To Contact Us

Our Website: http://athens.locallygrown.net
On Twitter: @athlocallygrown
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/athenslocallygrown

Recipes

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Served hot or cold, this soup is packed with a savory-sweet roasted pepper flavor that might have you skipping the main course and opting for a second bowl of soup instead. It’s preferable to use home-made roasted red bell peppers in this soup. From Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables.

Serves 4 to 6

3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 small potato, quartered
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon fresh oregano or thyme, or 1/2 tablespoon dried, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 large red bell peppers, roasted, skinned, chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
salt
freshly grated Parmesan cheese croutons (optional)

1. Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, potato, garlic, bay leaf, and herbs; sauté until potato and onion begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the roasted peppers, paprika, and 1 teaspoon salt; cook for 30 seconds.
2. Pour in stock or water and scrape up any of the flavorful caramelized pieces stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower heat to a gentle simmer; cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
3. Purée soup in a blender or food processor or run it through a food mill. Return it to the pot and heat until warmed through. Add the balsamic vinegar and a few grindings of fresh black pepper. Taste; add salt if desired.
4. Garnish each serving with some Parmesan, a little fresh herb, and croutons if desired.

Coming Events

Athens Locally Grown Hunter’s Moon Feast: October 23, Saturday, at Boann’s Banks (Royston, Franklin County)

“The October full moon has been known as the “Hunter’s Moon” for millennia, and was a time of feasting throughout the Northern hemisphere. We revive the notion here with a day of feasting at Boann’s Banks (the farm of Athens Locally Grown managers Chris and Eric Wagoner) on the banks of the Broad River outside Royston. It’ll be a low-key affair, without any farm work for you to do. Just good food and drink (Eric will prepare a variety of dishes using locally grown vegetables and locally raised meats, and perhaps brew an adult beverage. There’s also the possibility of home-brewed beer, and the likelihood of good live music. There’ll certainly be good company (all of you), and a river to splash in. There’s even some camping space, for those who really want to enjoy the moon. Come any time, but I’ll be aiming for 2pm to have the BBQ and other dishes ready. Stay as long as you’d like, even into Sunday. Nights are chilly, though, so bring a tent if you’re wanting to do that. There is no charge for Locally Grown members and their families. We do ask that you bring a dish to share, and if it’s made from Locally Grown ingredients, so much the better." You can make your reservations for the feast on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon and every Tuesday evening at Little Kings downtown. It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so! 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!

Market News

August and September bring many new people to Athens, and many new people to Athens Locally Grown, so I thought this week I’d give a brief primer on how ALG works. Those of you who have been with us during these last nine years probably already know all this, but I’ll try to keep it interesting for you too.

First off, ALG is best thought of like a traditional farmers market, because except for the lack of tents and tables, that’s very much how we operate. The growers are putting their own items up for sale directly to you, at prices and quantities they have set. The market volunteers and I are here to make sure it all happens smoothly, but the growers are all selling their products directly to you. GRowers do have to apply to sell through the market, and I personally approve each of them before they list their products. Here’s a summary of the standards we have set:

• All growers must use sustainable practices and never use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
• All growers can only sell what they themselves have grown
• All growers must be from the greater Athens area. Right now, this means within about 75 miles
• All animals raised for meat or eggs must be pastured
• Handicrafts must be made primarily from items produced or gathered on the farm
• Prepared foods must use organic ingredients if at all possible, and locally grown ingredients if at all possible
• All proper licenses, when required by law, must be obtained

When I’ve turned down requests to sell through ALG (and I have turned down many), the items clearly broke one or more of those standards. There are a few edge cases that I take on a case by case basis, such as coffee. In cases like that, we set the standards as strict as we can. With coffee, for example, the beans must be sustainably grown, they must be roasted locally, and the roaster must have a direct business relationship with the farm that grew the beans.

So, the growers list their available products and set their prices. For most all of the products, they do this before they’ve harvested the items, so they have to estimate how much they will actually have. They’ve gotten pretty good at this guess, but it is a guess, and the unpredictable nature of farming means they may have far less than they thought (thanks to deer, a hail storm, etc.) or they may have far more than they thought (a nice rain can double the growth of lettuce overnight, for example). Most of them are conservative with their estimates, and so they let you continue to order, even if they’ve already sold more than they guessed they’d have. That’s why popular items may have a quantity in the negatives when you look at the listings. The system will still let you order, on the chance that they’ll actually have enough, but you’ll get warnings along the way that you’re taking a gamble.

I do not collect items from the farm, and do not know myself until Thursday afternoon what the growers were able to harvest and bring in to town. The growers do have each other’s contact information, so if one grower is short and another has a surplus, they may arrange with each other to get all the orders filled, but in general, if a grower cannot fill an order for something, they’ll remove that ordered item, and you’ll see a comment on your invoice indicating that. Since i’m not a middle-man, I can’t arrange for substitutions myself.

When the growers bring in the items you ordered on Thursday afternoon, packaged and labelled with your name, I pay them on your behalf out of our shared cash box during the hour before we open the market. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order. We then rush to the bank to deposit the money to cover the checks we just wrote to the growers. As explained elsewhere on the website, you are really ordering directly from and paying the growers yourself, but our shared cashbox system makes things convenient for you and them. (Imagine if you ordered from ten growers having to write ten checks when you picked up your items!) This shared cashbox system does mean that if you place an order and then never arrive to pick it up, we’re left holding the bag. For that reason, you are responsible for paying for orders not picked up, and that amount is automatically added on to your next order for your convenience.

For a number of legal reasons, ALG never takes possession of your ordered items. We don’t buy them from the growers and resell them to you, nor do we repackage them in any way. The growers drop off your items for you, and you arrive and pick them up. The market volunteers facilitate that happening. Because of the need to maintain that separation, we cannot deliver, nor can we generally hold your items later than 8pm on Thursday if you fail to come pick them up. We start calling those who haven’t arrived by 7:30, but most of the time we just get answering machines and voice mail. Anything still at our pickup location at 8pm will get divided up among those there at the time, primarily our volunteers, and then we finish loading up the truck and leave. There are some things you can do to insure you won’t get charged for things you didn’t come get:

1. If you know prior to Tuesday at 8pm that you won’t be able to come get your order, send me an email and I will cancel your order.
2. If you find out later that you can’t come, send me an email. So long as I know before market begins, I can put the things you ordered on the “extras” table, and your fellow customers will almost certainly buy them for you.
3. If you discover Thursday while we’re at market that you can’t arrive, give me a call at 706-248-1860. I’ll put your items on the “extras” table, and if they sell, you’ll be off the hook.
4. If you have a cell phone, make sure that number is the number on your account. You can go to the “Your Account” page on the website to be sure. If you’re out and about and I get your home phone or your work phone, no one gets helped.

There’s often a sizable pile of things up for grabs at 8pm. If you’re in the area and want to do a little extra shopping, swing by at about ten til (or wait until then to come get your own order). There may be things for sale you want, and you can save a fellow customer a charge to their account. Our volunteer workers get to split things up as a benefit of working, but paying customers do come first. And it usually seems there are several things sitting there that were in high demand that week.

Finally, we have recently switched to a paperless system, so we do not have paper receipts for you when you pick up your order. An electronic receipt is generated, though, and can be found on the website. Go to the “Your Account” page, view your order history, and you’ll see an invoice for each order. By 2pm on Thursday, it will show what we expect to have for you that evening. After we fill your order, it will show exactly what we packed for you, and what, if anything, was missing. You can view that at any time, even years from now. If we didn’t get you something we should have, or if anything you got was of unacceptable quality, please contact me ASAP. I’ll share the problem with the grower so we can insure it won’t happen again. If you’re logged into the site, most of the growers have their contact info on their profile page (off the “Our Growers” page), so you can contact them directly if you choose.

So, that’s ALG in a nutshell. If you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or even complements, please send them my way!

Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown and everything we’ve tried to accomplish. With your help, we’ve been able to build something truly great and inspirational to people all across the country, more than you could know. Thank you also for your support of all of our growers, local food, and our rights to eat it. You all are part of what makes Athens such a great area in which to live. We’ll see you on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

To Contact Us

Our Website: http://athens.locallygrown.net
On Twitter: @athlocallygrown
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/athenslocallygrown

Recipes

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Serve these for breakfast or as a side dish. Small, even tiny, pan- cakes, topped with spicy pineapple salsa or something creative of your choosing, make ideal hors d’oeuvres. From Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt On Vegetables.

Makes about twenty 3 1/2- to 4-inch pancakes

6 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds), peeled and grated
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Combine the sweet potatoes and onion in a large bowl. Add the flour, eggs, and olive oil; mix well. Stir in the milk, salt, and pepper.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Test the heat by dropping a small amount of batter in the pan— if the oil immediately bubbles up around the batter, it has reached the proper temperature. Be careful not to let the oil overheat and smoke.
3. Using a ladle, 1/2 cup measuring cup, or large spoon, drop the pancake batter into the hot oil and then lightly press it into a pancake shape with a spatula. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes, then flip them and cook until brown on the other side, 5 minutes. Remove pancakes and drain on paper towels. Serve immediately or keep them warm in the oven.

Market News

It was back-to-school week at my house this past week. I think adjusting to the new daily routine is harder on my than my daughter, but we’re getting there. It’s a little extra challenging this year, since the Franklin County school system is doing something novel to save some money. By starting school ten minutes earlier and ending a half hour later each day, they were able to shave two whole weeks off the school year. Unfortunately, that means we need to leave the house to meet the bus at 6:30 in the morning, and she gets less than three hours at home in the evening before bedtime. So, it’s more important than ever that meals are quick to prepare, nutrient dense, and her breakfasts need to be substantial enough to get her through lunch, yet easy enough for me to prepare while half asleep (and for her to eat while half asleep). And of course there’s the matter of lunch. Her school is typical of the American school lunch, and so most of the time she takes her own, which I make for her in the morning.

I feel really lucky to have ingredients purchased through Athens Locally Grown to help make my job easier. Breads made from multiple freshly milled grains make great breakfast toast. She likes hers with cinnamon, so I’ve been able to have the jars of wonderful strawberry jam I made early this summer all to myself. Eggs laid by chickens that have been able to forage for bugs and greens produce eggs I can trust. As the mornings turn cooler, we’ll have porridge and grits milled by ALG’s two mills. We can even get kid-friendly items like hotdogs, chicken drumsticks, yogurt, and fruit. She’s a typical kid when it comes to vegetables, but of course there’s enough variety available at ALG that she’s got plenty of new things to try.

We still mix in a few “kid foods”. For instance, there’s a fruity loop cereal we’ve found that is decent, and she’s no stranger to the powdered cheese packet. But I can relax knowing that she’s getting a mix of foods, mostly locally sourced, that is both good for her and filling enough to get her through the challenging daily schedule of a six year old. And really, I have no idea how I’d do it without all the growers supplying such a great variety of products through Athens Locally Grown.

I hope you’re finding our market to be just as useful a resource for your household. There are literally hundreds of people working to supply the market. Just as I’ve become dependent on them, they are all dependent on us as customers. It’s a virtuous cycle, a race to the top, where we all come out winners.

Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown and everything we’ve tried to accomplish. With your help, we’ve been able to build something truly great and inspirational to people all across the country, more than you could know. Thank you also for your support of all of our growers, local food, and our rights to eat it. You all are part of what makes Athens such a great area in which to live. We’ll see you on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Coming Events

Farmer for a Day: September 4, Saturday, at Burnell Farm (Hart County)

“Certified Naturally Grown. We are a produce farm in Royston, Ga. One of are goals is to supply our local community with vegetables grown with no herbicides, chemicals are pesticides. We also raise chickens (Cornish X Rocks) and Rainbow Layers using the same standards as we do with our vegetables. We like to say our birds are DRUG free. We currently farm 9 acres and we have a greenhouse and use raised beds. We also have a 91/2 acre pond.” There are slots still available for both our September Farmer for a Day event, and you can find more details on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

Athens Locally Grown Hunter’s Moon Feast: October 23, Saturday, at Boann’s Banks (Royston, Franklin County)

“The October full moon has been known as the “Hunter’s Moon” for millennia, and was a time of feasting throughout the Northern hemisphere. We revive the notion here with a day of feasting at Boann’s Banks (the farm of Athens Locally Grown managers Chris and Eric Wagoner) on the banks of the Broad River outside Royston. It’ll be a low-key affair, without any farm work for you to do. Just good food and drink (Eric will prepare a variety of dishes using locally grown vegetables and locally raised meats, and perhaps brew an adult beverage. There’s also the possibility of home-brewed beer, and the likelihood of good live music. There’ll certainly be good company (all of you), and a river to splash in. There’s even some camping space, for those who really want to enjoy the moon. Come any time, but I’ll be aiming for 2pm to have the BBQ and other dishes ready. Stay as long as you’d like, even into Sunday. Nights are chilly, though, so bring a tent if you’re wanting to do that. There is no charge for Locally Grown members and their families. We do ask that you bring a dish to share, and if it’s made from Locally Grown ingredients, so much the better." You can make your reservations for the feast on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon and every Tuesday evening at Little Kings downtown. It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!

To Contact Us

Our Website: http://athens.locallygrown.net
On Twitter: @athlocallygrown
On Facebook: http://facebook.com/athenslocallygrown

Recipes

Fried Okra and Potatoes

Frying Okra and Potatoes together gives a real taste treat. From www.africhef.com.

Serves 4 to 6

1 lb young Okra pods
2 large potatoes
1 Onion
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp Salt.
2 pints ice water
oil for frying
salt and pepper for seasoning, to taste

1. Top and tail the Okra pods (cut off the ends). Cut the pods into approximately 1/4 inch rounds. Peel and dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Peel the onions and chop finely.
2. Place the sliced Okra into a glass or stainless steel bowl and sprinkle the salt liberally over the pods. Cover the pods with the iced water, making sure that all the slices are under water. Place the bowl containing the Okra and water in a refrigerator and leave for 2 or more hours.
3. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and drain off the salt water. Place the Okra in a bowl and add the potatoes and chopped onion. Season the cornmeal with the salt and pepper. Place the sliced Okra potato and onion mixture together with the seasoned cornmeal in a large plastic bag and shake until the vegetables are well coated with the cornmeal.
4. Heat some oil (1/2 inch deep) in a frying pan until it begins to shimmer. Place the vegetables in the pan and fry until the potatoes are done and the mixture has browned nicely. Remove the Okra and potato mixture from the oil, using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve hot as a side dish

Coming Events

Farmer for a Day: September 4, Saturday, at Burnell Farm (Hart County)

“Certified Naturally Grown. We are a produce farm in Royston, Ga. One of are goals is to supply our local community with vegetables grown with no herbicides, chemicals are pesticides. We also raise chickens (Cornish X Rocks) and Rainbow Layers using the same standards as we do with our vegetables. We like to say our birds are DRUG free. We currently farm 9 acres and we have a greenhouse and use raised beds. We also have a 91/2 acre pond.” There are slots still available for both our September Farmer for a Day event, and you can find more details on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

Athens Locally Grown Hunter’s Moon Feast: October 23, Saturday, at Boann’s Banks (Royston, Franklin County)

“The October full moon has been known as the “Hunter’s Moon” for millennia, and was a time of feasting throughout the Northern hemisphere. We revive the notion here with a day of feasting at Boann’s Banks (the farm of Athens Locally Grown managers Chris and Eric Wagoner) on the banks of the Broad River outside Royston. It’ll be a low-key affair, without any farm work for you to do. Just good food and drink (Eric will prepare a variety of dishes using locally grown vegetables and locally raised meats, and perhaps brew an adult beverage. There’s also the possibility of home-brewed beer, and the likelihood of good live music. There’ll certainly be good company (all of you), and a river to splash in. There’s even some camping space, for those who really want to enjoy the moon. Come any time, but I’ll be aiming for 2pm to have the BBQ and other dishes ready. Stay as long as you’d like, even into Sunday. Nights are chilly, though, so bring a tent if you’re wanting to do that. There is no charge for Locally Grown members and their families. We do ask that you bring a dish to share, and if it’s made from Locally Grown ingredients, so much the better." You can make your reservations for the feast on the Market page of the website, under the Event Reservations category.

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon and every Tuesday evening at Little Kings downtown. It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!

Market News

Last week’s all-paperless order pickup went really smoothly. I can’t begin to tell you how great it felt to not print out the giant stack of paper, as we had every week for the past nine years. I’ve long had a vision of being able to coordinate the food from getting from the growers to you all without the paperwork, but it took this long for technology to be both available and affordable. Being able to work directly off the website live as we fill orders also greatly cuts down on the “back office” work. As you might imagine, the logistics behind getting the right items from the growers to the the right customer while getting the right amount of money from the customer back to the growers, all while accounting for missing items, packing mistakes, and so forth, is quite daunting. It all just got considerably easier, though, which is good news for everyone.

Now that that project is mostly behind me, I’d like to turn my efforts to another thing that’s been bothering me (and some of you, too): all the little plastic bags that get used to package most of the items going out to you all. It’s a tricky problem, for a number of reasons:

• The items must be pre-packaged by the grower, because we are not licensed as food handlers, nor do we have the facilities to re-package anything
• Paper bags are still environmentally costly to make, and having a bunch of paper bags all the same, even with our stickers on them, makes it very hard to find the right items as we fill orders
• Plastic produce bags are both inexpensive and readily available, so whatever replaces them must be as well

There are a lot of specifics wrapped up in those general statements, but you get the idea. It turns out, though, that again technology has found an answer, and it’s very close to being affordable as well. There is a new 100% compostable produce bag being made by BioBag that contains no GMO starches, and composts back into soil (not CO2 gas, like many compostable plastics do). It’s even nearly transparent, so it won’t slow up order packing. I can get almost a year’s supply delivered to us for about $6000, which comes out to about 6 cents a bag. If we got an outside funding source, I could give them out to the growers and require them to use the bags to pack their produce, eliminating almost all of the plastic that goes out (the meat and dairy can’t use these bags). If we got about half of it paid for from outside sources, I could offer them to the growers at half price, which would be in line with what they’re paying now for plastic.

So, that’s what it comes down to: $6000 to eliminate almost all of the plastic used by the growers at our market for a year. Sounds like a great deal, and if I (or the market) had the cash, I’d order the delivery today. But I don’t, so I’ll need to see if there is any funding sources around that would sponsor something like this for us. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Another long-standing project I’ve been working on is accepting EBT (“food stamps”) at our market. Several of you have asked about this, and unfortunately, these days EBT is the only way a growing number of families can put food on the table. The Athens Farmers Market, both the Saturday and Tuesday versions, started accepting EBT this year. Athens Locally Grown, though, does not. The biggest problem is the EBT program is extremely bureaucratic. The rules in place are rather straightforward, but are also very rigid. ALG is a new kind of business, not quite a farmers market and not quite a grocery store, and so we don’t really fit in any of the boxes. It also requires approval at the Federal, the state, and the local levels, and at each I’ve gotten “wait, you do what now?” as responses. It’s been a little dangerous. It seems regulatory authorities, at any level, have a universal response to something they’ve never seen before: “You can’t do that.” If I’m not careful, it’s not out of the question that ALG itself would get shut down for a while while we run around assuring people we’re not doing something we’re not supposed to be doing. I’m still progressing, though, and have hope that in the near future we’ll be able to accept EBT.

Just a reminder: due to some logistical conflicts, both Split Creek Farm has gone to an every-other-week schedule through the end of August. They’re here this week, but will be gone again next week.

We’ve re-instated our regular “Meet the Grower” table during the Thursday pickups. This week the table will be hosted by Tim & Liz Young from Nature’s Harmony Farm. They’ll be talking about their farming practices and cheese making, so be sure to stop by and say hello while you’re waiting for us to put your order together. They’d love to meet you!

Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown and everything we’ve tried to accomplish. With you’re help, we’ve been able to build something truly great and inspirational to people all across the country, more than you could know. Thank you also for your support of all of our growers, local food, and our rights to eat it. You all are part of what makes Athens such a great area in which to live. We’ll see you on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!