Locavore the resources available in your area.

[digitS']

. . . We just got the ONLY farmers market in Amarillo (maybe the only one in the panhandle) to ban non-local produce last summer. Up until then, you were more likely to find folks selling the grocery surplus than you were to find things that people had grown locally. Last summer brought great produce and people. One rancher even went through all the govt hoops to bring us grass fed beef at decent prices. Looking forward to what this summer brings!

I would like to know how this was done! Do you mean, DesertCat, that the consumers forced the market rule change?

As a vendor at a market that allowed the brokering of produce from wholesalers, it proved impossible to force a change! The local growers finally just got up and walked out. They formed their own market more than a decade ago - and it is still going strong !

Not all of the Washington State farmers' markets are grower-only markets but many are ! And, so is this one in Kootenai County !

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

congrats on your 1/2 a pig--which half did you get?

The left half?

You get one side or the other, not front or back.

 

[lupinfarm]

In our area we have "The Farm Meat Shop" just north of Belleville which sells naturally raised, government inspected beef, pork, and chicken as well as free range eggs.

Stirling farmers market is great for sweetcorn, there is usually this guy there that has the sweetest sweet corn EVER. Its juicy and mouthwatering, OM NOM NOM.

My favourite place to go is the Willow Creek (I think thats their name?) farm stand on the corner of the Farm Meat Shop's property.

 

[desertcat]

I don't really know how the change came about.

What I do know is that when I moved back here from a farmers market rich area, I was SO excited that Amarillo had one too. Then I saw what they were selling and ignored them for several years. Last spring they had a big ad campaign to let people know that they had changed the policies. Have a feeling that the brokers weren't selling stuff (they weren't any cheaper than the store) and that market folded, to be followed by the local growers.

So, yeah, I do believe that the consumers finally took control.

 

[ducks4you]

congrats on your 1/2 a pig--which half did you get?

The left half?

You get one side or the other, not front or back.

I was being jovial--I have NO IDEA how you halve a pig!

I only know that 1/2 a cow means 1/2 the meat. ...oh, well...trying to be FUNNY...failed...**sniffle**

Laughing makes it ALL easier...
**ducks4you wanders off, tail feathers dragging, 'cause wifezilla's flock wouldn't play with me in the pond**

 

[wifezilla]

I thought it was a good question actually Not everyone knows how meat is divided when you buy half an animal!

 

[digitS']

I don't really know how the change came about.

What I do know is that when I moved back here from a farmers market rich area, I was SO excited that Amarillo had one too. Then I saw what they were selling and ignored them for several years. Last spring they had a big ad campaign to let people know that they had changed the policies. Have a feeling that the brokers weren't selling stuff (they weren't any cheaper than the store) and that market folded, to be followed by the local growers.

So, yeah, I do believe that the consumers finally took control.

I like that!

It is kind of tuff on local growers to have a guy roll into town, pick up a load of whatever the local produce wholesaler wants to get rid of, and then set up right in the middle of a "farmers' market" . . . When the day is done, he can carry what he hasn't sold right back to that wholesale warehouse and pay only for what he has sold.

Not all these guys work like that but plenty of them do.

I was proud of myself one year. I grew head lettuce and it came out real nice (learned that "Summertime" is a good variety for iceberg-type lettuce in an arid climate, and had some luck ). I had a whole table piled up with my iceberg lettuce. The broker decided he could start giving his away with every $5 purchase.



Both of the guys who ran their businesses this way ended up as the only produce vendors in their markets. Then the markets closed down. In fact, they are both dead now - even tho' one was probably 10 years younger than me. You know what they say, "Living long is the best revenge!"

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

:tools

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I thought you might be interested in this site -- I don't think anyone has mentioned it so far:

http://hyperlocavore.ning.com/


I could show a bunch of stuff from here in the UK but it is hardly applicable to your lives in the US.......


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I found this interesting article which applies to all of us, wherever we live.

http://www.roamingtales.com/2010/01/08/sustainable-food-where-you-shop-and-the-350-project/


Hattie