Green Fork Farmers Market:  Weekly Product List

Dear Green Fork Farmers Market Customers,

NEW this week—Bee Well Gardens joins us this week with beautiful potted paperwhites!

Also available this week:

Vegetables—Lettuce mix and spinach.

*Meat*—pastured chicken, lamb, pork, organ meats, soup bones, and parts for stock.

Eggs—pastured chicken eggs.

Specialty foods—fermented sauerkraut and jalapenos, salsa made from local and organic ingredients, sugar cookies, and olives directly from the grower in California. Figgieville will also have a new shipment of olive oil coming in soon.

Place your order from now until Tuesday at noon, and we’ll reserve your products for pickup on Wednesday from 4-7 pm. Or you can stop by to see what we have for sale on our tables.

Thank you, and see you on Wednesday!

Green Fork Farmers Market

Wednesdays 4-7 pm
Indoors, Year Round
At Nightbird Books

Savannah, GA:  Honey

A searing investigation of the honey market by Food Safety News found that 76% of all honey bought at grocery stores were treated with a process called “ultra-filtration,” which removes not only impurities like wax, but also all traces of pollen. And of the types of brands at grocery stores, the ones that were far-and-away the most likely to be ultra-filtered were generic brands.

There are issues with ultra-filtration in general. Many believe that pollen, and other so-called “impurities,” are actually beneficial to human health, and make honey a better choice than rival sweeteners like sugar. And there doesn’t seem to be any serious benefit to the process; it’s expensive and doesn’t significantly improve shelf-life, even though some manufacturers claim it does.

But according to FSN, the biggest reason to avoid ultra-filtered honey is that pollen is the only sure-fire way to trace the source of honey to a geographic location. As a result ultra-filtered honey is often used to mask the shady origins of certain kinds of honey, especially Chinese honey, which is subject to heavy import tariffs on account of its frequent contamination by heavy metals and illegal antibiotics. Chinese honeymakers ultra-filter their honey, and then ship it through byzantine paths, to sneak their sham product onto American grocery shelves without being hit with a tariff.

Food Safety News honey samples were sent to premier melissopalynologist and professor at Texas A&M University, Vaughn Bryant. What he found was that roughly three fourths of the honey contained no pollen, making it unidentifiable and unsafe. Of that average, he found that:

-100 percent of Winnie the Pooh sold in Walmart stores had all pollen removed.

-100 percent of honey from individual packets from KFC and McDonald’s had all pollen removed.

-77 percent of honey from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, and Target had no traced of pollen.

-100 percent of honey from drugstores like Walgreen’s and CVS Pharmacy had all the pollen filtered out.

He did find out, however, that honey purchased from co-ops, farmers markets and stores like Trader Joes contained the full amount of original pollen.

Many have called for the FDA to do more to prevent adulterated and smuggled honey from landing on grocery shelves, but the group has so far shrugged off the burden.

The EU, for its part, just changed labeling regulations to require that honey containers list “pollen” as an ingredient, when it is one, despite the objections of some honey farmers, who call pollen intrinsic to their produce.

One ounce of raw honey contains approximately 20 vitamins, 18 amino acids, 16 minerals, and a ton of antioxidants and phytonutrients. Raw honey is an antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal substance. It is also highly nutritious. It contains significant amounts of B2, B3, B5, B6, C, magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, and phosphate.

In the meantime, though, worried consumers do have a good option: buying honey from farmers’ markets and natural food stores. The FSN investigation found that few, if any, of the honeys sold there had been subject to ultra-filtration.

The Wednesday Market:  Order Now; A Poem about Winter

Good afternoon, all.

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

Weather forecasters are predicting some wintry weather over the next two days for points north of us. With that in mind, here is a poem for you:

When it was Winter

by Eman Elbadawi

First, when the shadow stood
Behind the window
It wasn’t winter yet
Or it was winter –
No one could say for sure I knew:
It is winter
It’s very cold
But it dosn’t rain
And it seems it won’t.
Then suddenly it started to rain:
One drop
Two drops
The eye gazed
Behind the windows:
It rained
A hundred drops
A thousand
A million
A thousand million –
Until the world was clean!

As of this writing, it is anyone’s guess what tomorrow has in store for us. While my children would love to play in the snow, I hope that all we get is rain! No matter what Mother Nature sends our way, here’s hoping that you all stay safe, dry, and warm.

We’ll see you on Wednesday.

Thanks,

Beverly

ALFN Local Food Club:  The Market is Open and Support us at Whole Foods!

Good Morning,

The market is open and ready for orders. And for what you can’t get on our market, there’s always Whole Foods. Some of you may have heard that our Little Rock store is moving to a new, beautiful, and greatly expanded location at the corner of Chenal and Bowman next to Best Buy. We’re talking in-store smoked meats, enhanced grab-and-go meals, and yup, even a beer and wine bar with pub-style food, 12 taps, and indoor and outdoor seating.

But you wanna know what the best part is? That on this Thursday, February 19th, 1% of all sales go to your Arkansas Local Food Network! This is the perfect opportunity for you to check out the store, get all your shopping done, and support our work to build a stronger local food system.

Thanks so much for your support of good food and we hope to see you Thursday!

- Alex Handfinger
Director of Operations

Do you have questions or comments about this, or any, weblog? Thoughts on local food, goods, or events? Reply to this email and let us know what’s on your mind. Your feedback is always greatly appreciated!

Russellville Community Market:  RCM Opening Bell

Welcome to another RCM Market Week!

Be sure to check out the newly listed items this week! Lots of great, local products to be had!

Happy shopping! Eat Local!

Check out the “Featured Items” section as well as the “What’s New” section at the top of the market page for all the latest products available.

Be sure to “Like” our Facebook page for updates and food-related events in your community!

To ensure your order is placed, make sure you click the “Place My Order” button once you have completed your shopping. Remember, you have until 10:00pm Tuesday evening to place your orders.

Happy Shopping! See you on Thursday!

Russellville Community Market

FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.

Champaign, OH:  Get Together

Come on people now…
Smile on your brother…
Everybody get together…
Try to love one another…
Right now…
(Youngbloods-Get Together)

Happy very cold Sunday, Local Market of Love customers!!

The sun is shining but if you are planning to stay in, stay warm, and just ride out this frigid cold, what better way to do it than by planning your week of needs and wants? Why not place your weekly orders with us? There are so many reasons why this is such a GREAT idea!

First…we are LOCAL! Yes, local. No pretending, no illusion of local. The real deal. Each item on this market’s website comes at you screaming local.

Second…it lets your hard earned cash stay in our county. It helps the circle that continues to feed back into the local scene.

Third…much healthier alternatives. No matter what, we make sure to stay with out mission statement. Yes, sure, there are cookies, pies, cakes, confections…but, they come to you with pure ingredients. Real ingredients. Not a mile long list of additives, preservatives, ingredients you have never heard of. The same with all of our products…the real deal…no fakes or phonies.

Fourth…and this is very important…the affordability of our market!!! YAY!!!! We all work hard, earn hard, spend hard…we want to bring you all of this local goodness at prices that make you smile, that won’t break the bank, and that leave you with a lot of that hard earned cash, still leftover for fun or other necessities.

We offer the goodness, the local vibe, the nutrition, and the amazing prices. We realize there are major chains you can shop, we realize that there are the upscale trendy foodie stores, we realize that you can drive 45 minutes to shop in trendy markets. BUT…think about the cost of gas, your time, the astounding bill at those places JUST so you can shop “local”, organic, etc…

Come together…we all work hard to bring this local movement to you, each and every week, and season. Smile on us, smile on your brother, your sister, smile on your market, your growers, your producers, your artisans…

Let’s make this local movement super groovy…

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Stones River Market:  The Market is Back Open

United States Virgin Islands:  VI Locally Grown Market, Week of 2-16-15

Hello Everyone!
The VI Locally gGown market is now open for orders. I have gone through our entire inventory and updated quantities and made many new items available. Please let me know if you see any errors; I appreciate your feedback so far.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes…are coming in! We will have a few pints of tomatoes at the market this week and I will be adding them to the online ordering system soon. Thank you for your continued support!

-Castiel and your VI Locally Grown producers

CLG:  Opening Bell: Skoosh, Broccoli, Sausage, Coffee...

Good afternoon,
Remember when it was 72 degrees yesterday? Well, things change, huh? Be very careful if you have to be out in the ice on Monday. If you get housebound, spend some time online perusing all the wonderful local food being produced in and around Conway and place your order for pick-up this Friday.

Check out all the Featured Products and use the SEARCH field on the main Market page to quickly find the items you want.

Come early on Friday for the best selection from the EXTRAS table.

The market is now OPEN for orders. Please check your email about 5 minutes after you place your order to make sure you get an order confirmation. Thank you for being a valuable part of CLG!

Have a great week!
Steve

ONLINE PAYMENT OPTION. When you are done shopping, just hit the “proceed to checkout” button in your cart. You will then see the option to “Pay Now” with credit card near the bottom. Just follow the prompts to add your card. Be sure to read the screen until you see “Thank you for your order” on the top. If you need help, please call 339-7958. A 3% online payment convenience fee will be added when your card is charged.

How to contact us:

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Instead…

Phone or text: Steve – 501-339-1039

Email: Steve – kirp1968@sbcglobal.net

Our Website: www.conway.locallygrown.net

On Twitter: @conwaygrown

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Conway-Locally-Grown/146991555352846

Middle Tennessee Locally Grown:  It's Time to Order from Manchester Locally Grown Farmers' Market