Superior Seasons:  Need local veggies, meats, flour, and more?

Order until 4:30 pm Monday for Pickup or Delivery this Wednesday! We are still offering HOME DELIVERY to Individual customers! Restaurants, Institutions, and other wholesale customers can access delivery with wholesale pricing – ask us how! CLICK HERE, to see what’s available, set up your account, and order.

What’s Featured and New? Click HERE to find vegetables, meats, syrups, milled products, bath and beauty products, and more!

Read our Recipe section on this page.

Madison GA:  After a great vacation. The Market is Open!!!!!!!!

See everyone Wed!!!!

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown:  Locavores

Locavores,

Those who have been a part of local food scenes for some time may have experience with a random box of goodies… and are probably better off for it. Some do really well with opening a big box of produce, getting ideas for meals from the item of most abundance, and highlighting the seasonal ingredient. Some find that idea terrifying and need a recipe along with a cooking mentor. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was, and still is, a great business model for small farmers not relying on subsides and loans. The goal is to support the farmer with a financial commitment before the produce is harvested! This typically takes the form of a subscription to a single farm but happens in all forms and fashions. It’s a way to say “I support what you do, and I will pay you upfront for your commitment to growing food.” Some CSA’s encourage you to volunteer on the farm, some allow to you to pick items from their market stand, while others have a weekly box ready for pickup on their farm. The key component is that the community is consistently supporting the farmer throughout the year. This is also one of the goals behind Northeast Georgia Locally Grown. This is a year ‘round market so you continue to get fresh food and farmers continue to have a source of income. We have many farmers that grow produce for only the summer months, some that use the winter to regenerate healthy soil, and some able to extend their production into the winter months. Some growers even prefer the colder months due to less pests and extended life cycles! Regardless, I am excited to see what will make its way to the market throughout the year! Every season, subtle changes happen as individual growers take different approaches based on their resources, past experiences, and customer feedback.

This market combines elements of CSAs, Farmers Markets, and Food Hubs. We are not having an identity crisis, but rather one of the puzzle pieces in rebuilding food systems based off of the demand for fresh, local, and sustainable foods. It is pretty amazing to be able to support farmers throughout the year, and it wouldn’t be possible without YOU!

Eat Well, Buy Local All Year

Andrew in Hall,
Teri in Habersham,
and Chuck in Rabun

Suwanee Whole Life Co-op:  Reminder: There's still time to order!

Just a friendly reminder that the market closes soon! Since I was too busy enjoying Suwanee Fest today and forgot to send this out earlier, I’ll keep the market open until 7pm tonight.

Please remember that we need to hit certain minimums in order for our farmers and vendors to deliver to us.

Thank you for placing your order and supporting local farms and businesses!

See you on Tuesday!

Click Here to go to the Market

Dawson Local Harvest:  A Taste of Honey

Dawson Local Harvest for Sept. 20th

A Taste of Honey

HI EVERYBODY!

Yes indeed, a Taste of Honey as we welcome BRADLEY FARMS back with their delicious locally harvested Honey in 3 different sizes. It’s not only yummy, it’s healthier than sugar, and it helps reduce susceptibility to local allergens by “inoculating” you through small doses in the honey (which is a great rational for using honey if you’re afraid of the calories!).

Restaurant Surprise: At a restaurant the other day I saw Okra served in a completely different way. Yes, it was battered and fried, but whole rather than cut in pieces. You ate it bu holding the stem, and they had a seasoned ranch dressing as a dipping sauce. Interesting.

Turning over a New Leaf: LEILANI’S has Leaf Greens in the form of Romaine Lettuce and Lettuce Salad Mix available this week. They also have tons of the afore-mentioned Okra plus lots of different Peppers including Red and Green Bells and Eggplant.

Great Customer Recommendation on the Organic Veggie Cream Cheese Spread from MY DAILY BREAD. “Wonderful blend of flavors” raves Teri.

THE MARKET IS NOW OPEN!

REMEMBER! You can order until Tuesday night at 8pm. Pick up your order at Leilani’s Gardens Friday afternoons from 4 to 7pm.

You’ll find the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST at http://dawsonville.locallygrown.net

We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible! We guarantee your satisfaction with all products in the DAWSON LOCAL HARVEST.

Have a happy and healthy week!

Alan Vining
Market Manager

Gwinnett Locally Grown:  Sunday Market Reminder

The Market is open Thursday at 9 – Monday at noon After that, ordering is disabled until Thursday morning. Pick up your order Tuesday from 4:00-7:00 p.m. only at Rancho Alegre Farm at 2225 Givens Road, Dacula, GA 30019. New to The Market? Learn about how it works here.

Veggie Patch has some seedlings available for you this week. And if you’ve never tried their salsa, I highly recommend it. It’s so good that I haven’t bought any other salsa in a couple years.
There are whole chickens listed, and wings, backs, etc just waiting to made into bone broth or stock.
Part One of the Wine Making Class is on Tuesday. Don’t miss it! All the details are below.
Thanks so much for your continued support! I’ll see you Tuesday.
Iris

Upcoming Workshops

Wine Making Workshop with Operation Homebrew

This workshop is 60 minutes, includes a mozzarella cheese sampling once finished. Class size is limited to a maximum of 15 people.

Wine making workshop, Session 1: Tue. Sep. 22, 2015
Wine making workshop, Session 2: Tue. Oct. 20, 2015
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM for both sessions
Cost: $25

– Session 1 | Sanitizing steps, mixing the ingredients, tips/tricks
– Session 2 | Bottle, Cork, and label your wine, take it home

To purchase tickets visit OperationHomebrew.com.

As Always….

Please share with friends and family about us so that we can give more people the opportunity to buy and eat healthy! Local farmers need our support to keep providing us with all the fresh foods! If we don’t give them enough business, it’s hard for them to continue to deliver to us. Please let’s not let that happen! Tell your friends about us so we can keep the Growers supported as this is how they make their living.

Thank you to all of you who support Gwinnett Locally Grown!

If there is something you’d like to see in the Market, please let me know! I would love your input!

Remember…
The Market is extending their hours! The Market will now be open from 4:00 to 7:00pm!
Having said that, if you place an order with us, PLEASE remember to pick it up on Tuesday. As I am so grateful for your orders, I also have a family at home waiting on me too! We cannot hold orders, especially cold items due to limited refrigeration space, so please be courteous and come for your order.

CLICK HERE NOW to Shop Gwinnett Locally Grown!

Thanks for all your support!

Shop often and eat well!

Iris Potter
Market Manager
grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com

Fresh Wishes,
Pilar Quintero
Market Host
Rancho Alegre Farm

Please email grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com for questions pertaining to Market or Raw Milk. It is very difficult to return phone calls. Remember to interact with us on Facebook and follow us on Meetup to get notification on all our wonderful events and news.

Fresh Harvest, LLC:  Fresh Harvest for September 20th

Market News

Hello!

Can you believe it is near the end of September already! It so far is a typical warm and dry end of summer. All the freshly planted fall crops appreciate the cooler nights, but are in need of irrigation. And we could use a good rain to get that winter cover crop germinating!

Rocky Glade Farm has their FRESH dug ginger available this week! If you haven’t tried fresh ginger yet, you are in for a great treat! It has so many great uses, and freezes easily for future use!

We just wanted to give a shout out to our wonderful honey producer, Tru Bee Honey. This is a family run business based in Arrington, TN. Their honey is raw, meaning it is not pasteurized or treated in any way. It is pure honey, straight from the bees! Their honey changes with the seasons, as the bees freely forage from many species of flowering plant. Their honey is a wonderful locally produced natural sweetener that is also rumored to help with building up an immunity to allergies. We love their honey, and are thankful for the good work they do!

You can learn more about them at their website, trubeehoney.com.

The Bloomy Rind is back with us this week! And, you know it is approaching Fall as Dozen Bakery has up it’s wonderful Apple Galettes!

We appreciate your support, and will see you on Wednesday!

John and Tallahassee

Coming Events

The Wednesday Market:  Our Market is Open

Good afternoon!

The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. Please check the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market

We have but a few days left of summer, so I thought a poem about Fall would be appropriate reading for today.

The Fall

by Marla Wardell

_The abundant, redundant season.
Ushering in the winter, like an appetizer before the big meal.
Just a taste of what is to come.
Beautiful and temporary. _

Leaves dying, revealing their true selves.
Falling, soft at first, then dry and fragile.
Beautiful and temporary.

_Temperatures falling, days shortening,
Sunshine fading, slowly, readying the whole world for rest.
Beautiful and temporary. _

Fall.

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-fall-season-autumn#ixzz3mIgoG6bM
Family Friend Poems

Have a great day, and we’ll see you at the Market on Wednesday.

Thanks,

Beverly

ALFN Local Food Club:  Market Open

Welcome to another week of fresh food! Today’s market has everything from muscadines to kimchi to squash, to greens, to soap, to duck eggs, to honey. Check out what is new this week; the market is open.

News/Update

We had an awesome market day yesterday. Nathan had an interesting AND tasty presentation on juicing. We also caught some great video of our volunteers working for the Super Service Challenge. I will let everyone know once we are ready to upload it for the competition.

I was inspired by Nathan’s workshop and a conversation with one of our volunteers about implementing more mini-events during market Saturday. I’m excited about different ways we can share our knowledge with each other. Look for a future weblog about this subject. I would love to start having more tastings, mini-workshops and other fun mini-show-and-tells during market Saturday. I’ll organize a few avenues for this and get back with all of you. In the meantime, consider ways you could share some of your own expertise!

I had the opportunity this weekend to help with an urban honey harvest. My kids and I had a blast centrifuging the honey, filtering, and bottling the finished product. In the end, we were a happy, sticky mess. Bees are one of those mysterious elements in our world. From thousands of individual bees, self-organization emerges out of seeming chaos. You can see the same self-organization in a school of fish or flock of birds. The individual parts work in synchrony to create honey, defend from predators, or travel as units across aerial paths in the sky. I’ve heard the mathematical models for these self-organized systems are very difficult, but originate within chaos theory. It has always befuddled the curious mind to understand how order emerges from chaos. These natural systems aren’t classical hierarchical systems where the queen decrees commands or the lead bird squawks orders. Yet, discrete chemical traces, body positions, and chaotic stimulus/response mechanisms build order from the bottom.

Of course, human civilization isn’t as good at self-organization. Though we consciously organize, many of our systems can have detrimental effects. The self-organization built off the stimulus/response mechanism of greed can create capitalistic systems that disenfranchise the poor, or degrade the surrounding environment. Such effects aren’t as sweet as the effects of our sister bees’ work. Decades ago, we arrived at a threshold where our societal projects needed conscious design that mimicked natural systems. We still aren’t thinking like bees. However, I can’t help but wonder if ALFN can’t become more bee-like as we evolve. How can we continue to self-organize a local food economy from the bottom. What stimulus/response pathways, traditions, and values can we use to build a sustainable food system? There are many avenues of thought to follow, but it starts not with the queen, but with the thousands of worker bees making choices that determine ecological sustainability—survival. Call it eco-design or bee-thinking. Whatever we call it, the process begins at the bottom with members.

Let the bee stay in your bonnet and have a sweet week.

Sincerely,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Fountain Fresh Dairy LLC:  Greens!

Hello everyone,
The summer produce was rather slow this year, but fall greens are now starting to come in! We have some available for tomorrow night pick-up!