The Weblog
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October 3, 2020 M@D Newsletter: We are OPEN!
In the World of Food
Market Chitchat
Grower Notes: Grier Acres, Avalon Farms
IN THE NEWS
Whether one is in the business as a farmer, trucker, or food outlet, an activist or just a consumer everyone is interested in food because WE ALL EAT! So once in a while it’s fun to check the news and see what’s going on. We hope what follows informs, inspires and maybe even helps you in your own dietary journey.
Mazda Donates to Huntsville Food Bank This week he Mazda Foundation (USA) Inc.donated $50,000 to the Food Bank of North Alabama in an emergency gift to help meet growing demand for food amid economic struggles caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. This brings the total they have donated to our state this year to $94,000.
Home Cooking Becomes More Popular (We had to chuckle at this) McCormick & Company CEO Lawrence Kurzius told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the spice maker sees sustained popularity for home cooking, which has flourished during the coronavirus pandemic. “This has really become a trend that’s becoming a habit,” he said on “Mad Money.” “We’ve gained market share in most of our categories, and this isn’t just a U.S. phenomena,”.
National Taco Day is tomorrow, Oct. 4. Several national chains (Moe’s, Taco Bell, & others) will be celebrating by offering free tacos and/or specials. Taco Bell is kicking off the day with the launch of a gifting platform and the fast-food chain is giving a free taco to gift for the first 10,000 people who use Taco Gifter. Their Twitter account will announce when the free tacos will be available.
Sunday. Oct. 4 is also National Vodka Day but it’s highly doubtful any discounts will to be found for that one.
TicTok Food Hacks If you use the TicTok app you probably know there are food hack videos along with all the crazy stuff. If you can stomach watching things like making popcorn with Skittles here are a couple of copy and paste links. The cheese quesadillas in the first video is actually a great idea.
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a34250663/tiktok-bowl-hack-clean-counter/
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a32715136/tiktok-food-hacks/
The Best of the Best Things like trends and hacks are fun, but the goal and bottom line about any food news should be health. That being said, Food News (https://www.food.news) offers the latest and best in research and studies about how what you eat affects you. So if you ignore everything else in this section, do check this one out if you want more really great info. Some of todays topics are: The power of pecans: 8 Reasons to eat more pecan nuts (recipes included), Manage your osteoarthritis with the help of blueberries, and Zesty and healthy: Here’s how you can make your own citrus essential oils.
MARKET CHITCHAT
Mobile Ordering We’ve had several reports of orders made from mobile phones not going through recently. It seems to be an individual phone issue as our web designer can order from any market in the country from his iphone. Your market manager however cannot from her Samsung Android. The shopping cart simply refuses to go through when you hit the “Place my Order” button. If this happens to you Wendy from Avalon suggests opening the store page as “desktop site”. This option should be in menu.
GROWER NOTES
GRIER ACRES: Grier Acres
A touch of Fall in the air! It is a refreshing change from the months of hot humid weather we’ve endured. While I love hot weather over cold weather any day, it’s nice to have a respite from the heat every once in a while. The change in weather
means that the summer garden is nearing it’s end. We’ll be turning the soil, incorporating new compost, and spent grain from Folklore Brewing. Our garden soil is extremely sandy with little organic material in the top 4-6 inches. Once you get below that layer it’s that sticky yellow clay. Slowly but surely we’re improving the soil.
Our pecans are absolutely loaded this year! Back story: Mom and dad planted 2 acres of pecans back in 1975 with an eye towards the crop providing college money for my brother and me. Despite his best efforts, dad just never could get a crop from them. The county extension agent came out and made recommendations, soil samples were taken each year, fertilizers, lime, etc. were all applied in accordance with the recommendations. Nothing. I graduated from UGA in 1990 and have yet to see a dime of college money from those trees. Finally after 45 years we have a crop. It’s so bountiful that the limbs are breaking due to the weight!
Finally we’ve created a YouTube Channel to chronicle some of the things we have going on here at the farm. It’s slow going as we’re having to teach ourselves how to make, edit, and post the videos. We hope to get better with practice. Please check it out and subscribe if you find it interesting. Follow this link to Grier Acres YouTube
AVALON FARMS:
Well, never had this happen before…must be 2020! Army worms literally came marching across the hay field and into the winter squash planting. Not really a lot I could do to stop them and they laid waste to the plants. Apparently preferring the squash plants to the nut grass (weeds) in the field.
Out of 12 hundred foot rows of winter squash harvested maybe a couple dozen squash. What a crop failure. All that time, effort and seed cost just wasted. Sigh.
Onwards. Moving on towards whatever comes next.
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.
Order Saturday 5pm to Tuesday 5pm weekly for Pickup the following Friday
Dothan Pickup: 10am – 12pm, Dothan Nurseries, 1300 Montgomery Highway, Dothan, AL 36303
Daleville Pickup: 11am – 11:30am, Parking area behind Daleville Chamber of Commerce
Enterprise Pickup: 12pm – 12:30pm, Grocery Advantage, 1032 Boll Weevil Circle, Enterprise
Our Email: marketatdothan@gmail.com
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Our COVID protocol is still in place for everyone who wants curbside service.
I. Order Payment:
1. Voluntarily prepay by 6 pm Thursday if possible using this PAYPAL link. This eliminates passing paper currency back and forth or handling debit/credit cards on site. Your invoice will be marked PAID and pickup is fast and easy. In the event of undelivered items you will be issued a Market credit that will apply to your next order.
2. Debit/Credit – One of us will briefly step within 6 feet for you to put your card in the chip reader. We do our best to avoid touching your card or you touching the equipment which means we sign an “x” for your signature.
3. Cash and Checks – You may hand them to us. Exact change is preferred if using cash to prevent a lot of passing back and forth. If you choose curbside pickup you are welcome to put payment in your trunk/tailgate as that would eliminate the need to come near your window.
II. Order Delivery:
1. Curb Service: Please pull up next to the Market Shed. We will direct traffic a little bit if needed. Have your trunk/ hatchback open and we’ll load you up!
2. Walk Up Pickup: Please do not come inside. When we see you coming we’ll put your order near the entrance and step back for you to claim it. This system works really well for those of you wishing to get extra veggies that may be available.
3. Regardless of how you choose to accept your Market order please know that we make every effort to practice safe distancing and ask that you do the same.
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!