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Nov. 24, 2018 M@D Newsletter



We are open to accept orders.
Orders close Tuesday at 5pm
If you’re wondering about that “M@D” bit, its only about good healthy food!


This Week’s Newsletter:
Winter Wellness
Market Chitchat
Grower Notes

TIPS TO STAY WELL

This season can be busy and exciting. With so many events like family dinners, holiday parties, and the preparation and planning for gift giving, there are plenty of distractions to keep us from focusing on our health and taking care of ourselves as we would normally. It is estimated that up to 20% of the United Sates population gets the cold or flu each year and wintertime presents a higher likelihood to develop either than during any other season. Here are some tips to help you stay healthy and fit during winter’s colder months.

Frequent Hand Washing - Though it sounds like a broken record, frequent handwashing throughout the day is an absolute must in maintaining your health during the winter. It not only helps protect your immune system and prevent you from developing flu and cold, but it protects others around you. Use paper towel to dry your hands and close the tap so that you don’t come into contact with germs once again after washing them. Avoid hand sanitizers as much as possible. Many are loaded with toxins that over-dry and crack the skin, creating perfect conditions for viral transmission.

Stay Hydrated – Hours spent baking your body in overheated homes and offices dries out the nose, mouth and lips, all of which need moisture to help protect against viral invaders. Fight back by drinking water throughout the day; keep pans of fresh water on top of radiators to add moisture to the air; and hydrate nasal passages with a saline spray or neti pot treatments.

Stress Reduction -One of the best ways to be kind to your immune system is to get a good nights rest! You can also set aside time every day, even if it’s just a few minutes for meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, massage or a few minutes in a sauna. Even knitting is a great way to release tension’s tight grip, boost immunity and enhance physical and mental resilience. Whatever you choose, making a plan a few days in advance will help you stick to it.


Stay Active -Adequate exercise helps keep the immune system robust, so keep moving throughout the winter (but don’t overdo it which can overtax your system). By staying active, you’ll also keep weight, stress and winter blues at bay – all of which will contribute to overall well-being as well as the health of your immune system. If you can’t go outdoors enlist technology to help you find something that works for you whether it’s a video from youtube or Nintendo Wii Fit.

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Lastly, and you knew this was coming . ..
Diet -

  • Eat your veggies! Sticking primarily to vegetables and fruits that are dark green and orange is important in ensuring you’re getting healthy nutrients, sugars and fats. Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, squash, carrots and oranges are all abundant during the winter.
  • Omega 3’s are great for reducing joint pain and stiffness as they are a natural anti-inflammatory. Studies have also shown that omega 3 fatty acids help lower levels of depression, which people commonly feel during the shorter days of winter.
  • Use more mushrooms in your diet. Mushrooms have naturally-occurring antibiotics. This gives them medicinal properties, which helps fight off many types of illnesses.
  • Soluble Fiber is an important way to decrease inflammation and boost immune system function. It helps reduce cholesterol levels in the body and aids in weight loss and protection against diabetes. This is an especially important winter health tip for seniors who require a high-fiber diet to protect their digestive systems. A good Wadorf Salad is a great way to get several types of soluble fiber.
  • Cook with spices. Onions, garlic, ginger and cilantro not only make food taste great, but also help improve immune function. Turmeric helps to combat a number of conditions including inflammation and heart disease, and it acts as a powerful antioxidant.
  • Avoid Sugar. Sugar is a double-whammy toxin that dramatically decreases immune function by killing your gut’s good bacteria while it feeds the bad! The result? A gut that’s out of balance, with the bad guys running amuck, and bacterial defenses weakened and overwhelmed. You’re left with an immune system poorly equipped to fight off seasonal ills. If you must induge, do so in moderation.
  • Avoid Processed Foods. Processed foods are a quick & easy go-to, but they weaken the immune system! Most are so nutrient-deficient and sugar-packed, they wind up over-feeding the bad gut bacteria and starving good – and that’s the recipe for compromised immunity.

MARKET CHITCHAT

Woo Hoo – we’re back to a normal schedule, at least THIS week. We’ll be in the Market Shed on Friday, Nov. 30 and deliveries to Daleville and Enterprise will take normally.

I say “this week” because OPEN HOUSE takes place the following week on Thursday December 6. Pickup will take place between 1:00 and 2:30 pm in the Market Shed prior to Open House festivities starting at 3pm. We don’t want our Market customers to have to fight the crowds and traffic that will get under way when the music starts and food starts being served. . . . though we do hope you’ll stay for that!


So far this is the lineup of who will be present

  • D’s Jellies
  • Martin Teas
  • Smith Farms
  • Hortons Farm
  • Smore’s Dessert Company
  • Koning Pottery and Mary’s Magic
  • Misty’s Crafts from Blakley
  • Avalon Farms
  • Mayim Farms
New Product – Lemongrass from Bain Home Gardens

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

We have the best Growers in the Wiregrass! Please learn more about them on our Grower Page.

AVALON FARMS: Fryers \ Pullets – We butchered our first fryers this weekend. With our assorted family schedules our Thanksgiving wasn’t till today (Saturday) so Thursday was open. Like everything else in life, we get better everytime we process a bunch of chickens. (It only took us 3 hours to process 20! ?) We’ve listed feet, gizzards (big honkers!), livers and hearts this time along with whole chickens.


These birds are Freedom Ranger chickens. They do not have the huge breasts of the Cornish Crosses, but they are better foragers in the fields. They also don’t grow as fast, therefore they don’t have the health issues associated with the Cornish Crosses. These take 12 to 14 weeks to grow out, compared to 8 weeks
on the Cornish. They are touted to be tender and tasty…we shall see! Please report back your findings.

Also, because of all the fun (craziness) this weekend some of my products won’t be updated till Monday. So sorry in advance.

SMART DOC RESOURCES: I don’t know about you all but it has been a crazy Thanksgiving. All good though. Lots of family, friends, food and fun. And Cleaning and Cooking! LOL. Hopefully you all can come to the Home Hydroponic Class at SEC church on Wed. Dec 5th at 6pm. It’s also a veggie potluck so bring a dish if you wish. It’s free and so is the food! On the homefront we are experimenting a bit with seeds and techniques so we have a variety of veggies available. Not all will be ready for market next week but soon. Okra is almost ready…blooms are coming! We also have tomatoes coming soon. This week in market we will have mini swiss chard and micro dinosaur kale. Then we also experimented with a sprout mixture that has been doing well. Three kinds are available are (1) organic alfalfa, mung and brocolli and the second(2) is alfalfa and red clover and the(3) third is alfalfa, red clover, broccoli and radish. We will have 2 orders of bibb that are getting bigger by the day! Hoping to expand our greenhouse soon! Happy Holidays!

Free Home Hydroponics Class at SEC church – 942 S Oates St, Dothan, AL 36301 on wed Dec 5th at 6 pm. If you ever wondered about hydroponics or wanted to grow soil-less organic produce….this is the place to come. Veggie Potluck too! Everyone invited

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers,
The week just didn’t seem the same without you! We enjoyed our staycay! You?


It’s out with the old & allowing room for the new at Bain Home Gardens. Clearing and planting has led to a few interesting discoveries. This Red Veined Sorrel was hiding comfortably under the sea of leaves in one of our raised beds. We have tried to grow this on a larger scale but haven’t found success. If at first you don’t succeed – try again! We shall!

On the market this week we have our tasty Pepper Jelly & beautiful Kale Salad Blend. New to the market this week is Lemongrass! We are happy to finally be able to add this to the diversity of the market. Some months ago, while visiting some friends of ours from Thailand, we learned that it is very difficult to buy staple items in Thai cuisine locally. So went the undertaking of a Thai Garden! So far so good! As Spring approaches more items will be added. This journey is bound to be a fun and tasty one! Try it with the Asian Stir Fry Green Mix from Hawkins Homestead Farm or make a soothing tea. This Tuesday, join us over on our Facebook page as we make our own Lemongrass tea – great for staying well this cold and flu season!

We are really excited to learn all about Hydroponics from our friends over at Smart Doc Resources December 5th! Adding to our knowledge and increasing our scope of growing food is an amazing opportunity! Hope to see you there!

HORTONS FARM: We hope you and yours had a blessed Thanksgiving week. 2018 was very different for the Hortons as it’s the first time ever we’ve been alone at Thanksgiving and the first time since going keto that Ros faced a major holiday! We formulated a plan for the week that worked beautifully and feel more confident to get through December without sugar and carb laden foods as well.

Now that we’ve got nearly four months behind us I am ready to start sharing about this experience and will start including some Keto/Low Carb information in our newsletter all along to encourage the rest of you who have embarked on this journey.

On a different note, we have just completed packing up forty more elderberry syrup kits. About half of them have been claimed already and the rest are listed on the Market. We will continue to make these as need requires.

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market Friends! Isn’t it good to be back? We think so! We have SUPER EXCITING NEWS! We will be sharing with an announcement via Facebook on Monday! The time will be announced Monday morning and there will be a live video feed to watch so stay tuned for our exciting announcement!

In other news we think it’s important to try and educate all of you on what you decide to feed yourself and your family. So today we want to talk to you about poultry. Over the break, Brandon and I were in the more upscale market in our area and we saw poultry that was listed as “vegetarian fed.” Not just any poultry, but the fancy kind with the fancy price tag. Well anyone looking at these labels may think they should buy these…..BUT SHOULD YOU? We hope by educating you as the consumer, we are helping you to choose wisely! Not everything that looks good is!

FACT: Chickens no matter what breed they are love to be chickens.They are omnivores and if you provide them with an environment that allows them to be chickens their natural instincts kick in. They are not vegetarians! What they’re fed and how they are raised is what matters! So whether you’re raising hens or meat birds of all sorts, chickens adapt to their living conditions.

Of course we feed our chickens a 100% certified organic feed. It is verified by the Non-GMO project and keeps them healthy and strong. We buy it in bulk and make sure that they’re getting the BEST feed. Their first choice is always whatever they can find, but they love their feed and so do we!

Stay tuned next week where we will talk about “no added hormones” and we hope to see you all on Monday for our exciting announcement! Until then…..

FOOTNOTES

We would love to hear from you! If you have a favorite recipe, want to write a product review, have an idea or request for an article or information, let us know! You can reply to this newsletter or write marketatdothan@gmail.com.

Market Schedule
Order Saturday 5pm to Tuesday 5pm weekly for Pickup the following Friday
Dothan Pickup: Dothan Nurseries, 1300 Montgomery Highway, Dothan, AL 36303
Daleville Pickup: Daleville Chamber of Commerce Office

Our Website: marketatdothan.locallygrown.net
Our Email: marketatdothan@gmail.com

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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!