MISC MARKET NOTES

It seems that since Covid the availability of organic food has exploded. Nobody is going to argue that’s a bad thing despite the bulk of trucked in foods being products of big agra modified to meet minimum standards. One such example are some organic Florida blueberries. We shared a couple of years ago about how the bushes are growing in big pots sitting on plastic laid on soil that’s not fit to grow food. But they’re certified organic because of whats in the pots and the kind of care they receive. This managers opinion is that they need to move the pots and call David Goodman in there to turn the land into a thriving food forest.

Market at Dothan has never claimed to be “organic”. We can’t. Our growers are too small to invest in that certification and in most cases their practices exceed “organic” standards anyway. That word is owned by the USDA and all products that carry that label fall under their standards, flimsey as some of them are. Honey is one example. USDA has no standards for organic honey, yet their certification agencies will make up “rules” for any honey producer willing to pay for the privilege of using the label and the word.

“Local” is looking better and better isn’t it?

What follows are a few more positive thoughts as to why we are proud to offer fresh SUSTAINABLE (meaning organically produced and kind to the land) products that come within a 50 mile radius of Dothan.

Per Healthline: 7 Fantastic Benefits of Eating Local
1. Local food is very fresh …
2. Local food is often more nutritious …
3. Eating local is an opportunity to try new foods …
4. Purchasing local food benefits the environment …
5. Eating local supports your regional economy …
6. Eating local teaches you how your food is grown …
7. Eating local is remarkably easy …

Utah State University reports that the 2008 Farm Bill defines local as within 400 miles of where products are grown! Roslynn McCann, who authored the above linked article advises that you always look at product origin first when attempting to support actual local business and provides a multitude of good reasons to buy local in the link.

Lastly, the Food Revolution Network digs deep into the health benefits. One we found particularly interesting is that  locally grown produce is probably safer to eat.  When foods they are imported and out of season, fruits like tomatoes, bananas, and pears are often picked unripe. And then, they are artificially “ripened” with ethylene gas. Your market manager witnessed this many years ago when privy to a traffic accident involving a tractor trailer with perfectly uniform green tomatoes spilled all over the highway. Talk about a mess!

If you wish to check the linked articles (in green above) and become a bit more familiar with what’s going on in the world of food around you we are listing the actual websites below.

https://thesurvivalgardener.com/ (this author has both books and informational youtube videos)
https://extension.usu.edu/sustainability/research/the-local-food-movement-definitions-benefits-and-resources
https://foodrevolution.org/blog/why-buy-local-food/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48WGZYWsxc

Many thanks to Wendy who will be overseeing Order Pickup this Friday while Ros checks on her Mom.

Katherine’s Kitchen Summer’s here all-a-sudden! But even if, like me, your spring was too crazy for you to even think about planning a garden, it’s not to late to do a little garden planning now! 

I came upon something so revolutionary this week, I have to share it with you, even if you don’t plan to garden this year, it’s just so impressive.
What happens when an engineer becomes a first-time farmer? He starts using that analytic brain in a very unique way. That’s just what Mr. Rory Groves did with his wonderful GARDEN CALCULATOR at “The Grovestead” website. No more worrying about limited space. No more guessing wrong about how many cans of tomatoes each yard of soil will grow. No more scrambling back and forth between your seed packet labels, web searches, and notebook to try to figure out rows and seed spacing.

This is something that should have been invented years ago, the first day internet calculators existed! I know it would have helped me a ton when I first started gardening. Go to www.thegrovestead.com/gardening/how-much-to-grow-calculator/ and plug in how much of each vegetable your family usually eats in a day/week/month. . .and let Mr. Groves do the rest!

God bless Rory Groves!
~Katherine

We look forward to seeing you next Friday at one of our pickup locations. 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!