GROWER & MARKET NOTES

As promised we are re-opening M@D with this newsletter and are looking forward to serving both you and our growers this year. Our commitment to bring you FRESH, LOCAL, SUSTAINABLE, and YEAR ROUND food has not wavered and one of the reasons for this newsletter is to keep you informed about what’s going on with the Market, with our growers, and with healthy food info in general.

That being said, Market listings will probably be fewer for the next couple of months at least. Many of our growers, your Market Manager included, lost crops, trees, etc. because of the extreme cold snap that happened prior to Christmas.

For that reason we will be open bi-weekly starting today for the next couple of months. This will allow all our growers extra time to put into recovery in hopes of returning strong in the spring.

Here’s what the next couple of months look like:

Our growers have been notified that they are welcome to trade with you at the Market Shed on the weeks M@D is not open and we will notify you if/when any of them plan to take advantage of that.

To be brutally honest, we will just have to play it by ear beyond the end of February. With any luck we’ll know by the 24th when to expect the late winter and spring crops to start coming in and will schedule accordingly. One of the wonderful things about this region is that we can pretty much grow year-round. Freezes like we experienced last month only happen about once every ten years and while they can be difficult, even dangerous to deal with, they do bring some benefit to the environment. If JD of Dothan Nurseries is right we can expect many of our spring blooming fruit trees to bust out this year and . . . LESS BUGS!

AVALON FARMS: The stress and heartache of the last year has left me feeling old and tired. (Serious medical issues with several family members. One child’s rough divorce. Other assorted craziness I won’t go into.) Many of last year’s farm plans fell to the wayside as just too much to deal with. BUT, it is the start of a new year. Time to break out those abandoned plans from last year, dust ‘em off and update for this year. I’m moving forward. No sense in wallowing in past failure. 

Currently sitting at my work table surrounded by seed catalogs, lists of lists and empty coffee cups. (This farm definitely runs on coffee!) I love reading the seed catalogs. It’s like getting the old Sears Christmas Toy catalog. I have to see it all. Several times. With highlighter and pen in hand I actually read the descriptions. Marking good or bad points of different varieties. Eventually highlighting the specific ones I want to order. Sort of like planning a vacation, all the things you want to see and do. These are all the things I want to grow, harvest and share with you.

When this is sent out this evening, I’ll be on the front porch just sitting and watching the world. There may be another “panther” in the tree or not. But there will be beauty and peace. 

HORTONS’S FARM: I’ve thought for a long time that few things hold the cycle of life and death close like a farm. Whether it’s animals or plants, the work to create and sustain life inevitably ends in death in one form or another. The Christmas freeze was another reminder of this. One thing – a severe cold snap – destroyed in some cases, things that took years to grow. In our case citrus trees. All the lights and wrappings just weren’t enough. And yet, surprisingly, there’s still life!

I really thought Mr. Horton had got wrong intel when he told me that strawberry crowns were good down to 10 degrees and didn’t cover them, but as you can see, he was RIGHT! I guess the plants that product this sweet delectable fruit are pretty tough! Looking forward to listing them in the spring. This field has never had chemical fertilizer on it so they will be exempt from any “dirty dozen foods” list.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

This Is It – Our last order cycle for 2022. It’s been a fabulous year full of ups and downs and we’re so thankful for the privilege of serving you.

What follows is a bit of shameless self promotion – a list of available Market items that make GREAT gifts. Everybody eats, everyone bathes . . . and everyone loves unique things you can’t find in a store. Here Goes:

Any SOAP, LIP BALM, or LOTION from Bella Eden Farms, St. Andrews Soap Company or Mount Moriah Farms.

Infant HAT & SOCKS from Casa Perdido

MINI MUFFINS from Richter Farms – available in 2 Flavors! Avalon Farms PRALINE PECANS are to die for!

If you have a special cook in your life they may appreciate D’S FARMHOUSE KITCHEN RECIPES COOKBOOK (D’s JELLIES), BLUE HOPI NON GMO CORNMEAL (Grows in Rows) or ROSEMARY SALT (Avalon Farms). Richter Farms RANCH DRESSING MIX will have them begging for more!

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For your bakers you may consider FRESH DUCK EGGS from Duck Nugget Farm. And while Kathy’s Cluckers don’t list them, FRESH QUAIL EGGS are often available for table sales on Fridays at Pickup.

Medicine Cabinets could benefit from COLLOIDAL SILVER from Richter Farms or FIRE ANT FIRST AID from Hortons Farm. We’re told that HEEL-IT-ALL BALM from Mt. Moriah Farms is highly effective as well.

2022 Classic or Cinnamon CREAMED HONEY from Hortons Farm. This is available individually or in 2 and 3 gift packages. Loveland LLC has WILD HIVE HONEY harvested from rescued bees.

HOT SAUCE and flavored VINEGARS are available from Casa Perdido and Grows in Rows

We can’t forget JAMS & JELLIES! Avalon Farms has a couple of delicious unique flavors.

Two growers offer FRESH PICKED SATSUMAS and you can’t go wrong with high quality GRASSFED BEEF (Casablanca, JBW & Smith Farms). And in the fresh category, Grier Acres offers SHELLED PECANS.

Lastly, CANDLES! You can’t have Christmas without candles! St. Andrews Soap Company has three lovely ones that are sure to delight.

With several hundred products listed on the Market site you may be asking “How do I find that?” There are several options:
1. Use the search box. Type in what you’re looking for and it will pop up showing all vendors who offer that product.
2. Use Display Options on the Market Page to show any specific grower whose products you wish to view.

AVALON FARMS:

Our unique products are “home made”, small batch delights that utilize our farm grown produce as much as possible.

Garlic – Starting with fresh garlic, pureed then added to Kosher Salt. Each flake of salt is coated in the pureed garlic, creating a wet sand texture. It is then dried for 2 hours to remove the moisture. This garlic salt doesn’t separate into salt and garlic powder like store bought.

Rosemary – If you love Rosemary but hate the texture of the twiggy leaves, this salt is for you. We start with a lot of fresh tender green Rosemary, a few cloves of garlic, pureed together. Then mix into the Kosher salt. Makes for a wonderful steak seasoning or anything you want some Rosemary in.

Sassy Apricot – Everybody needs a little Sassy now and then. LOL This apricot based pepper jelly is amazing as a dipping sauce for grilled pork and chicken. Spread over cream cheese (goat cheese is even better!)

Bourbon Berry – Blueberries, Blackberries and Bourdon combine to make a rich berry flavor with a hint of jalapeno. A surprising number of customers wanted to use it as a pancake syrup. The deep burgundy color will highlight your table.

Christmas Jam – Christmas in a jar! is the usual comment when trying this jam for the first time. Cranberries, strawberries and blackberry juice along with a host of Christmas spices truly does create
Christmas in a jar. Wonderful addition to leftover turkey sandwiches.

Ginger Peach Jam – If you like ginger you will love this jam. Peaches, candied ginger, fresh ginger and spices kick this jam into high gear. Not your grandma’s peach jam.

Squash Pickles – Like bread and butter pickles? You’ll love these! Squash and onions stay crunchy and not too sweet. Great on a hamburger or sandwich!

Pralines – Lightly candied pecans with just the right amount of sweet. Our gift version is approximately 6 ounces vacuum sealed in a pint jar for freshness.

GRIER ACRES: Things are pretty slow here. With Mom’s illness we just haven’t had the time to do much in the garden. Our pecans did not do well this year due to what we think was a lack of rain. We think we fixed our broken tiller but well we haven’t had a chance to till the garden and it looks terrible. Hey, but that means anything will be an improvement!! You have to choose to be happy sometimes :). A friend has been sharing their greens they planted so we are not suffering too bad lol. We do have plenty of honey and we acquired some chickens that are laying during the short days. Our onions did not do so good last year but we are planning to move them to ensure they get lots and lots of sunlight. We also have PLENTY of hickory nuts and beautiful long leaf Pine cones. They make a great decoration and a decorative firestarter too. Harry will be listing some fatlighter when he can feel he has enough to list for orders. We have lots of it but have to prepare for you all!!!
Almost forgot we do have some chestnuts. We salvaged the tree from hurricane Michael and staked it. It survived and has chestnuts!!!

Will try and list these items later today: Pine cones, country honey, fatlighter, hickory nuts, and CHESTNUTS!!

Most of all, I just want to wish you all a beautiful holiday season.

CASABLANCA RANCH: Thank you to all of our customers for your support this year! Merry Christmas!

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

Welcome December! We hope this finds you with wonderful Thanksgiving memories and mostly prepared to enjoy the Christmas Season. We know of at least two of our Market Vendors who hosted about 20 people and one who spent was camping. No doubt there are other great stories out there and we always enjoy learning of the various things people do and traditions they employ.

And now it’s December with a whole different set of Holiday traditions.

Here at Hortons Farm we are in contact with multiple area churches in preparation an annual Cookie Packing Day on Dec. 15. This is a ministry outreach where inmates at an area jail receive home baked cookies, “lovin from the oven,” from the community at Christmas. Our group of volunteers prepare and package several thousand cookies that will be delivered Christmas Day.

Whatever your Christmas/Holiday traditions are we hope and pray that they bring deep satisfaction. Even more so, we hope they bring a deeper understanding of the height and breath and depth of God’s love for mankind and YOU in particular. Jesus truly is the Reason for the Season.

So . . . Today was Christmas Open House at Dothan Nurseries and many of our Market vendors have just made it home or will make it home soon. WHICH MEANS . . .. check our listings again tomorrow or the next day! We have NO PROBLEM with it when folks make more than one order during a weekly cycle.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

We’re HERE Already??? It’s hard to believe we’re at the beginning of our end-of-year/ holiday schedule as this is our last order cycle before Thanksgiving. Please take note of the dates below to make sure you don’t miss getting your favorite items from your favorite vendors.

Speaking of OPEN HOUSE . . . The following vendors have confirmed participation and we expect to add others. Please make plans to bring your family for this free fun event!

NEW PRODUCT CATEGORY Sometimes an idea is so good you wonder why it took so long to think of it. Many thanks to Mount Moria for the leading the way for GIFT ITEMS. We hope it will make it easy for you to find the right special something for your special someones.

MT MORIAH FARMS:  Is is so crazy to think that we are in the eleventh month of this year already! With that being said, the gift giving season is quickly approaching and we are offering gift baskets up for sale! We have always done custom baskets to fit your needs but have never listed them on this online market.

Our baskets include a goat milk soap, sugar scrub, and lip balm all nicely wrapped up for $15! Changing topic, we are excited about our new business cards coming in, with all of our updated information. One of those is, we have a Facebook and Instagram account now and would love for y’all to follow us there! Just type in Mt. Moriah Farms. Have a wonderful week!

HORTONS FARM: Satsumas are relisted. We expect the kumquats to be ready by Open House on Dec. 3

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like OPEN HOUSE! We are excited to announce that Parlita’s Heritage Herbals will be joining us at Open House on Dec. 3. Parlita’s is a fairly new business started by an old friend, foraging partner and fellow old soul, Sonja Goldsmith of Ozark. Her interest in and amazing knowledge of using nature’s gifts medicinally has expanded into a growing business as more and more people opt for nature before pharmaceuticals. All products originate from responsibly foraged wild plants. I’ve caught Sonja foraging at Landmark Park, (with permission of course!) we’ve foraged at my farm and even did an expedition when I found a thymol rich plant last year.

While Market at Dothan is still probably as small as when started in 2010, we are, to our knowledge, the OLDEST business in the Wiregrass to offer locally sourced sustainable foods and products. And we’re still the BEST. Our grower list looks like a living library of wisdom about many topics related to food, farming and natural living, and our Friday morning pickups are a delightful time of learning, sharing and growing with anyone willing to sit a spell. It’s one of the reasons we love Open House, because there are more of us gathered to interact with more of you! We are super excited to include great local businesses like Parlita’s in our special events.

MT MORIAH FARMS: I can’t believe it is already November! Most of our pregnant does are starting to show and it is a very happy sight to see. It won’t be too long before they start waddling around. Growing up on the old farm we had 11 rotational paddocks for the animals to graze. Our current farm is much smaller so Angus has over seeded the pastures with rye. It has come up so well and is extremely soft. I can’t wait to put the goats out on it! They are currently just on hay. This weather has been wonderful for working outdoors.

I’m very excited to share that we have a new bar of soap to add to our collection! It has been in the works for quite some time and it is finally on the curing racks. I loved the way it turned out. We are calling it “Restoration Rosemary’’. The highlights that make this bar so special is Beeswax, french green clay, and of course rosemary essential oil. It will be added online in two weeks! Stay tuned and in the meantime have a wonderful Fall season.

HORTONS’S FARM:

We are happy to have completed planting 2000 strawberries this week in the “big garden” that has not had chemical fertilizers on it for . . . as long as we can remember! That piece of ground has enjoyed an extended sabbatical and scruffy as it is, we’re excited to have it back in service. Spring will be sweet up here next year!

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

Meet Dianne: Dianne Herring is the “D” of D’s Jellies that are listed weekly on the Market website. She and Phillip have grown their own fruit, berries and peppers for many years that go into the classic southern jams and jellies she makes in her farmhouse kitchen.

Jams and jellies are a small part of this lady’s kitchen abilities though, Dianne is a regular featured guest in Wiregrass Living whose beautiful photos and recipes of Dianne’s culinary creations makes you wish you lived next door!

Two characteristics of Dianne’s food are ingredients and simplicity. All ingredients are readily available. All instructions are easy to follow.

Dianne’s new cookbook, D’s Farmhouse Kitchen Recipes is NOT available on Amazon, but it is available at Market at Dothan! We hope you’ll take advantage of her years of experience for yourself or a loved one.

CHRISTMAS GIVING NOTE: If you are considering Market items for gifts (and we have SO much to offer!) consider ordering EARLY while those items are available. Many of our vendors participate in craft shows, charity events, etc and if supply of an item runs out it may or may not be replenished in a timely manner. Things like soap take weeks to cure and one of a kind crochet items are gone when they’re gone. We expect to have plenty of goodies available at Open House on Dec. 3 but with all of us being small operations we want our online Market customers to have first dibs. Ordering early is the way to do that.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

Eat The Rainbow: Today it hit me that eating brightly colored foods isn’t necessarily just for the spring and summer months. We’re used to all the reds and yellows and greens of summer produce, but this week while admiring Avalon’s persimmons and packing Senposai and beets, I realized that some cooler weather seasonal foods have more intense color than summer varieties.

CHRISTMAS GIVING NOTE: If you are considering Market items for gifts (and we have SO much to offer!) consider ordering EARLY while those items are available. Many of our vendors participate in craft shows, charity events, etc and if supply of an item runs out it may or may not be replenished in a timely manner. Things like soap take weeks to cure and one of a kind crochet items are gone when they’re gone. We expect to have plenty of goodies available at Open House on Dec. 3 but with all of us being small operations we want you, our loyal Market customers to have first dibs. Ordering early is the way to do that.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

Avalon Farms:

Trying out our newest tool for weed prevention. This flame weeder will be used to eliminate tiny weeds in beds before crop seeds sprout. The weeds in this trial area are too big but it allowed us to test/play with it. 

For now we are on our regular weekly schedule and will continue through the week ending with pickup on Nov. 18. Orders will resume on Dec. 3, the day of Christmas Open House at Dothan Nurseries, and end with the last pickup of the year on Dec. 16.

“The best laid plans of mice and men” apparently applies to M@D as well! We were SO excited to offer organic cabbage and beets at cost + 10% and carefully calculated to make sure we got it right.

The calculations were great! We did exactly that with the cabbage. The beets . . . eh . . . , not so much. We thought we were getting 45 lb and based the price on that. But we actually got 25 lb causing last week’s beet sales to be less than cost.

All that to say, GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE, LOL!!! Thankfully the Market is ran well enough that it’s not going to do any lasting harm and while the egg on the proverbial face is a bit embarrassing, we’ll just clean up our mess and keep going! This won’t deter us from taking advantage of more great deals like this going forward.

But we did want you to know why the beets are priced higher this week.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

One of the privileges our business license gives us is that we can purchase things for resale. As a direct farm to customer business we’ve never considered it till recently after Viki Richter (Richter Farms) connected us to a resource that sometimes offers bulk fresh organic foods. So we’ve taken the plunge and are listing organic beets and organic cabbage this week. These items will be sold cost plus 10%.

For now we are on our regular weekly schedule and will continue through the week ending with pickup on Nov. 18. Orders will resume on Dec. 3, the day of Christmas Open House at Dothan Nurseries, and end with the last pickup of the year on Dec. 16.

Food is such an integral part of our day to day lives that we take a lot for granted. We stumbled on some fascinating information this week about some of the culture and history of food in our country and how that affects what is on our grocery store shelves today. Rather than condense the podcast and omit valuable information we’re sharing a link to the whole enchalida. We advise that if the opening question and remarks are boring for you to hang in there as it gets far more interesting the longer these guys talk.

You may use THIS LINK to go directly to the youtube version of this podcast as shown. It is also available on Spotify. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did and come away with a new appreciation for small farms and small farmers trying to make a difference.

And by way of shameless promotion, the Chasing Leviathan podcast covers a wide range of topics doing nothing more than asking questions, listening and learning. Take a look. You may have even read a M@D newsletter produced in that studio.

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!

GROWER & MARKET NOTES

Today opened our last quarter with beautiful sunshine, good company and lots of fun at Dothan Nursery’s Fall Festival. It really was the best one yet and if you missed it the plan is to do it again, albeit Christmas themed on Dec. 3. Please mark your calendars. Christmas Open House at Dothan Nurseries is always splendid.

And YES, we will be open weekly until November 19 when we break for Thanksgiving. We’ll share more of the end of year schedule with you in next week’s newsletter.

A WORD ABOUT ORDERING THIS WEEK: Many of our vendors are getting home LATE so some listsings may not be updated. That being said, if you see something with limited quantity you want, the safe thing to do is place your order. You can always come back a day or two later to check for updates and place another if you need to.

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!