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Nov. 30, 2024 M@D Newsletter - Time to Order!
MISC MARKET NOTES
Looking Forward with Hope
Recently I overheard part of a podcast about potential changes under the new administration with Robert F Kennedy Jr. leading the fight for our nation’s health. Among the topics discussed were honest food labeling, banning foods/additives currently banned in Europe, and prescribing lifestyle changes instead of pills for many preventable health issues. These are all issues that our Market at Dothan family is concerned with.
Of course there’s the issue that big pharma will fight tooth and nail against any person or policy that affects their bottom line. With billions of dollars to “contribute” to elected officials to vote their way, it may very well be an uphill battle.
It’s too early in the process of changing administrations to predict what will or won’t happen. But the fact that our president elect has chosen an uncompromising advocate to head the US Health and Human Services department is encouraging. “The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said in a post on X. “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
RFK Jr. is controversial for sure. His political background is different than the party he hopes to serve. He was a drug addict years ago and his stand on the unborn . . well, he needs to get his heart right on that one. But when it comes to health, especially children’s health, he’s the man you want fighting in the ring.
So we wait with hope.
Saturday December 7, 9am – 3pm at Dothan Nurseries
Mt. Moriah Farms: Today is Small Business Saturday and if you are taking the time to read this THANK YOU! We trust y’all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by family and friends! We are now selling Gift Sets! We have our entire Facial Care Routine conveniently wrapped up in a beautiful gift box. We also have our most popular Skin Care products wrapped up in an easy to give box! We not only did we do that, but we also have them available in mini sizes! We would love for you to check them out. We are excited as always to be a part of the Holiday Open House. We look forward to seeing you all there. Have a wonderful day and happy shopping! ??
D’s Jellies I look forward to seeing everybody next Saturday (Dec. 7th) at Dothan Nurseries Christmas Open House. I will have Mild and Hot D’s Pepper Jelly. Also, Mayhaw Jelly & BlackBerry Jelly will be available. D’s Farmhouse Kitchen Recipes is a wonderful addition to your recipe collection. My Jellies and Cookbook are unique Christmas gifts. See ya Saturday!
Horton’s Farm: We are happy to announce a New Product, HONEYBERRY BLISS. This product consists of local honey, whole cranberries, and two years in a mason jar. They are everything we hoped they would be: good in cooked dishes, good in salads, and good on your plate beside your turkey, dressing and gravy. Any leftover liquid is divine mixed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil as a salad dressing.
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule
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!
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M@D is OpEn! This is our Last Order Cycle Before Thanksgiving
MISC MARKET NOTES
Rethinking Thanksgiving
When it comes to gratitude there’s nothing to rethink. A thankful attitude has been proven to be mentally, spiritually and even physically beneficial. Over time our southern cultural expression of this has involved turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie followed by football.
Hopefully everyone has wonderful memories of family gatherings with all the traditional things, but it’s also ok to have and create new and different equally wonderful traditions. What follows is a list, without names in case anyone wants to drop in, of brilliant and beautiful traditions. Our hope is that if you need to do something different or are just happy not to be the only Thanksgiving weirdo, this will be a blessing. However you choose to spend the holiday, we wish you great gratitude and great joy.
Many thank you’s to everyone who remembered our changed pickup and delivery times. Pickup last Friday went so smooth and it was wonderful to see everyone. We really do have the absolute BEST customers in the Wiregrass.
Saturday December 7, 9am – 3pm at Dothan Nurseries
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule
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!
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Nov 9, 2024 M@D NewsLetter
MISC MARKET NOTES
Busy, busy, busy! You would think with summer behind that life would wind down a bit during these (supposed to be) cooler days of fall. Between halloween, many fall festivals in preparation for Thanksgiving & Christmas, National Peanut Festival, church gatherings, etc, it almost seems like things speed up!
Staying as active as possible is good, but there’s also this thing called BALANCE that calls us to still our hearts, embrace quietness and reflect. This need to look inside is part of what makes Thanksgiving such a special holiday. Many families have traditions that involve naming and counting blessings. One friend starts listing things on the first day of November every year, sort of like a Thanksgiving advent.
I like that idea! And since a few days have passed since Nov. 1 I’m thinking that writing down something every morning and every evening would make up for both the lost days and lost years of doing this!
We’ve recently made some small changes to our website and correspondence to reflect pickup and delivery changes. The Dothan pickup time, 10am to 11:30am is now permanent rather than seasonal, and Enterprise deliveries will now require a $50 minimum order.
Katherine’s Kitchen: I have some news that is very joyous except one one sad thing. God has led me to a godly man who has asked to marry me. But the sad thing is he lives in Nevada, so I will be far, far away from the wonderful, special, God-honoring, down-to-earth little market that I have been so honored to be a part of. And the best honey ever.
With love in Christ,
Katherine
Congratulations! We will definitely miss you and are at the same time so very happy for you! We hope life with this very fortunate man will exceed your fondest dreams.
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule Announcement
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!
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October 26, 2024 M@D Newsletter
MISC MARKET NOTES
If you’re always on the lookout for Low Carb, low sugar recipes using HEALTHY ingredients then check out LIL SLIPPER. Bethany’s wonderful food creations are an extension of her own health journey and her social media accounts share a multitude of wonderful things both learned and created in her own kitchen. Her recipe “shorts” are published on Facebook and Instagram, and the Facebook account contains a multitude of educational videos in addition to the wonderful recipes. Not every ingredient she uses works for every person and every dietary situation, but as a whole her kitchen creativity is nothing short of inspirational. Isn’t it nice to have options!
Mt. Moriah Farms: Recently I have found myself listening to many motivational speeches on YouTube. I’m also reading a book on “Growing Your Small Business”. There are times that I think about how easy my life would be if I didn’t try to run a business. It’s hard in life to be sure what exactly the Lord would have us be doing. As Christians we are stewards of two things… TIME & MONEY. I definitely want to be where the Lord wants me to be. I get easily overwhelmed with everything that I have going on and that is why I have been listening to those speeches. I need a pick me up some days and that’s exactly what I’ve been getting. I also have been quoting the verse “ “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”. Ps 61:2 I wanted to share this with y’all since I know we are fixing to enter to the busiest season of the year ??. Thank you for following along in our journey!
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule Announcement
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!
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M@D is Open! Oct.12, 2024 Newsletter
MISC MARKET NOTES
S
Happy October! We hope this finds you enjoying the splendor of this most glorious month. It seems like every corner of the south is throwing a party to celebrate the end of the hot summer and the welcoming of football, hunting and pumpkin/sweet potato pie season. As a sustainable CLEAN FOOD market we want to encourage you to take full advantage of the best this time of year has to offer – meaning healthier choices for your favorite foods.
Lets ditch the store bought seasonings. Often they include MSG, fillers and too much sodium. Here are three you can make at home, store in an airtight or recycled container and enjoy year round. These were chosen because there are so MANY recipes that each can be used to prepare.
| Onion Soup Mix | Ranch Dressing Mix | Pumpkin Pie Spice |
| 1/2 c dry onion flakes | 1 Tbs dried chives | 3 Tbs Cinnamon |
| 3 Tbs Ground beef boullion | 1 ½ tsp garlic powder | 2 tsp ginger |
| 1/2 tsp onion powder | 1 ½ tsp onion powder | 1 ½ tsp nutmeg |
| 1 Tbs parsley flakes | 1 tsp dry dill weed | 1 tsp cloves |
| 1/2 tsp garlic | 1/4 tsp salt | 1 tsp allspice |
| 1/2 tsp paprika | 1/4 tsp black pepper | 1 pinch black pepper |
| 1/2 tsp salt | ||
| 1/4 tsp pepper |
Another thing we’ve noticed trending of late are small potent sweet treats popular in other cultures.
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule Announcement
If Soda Ads Were Truthful: There is a lot of information available about the harmful effects of carbonated beverages but few get the message across as well as this: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/3swC3G3ARiciUwcM/
Horton’s Farm: It’s been another disastrously blessed two weeks on the farm. Several weeks ago we MADE the yard look like Helene hit us by cutting down four pine trees “just in case”. Cleanup is ongoing and is providing a lot of material for landscaping (pine bark and pine straw), bio char (stuff being burned) and permaculture (soft rotting material being used in beds). It’s a lot more work doing it this way but oh so satisfying as nature itself is providing what it needs to flourish.
The other disaster in disguise was having a freezer go out. Thankfully we caught it in time to save the bulk of food but there was still about 10 gallons of fruit and vegetables that had to be discarded . . . to the chickens and to garden beds for compost.
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!
Market At Dothan is Open for Orders! Sept. 28, 2024 Newsletter
MISC MARKET NOTES
2024 3rd Quarter & Holiday Schedule Announcement
What a blessing to see many of you at Dothan Nurseries today for their Fall Front Porch Festival. We couldn’t have asked for lovelier weather or better company. Thanks to both vendors and customers who made the effort!
Mt. Moriah Farms: Wow! It really feels like fall now. It’s absolutely wonderful. Thank you to everyone who came out today and purchased from us. We truly hope you enjoy our products! If there’s one thing we want you to remember, it would be that YOUR SKIN IS YOUR LARGEST ORGAN! It truly matters what you wash your body with, what you lather onto your skin, and use on your lips. We appreciate y’all supporting our endeavors to bring healthy skincare to those around us.
M@D is OpEn 4 OrDeRs!. Special Event This Month!
MISC MARKET NOTES
Many of our Market At Dothan vendors will be on hand for you to greet and get to know better, including Avalon Farms who already misses us while on sabbatical. We hope you’ll come out, enjoy the festivities and visit a while!
For more eye candy about what to see and anticipate on Sept 28 please visit https://www.facebook.com/dothannurseries .
VIP DELIVERY NOTE FOR OUR ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS: Viki R. will be managing pickup for this order cycle and there will be NO Enterprise deliveries. We apologize for any inconvenience.
D’s Jellies: I am making D’s Hot Pepper Jelly almost daily now. I wait for all of my peppers (jalapeno, cayenne, sweet banana, & bell peppers) to turn red. This gives my jelly its red color. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Festival at Dothan Nurseries on Saturday, September 28. I will have samples for tasting! Dianne Herring
Katherine’s Kitchen:
“Eternal are thy mercies, Lord,
Eternal truth attends thy Word.”
Maybe when Isaac Watts penned this, he too was listening to the downfall of an especially needed rain!
In addition to the rain that has blessed us all this week, God blessed me with something new that will help double my bread availability. A new oven! With it I can now make up to four loaves available per pickup. And maybe experiment with something more. . . .
“Why only four,” you ask? “Why not more, can’t you do more batches?” Well, you see, I’m not going to be one of those cheater bakers who sells you bread that’s already a day old. It has to be baked within 12 hours of pickup to ensure that you get fresh bread, truly fresh. And that usually means the ovens are firing up at 4am on Friday morning. If your bread’s not fresh, is it really worth your money?
Thanks to everyone who has bought one or even two loaves in the past. I am always honored when I run out!
~Katherine’s Kitchen
Mt. Moriah Farms:
We are so very thankful for the rain over the last couple of days! We have gone from milking 14 does to 4. The reason being, they are getting ready to kid out in November! We did have a doe kid out two weeks ago and the picture below is of her kids.
They are absolutely beautiful in our opinion. Both are boys, with the names of Milky Way & Snickers. We are working on a fall line of fragrances for soaps & scrubs so stay tuned! This week’s featured soap is Oatmeal, Milk & Honey… Oatmeal & Honey Goat Milk Soap is packed with rich moisturizers, vitamins, and minerals your skin craves. Sweet notes of honey mix with natural grains of oats to complete this extra gentle exfoliating bar.
Oatmeal & Honey Goat Milk Soap helps defend against dry skin and irritation with natural ingredients. An essential treat for everyday use, cleanse, moisturize and feel the difference in your skin for yourself!
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!
August 31, 2024 M@D Newsletter - OrDeRiNg is OPEN!
MISC MARKET NOTES
Change – it seems to weigh heavily these days. On a national level we’re feeling the weight of this years election and all the drama, with both hope and dread, surrounding it. We’re also SO READY for the changing of the seasons. (Bring on the brisk mornings & Pumpkin Spice please!) M@D has seen a lot of changes over the years, some good, some unexpected and some that leave us sad. More recently some in our Market family have experienced deaths close to us. Only this morning my own family said goodbye to a friend of many years.
All these things affect our lives.
“Life is flux,” said the philosopher Heraclitus. The Greek philosopher pointed out in 500 BC that everything is constantly shifting, and becoming something other to what it was before. Like a river, life flows ever onwards, and while we may step from the riverbank into the river, the waters flowing over our feet will never be the same waters that flowed even one moment before. Heraclitus concluded that since the very nature of life is change, to resist this natural flow was to resist the very essence of our existence. “There is nothing permanent except change,” he said. (From bbc.com)
A quick google search on the topic of change will bring up enough essays and quotes to drown in and since M@D is about FOOD and not philosophy we don’t want anyone needing to spit out water. That being said, the little bit that follows is meant to encourage you if you’re struggling with change. Both needing change and resisting change are part of our common humanity. Some we have to initiate, some we have to roll with, but either way it’s LIFE!
Avalon Farms: Turning Over a New Leaf
This change has been a long time coming. I’ve been mulling it over for a year or more, but my Dad’s passing has really pushed the issue.
It’s time for a break, let the gardens go fallow and rest the soil. I’m not planting anything this Fall/Winter season and I don’t have a real plan for the future. I need to let my mind, body and spirit go fallow too.
The last 8 years have seen their ups and downs, so many things tried and lessons learned. But it has always been my pleasure to provide healthy food to you, my friends, through the Market at Dothan. I will miss you all.
Wendy
Avalon Farms LLC
PS – if there is anything I can do for you; answer garden questions or you need a jar of our stuff, I can be reached at info@avalonfarms.us
We Love You Wendy and will miss you too! People, like farms, animals, all living things actually, need rest in order to be whole and healthy. So as bad as we’ll miss you we want YOU to be whole and to thrive even more. Please know that our prayers are with you and you’ll always have friends here!
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!
August 17, 2024 M@D NeWsLeTteR
MISC MARKET NOTES
Since taking over management for Market at Dothan in 2016 I’ve had many discussions with so many of you about the sad state of our American food and medical systems. Indeed, the bulk of our vendor and customer base these years have been people who have had bad experiences with one or both systems and want CLEAN food in order to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible. So we keep on keeping on, through all kinds of bad weather that affects crops, wonderful vendors that come and go due to life circumstances and the occasional personal crisis that disrupts life.
While there’s plenty of gloom and doom out there – things like China buying farmland, Bayer owning both Monsanto (causing disease) and pharmaceuticals (to cure disease), and processed foods altering the development of our children, it’s refreshing to find something that addresses root cause.
And of all people, Mr Horton found it! He was upset after listening to a recent Tucker Carlson podcast with Calley and Casey Means, brother/sister authors from California, who expose some of the connections inside big pharma designed to keep us sick and drug the whole world forever. Thankfully that’s not the end of the story. Turns out they’ve recently published a controversial book that provides insight as to how we got “here”, info and insights to get off the hamster wheel, and where to go from here.
“In Good Energy, Dr. Means makes a bold case for why food — and particularly regenerative agriculture — must be at the very center of healthcare. She has emerged as one of the strongest physician voices teaching doctors and patients that we will never achieve optimal human health without optimal soil health and biodiversity — a message that the healthcare system would be wise to pay attention to. Dr. Means makes it clear that we can’t drug our way out of a broken food system.”
- Will Harris, regenerative agriculture leader and owner of White Oak Pastures
“For too long we have created a ‘health care’ system that is really a ‘sick care’ system. Its outcomes are too often marginal in improving our overall and long term health. Improving the metabolic health of Americans is an urgent national security priority. We are in a health crisis in our military and our nation. The path prescribed herein optimizes our metabolic habits while modernizing our health system to fix the root causes. Brilliant, timely, and remarkably impactful. Read this book. Tell your friends.”
-Mike Mullen, Admiral USN (Ret.), 17th Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
. . .It gets a bit bio-hacky in the middle. She promotes her own company’s pricey CGM product a bunch; it didn’t feel wildly grifty, though it did make me read more skeptically, and it was generally annoying to be marketed to in a science book. So I skimmed that chapter. Most of the book was very informative and engaging, though. Not sure how legit the various studies she referenced were, no methodologies were discussed. Her advice to readers assumes access to quality food and elective medical tests and the means to afford them, so it won’t be realistic for many.
A Reader Review
If you want a deeper look into the history and connections of how we got to the point that Medicare is considering Ozympic for children, we suggest you listen to the Tucker Carlson interview that prompted this op-ed. It may be heard HERE.
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!
M@D is OpEn! August 3, 2024 Newsletter
MISC MARKET NOTES
Many of you in our Market family are aware that after a long construction break your fearless Market manager began rebuilding the garden at Hortons Farm this year. We’re building quite literally from SCRATCH after years of an unplanned sabbatical as evidenced by all the wild grass trying to take over. But rebuild is started and this is an update on our progress AND lack of progress.
The GOOD: PERMACULTURE WORKS. So far I’ve built four permaculture beds (in addition to three stock tank raised beds) from locally sourced and recycled material here on the farm. I decided on this after years of observing a relative’s success with this method and studying multiple sources on the internet. I’m happy to tell you that I’ve had minimal weed problems inside the beds that were planted and have been happy with what they’ve produced.
One of our favorite things is a burn pit that Mr. Horton blessed the garden with. We currently have a good amount of charcoal made from felled limbs around the property. It will be crushed and activated to use as biochar in existing and future beds. We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to create this “thousand year fertilizer.” The only downside to the burn pit is that I have to watch my step if I venture near it after dark. That sucker is DEEP.
We’re also starting to see a few winecap mushrooms spring up in the beds from mushroom spawn included at construction. This was added to speed the soil building process. WindRiver Microbes from Longears & Herbs are in there too to give the soil additional advantage.
The BAD: In retrospect I should have worked on walkways simultaneously while building the beds. Since that didn’t happen nature took over and it’s been a battle keeping grass and weeds low enough to walk on. Thank God for weed eaters! But with all the rain it’s still a lot of work keeping it under control as evidenced by tall grass (on the left) in the photo below.
”NEEDS A LOT OF WORK”: Where do I start!?! This winter I’ll be working on east side infrastructure: finishing the bed(s) needed there and fixing the paths between beds so all the existing grass/weed roots are dead by spring. I’ll also be collecting more organic material for building soil in the beds.
Greenhouse repairs are needed. Thankfully we have the material and I should be able to start seed again early next year.
Once the she/shed and garden fence (west side) are completed the plan is to cover a section of ground with tarps for a few months as the beginning of a Grocery Row Garden. That’s a whole topic in itself!
Finishing up: the following is my favorite bed. I think it’s beautiful. It is the newest and is built around a witch hazel tree from Dothan Nurseries, Greenhouse and Gifts. (And I can’t tell you if they’re still available as it’s been there a year or two.) As you can see, it’s rather rustic with big logs and branches for borders and all kinds of plant material tossed on top. Right now the plan is to put tumeric and maybe ginger on either side of the tree once the material underneath has broken down more. If you can see it, those round things on top are anniversary roses gone on to their next life.
These are visible at the top of the Market Page. You are always invited to browse around and take a look at what is/is not available. You never know but what someone you know might be looking for something you noticed.
Katherine’s Kitchen Happy August!
God has been so merciful to us this July with all the rain. Even if you’re not a farmer, you can thank the Lord that this will help keep fresh seasonal food prices down this summer. I hope we can all get ready for a typically hot August and use the lush results of July to prepare us for possibly some real dry weather coming up!
Here is some poetry by Isaac Watts to put our thankfulness into words:
With songs and honors sounding loud
Address the Lord on high!
Over the heav’ns he spreads his cloud
And waters veil the sky.
He sends his show’rs of blessings down,
To cheer the plains below;
He makes the grass the mountains crown,
And corn in valleys grow.
~Katherine’s Kitchen
Avalon Farms: Hello My Friends, thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. We are doing ok and taking each day as it comes with God’s grace.
I don’t have any produce growing. Taking care of my Dad for the last 4 weeks left the farm unattended and everything died.
BUT all of our jarred items and pralines are available.
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!