes financial sense too. You are supporting your local farmers and producers, and your dollars go directly back into our state’s economy.

I hope that you will be motivated by all of the positive benefits that come from eating local and that you and your family try the locavore diet this month. Pick up fresh ingredients to cook a locally grown meal by visiting one of our 75 local farmers markets or our three state farmers markets. Look for our Certified SC logo at Wal-Marts, Piggly Wigglys, IGA’s and other participating retailers to make your grocery purchase. Or dine at restaurants participating in our Fresh on the Menu program, where chefs pledge to prepare meals with local foods when in season. You’ll be improving your health, our economy and the environment- supporting your local farmers while enjoying the freshest, finest produce and products. That’s just a good South Carolina way to go.

Look for your nearest Farmers Market and Certified SC members, who grow, produce and sell locally grown products. 

Buy South Carolina. 
Nothing's Fresher. Nothing's Finer.

Thanks!

Responses to my appeal for help are coming in. You DO want to keep upstatesc.locallygrown.net going! We will try to make it so that the tasks are small and are spread out…maybe 2 hours, if that’s what you are comfortable with. We had a couple of volunteers at the Saturday Market this week, and one last week. That was a great help, and it allowed me to get out for a few minutes and actually see what was going on at the other booths. There are many fine vendors there, and I encourage you to come have a pleasant Saturday, 8-12, strolling the market and viewing all the local goodies. You will be glad that you did. We are forming a core group, and if you would like to contribute your good ideas, please shoot me an email.

WHAT’S FRESH THIS WEEK? The locallygrown site has lots of veggies to offer this week, including many varieties of heirloom and unusual tomatoes. I have regular peppers, and Bioway has several kinds of both; sweet and mildly hot. Remember to order fresh herbs for use now, and for drying…We even have Bay leaves which may be used, not only for a grand touch in meals, but also for keeping your cuppboards free of uninvited pests. Rosemary stalks are wonderful for shiskabob skewers, or even to strew on the hot coals to flavor your grilled meats or veggies. We have fresh mint, parsley, cinnamon basil, oregano, marjoram, garlic, chives, garlic chives, perella (shiso, used on sushi) Click on More sometime when you have time to read abut the uses and history of some of these herbs.

Basil may be dried in a paper bag and crumbled in your fingers for future use when the season runs out. It is easy to freeze tomatoes, with the easiest way being to dip quickly into boiling water, peel or not, and freeze whole to add to sauces this winter.

MICROGREENS ANS SPROUTS We would like to know how many of you are interested in microgreens and sprouts…We have a grower, but she would have to travel a distance with them. It could be that we would order every other week if you are wanting this. Email me about it.

How often have you worried about eating potatoe skins because of pesticide residue? Some of you have tried Mc Mullan Family potatoes. I find them to be delicious and to have a great texture. They have been grown in organic soil without chemicals. Thank you for that, Michael.

THIS MARKET DOES NOT DESCRIMINATE AGAINST ANYONE: When I wrote about my friend Jerry’s illness, I mentioned Christ…..which offended someone. I was asked whether we descriminated against non Christians. THE ANSWER IS NO. This market is open to all, regardless of belief systems, color, or economic circumstances. I have always been one to accept everyone the same. I care more about what is in your heart than if you are wearing a designer handbag or if you have a nickle in your pocket, or if you are on a different level of spiritual understanding than I am at the moment. And it seems to me that you are a very special group of people with big hearts.

I will try to keep the newsletter that I send out to everyone less personal. However,I am a Christian and there are many times when I feel like writing my faith in my web log…So if you would like to read the log, please do. If it would offend you, you are welcome to not read the weblog. I will leave that up to your descretion. I hope that you all have a wonderful week, and find the local foods that you are hungry for. Donna

I Need Your Support To Keep The Market Successful

Folks, Thank you all for your enthusiasm over locallygrown.net!

As we grow, I will be looking to our upstate family for continued support and also for help in distributing the delicious food to you. I have been inspired to do this work as a service to my fellow growers and to all who wish to eat local and safe foods.

Many of you have become what I would consider as friends, so I would like to share this with you.

The main reason that am so interested in chemical-free foods is because I know first-hand how diet can affect our health. Diet was a great part of saving my life and of reversing so-called “incurable” severely disabling disease. I am stronger and healthier now than I was in my late teens. At age 23 I received a prognosis of three months to live. Nothing could be done. I could not handle my own affairs, and my memory and all of my systems were failing. Conventional medicine held no hope. The only hope given to me was nutritional. *Here I am *nearing retirement age and very much alive and active! My muscles and nerves are restored. I take absolutely no medication. My vital signs are exceptionally good, my stamina puts younger people to shame. We use no chemicals at home, we eat mostly fresh or lightly cooked fruits and vegetables. We eat meat, but we use naturally raised meat, like Nature’s Beef, and stay low carb. There are no breads in our diet but whole grain without preservatives, like Black Cow’s. Our milk is Happy Cow. Our eggs at home are raised on Putney Farm. Both my husband and I are strong, hard-working, and healthy. We heal amazingly well. We work from dawn to dusk. Which brings up some points: If I am to remain healthy, I must choose a stress-free life, and control my environment. When over-taxed, I begin to show signs. (You have seen evidence of this.) My performance suffers. You see mistakes. I forget to bring your order. I over-look things. I become scattered and disorganized. You are unhappy that I messed up. I am sorry that I messed up. I want to do everything right. (My purpose is to serve you; not to stress both of us.) Folks, What I am saying is what I have been saying all along;This is not “Donna’s” Market. It is not even named “Putney Farm” It is named “Upstate” This is all of us. this is your market, too. I do notpay myself for my time. If we want this system to work for all of us, then we need to all be a part of its success…because I am telling you that I have reached capacity. I have reached capacity, yet I am still obsessed with putting locally grown small farm-raised foods within the reach of everyone who desires their benefits to us and to the environment. My question is this: Are You? Do you want this market to keep supporting itself, drawing in more consumers and more quality growers? If so, please respond with ideas, suggestions, offers of help, (even one or two hours) Let’s all claim our market, lets all pull together to make this work. I know that you will. Because you are a great group who cares, and I love you all! We are forming a board of advisors made up of our members. If you would like to be on the advisory board, please let me know. The market managers are expanding so that someone may be able to take over some duties when needed. We have a few core growers who are always there for me. We have plans for expansion, but will need to be ready for this. We will need to have more than me. Growers and members together are needed. Are you in? This takes cooperative effort. Are you a team player? Do you have skills which you would share for a good cause? Let me know if you care. I do. Love to all, Donna