Volunteers Needed Tomorrow

Good Morning ALFN Members,

We still have three slots open for volunteers tomorrow. Sign-up at Volunteer Spot if you can help…and thanks!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Good Evening ALFN Members,

The market is rocking with stellar products including a fresh inventory of cheese from WRC, French radishes, lettuce mixes and freshly baked granola. Don’t forget to make an order before I close the market tomorrow at noon.

Do you want another reason to make an order for this Saturday? Los Tacos and their tamales will be with us!

We still have three spots open for volunteers. Sign up at Volunteer Spot

Thanks and rest well!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

The Market is Open!

Dear ALFN Members,

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. If you were at pick-up yesterday, you may have noticed that we crossed a tipping point into spring production. Fresh strawberries have arrived! The market is open for another week of spring bounty.

An ALFN member reminded me yesterday that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has their new list of the Dirty Dozen out for 2016. The list ranks produce that has the highest amount of pesticide residues still on the product. The list is helpful to have on your phone as you shop for products in box stores. EWG also has a list of the top clean products. Here is a summary of the two lists from their website:

Dirty Dozen

• More than 98 percent of strawberry samples, peaches, nectarines, and apples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other produce.
• A single grape sample and a sweet bell pepper sample contained 15 pesticides.
• Single samples of strawberries showed 17 different pesticides.

Clean Fifteen

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 81 percent of papayas, 78 percent of mangoes, 73 percent of kiwi and 62 percent of cantaloupes had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

While I’m thinking about food research and useful shopping filters, I would also suggest you check out Monterey Bay’s Aquarium app call Seafood Watch that provides ratings for types of fish and methods for fishing that help consumers make a decision when shopping at a food store. The app works on smart phones, and I have found the app helpful when trying to cut through the various tuna choices. Check out their app here: Seafood Watch

Apps and Dirty Dozen Lists can be helpful when we can’t trace the origins of our food. But when you order from ALFN’s market, the growers are right there. They are our local neighbors. From urban farms to ranches in northwest Arkansas, our growers bring products backed by transparent production methods. You don’t need a third party app when shopping through ALFN!

Take care,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Volunteer Spot

We have one open slot for volunteering tomorrow. Sign up at “Volunteer Spot”http://vols.pt/gK1wUF if you can help…and thanks!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

ALFN Members,

Remember the market will close tomorrow at noon so I can get all the orders out to our growers. We have some wonderful items on the market right now including fresh strawberries from Barnhill Hill Orchards.

We have four open slots for volunteering on Saturday. You can sign up here: Volunteer Spot

All the best,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

The Market Is Open

ALFN Members,

Follow the link to fresh food and local artisan products…the market is open.

As many of you know, shopping at a farmers’ market or online local market is fundamentally different than shopping at a grocery store. We visit grocery stores with expectations of an almost limitless stock. The meats and veggies seem to rise up from the bottom of the shelves and display centers on an eternal conveyor belt. The only time we may notice a shortage of items is when a snowstorm is threatening to hit in a few hours. However, the rest of the year, rain or shine, freezing or hot, the food seems to magically appear from nowhere. We find it difficult to consciously hold the question of origin for every food item, every time we visit a grocery store: How did this food get here? How has the product changed since it was cut out of the fields?

These questions are black holes that seem to lead us nowhere. And this place of nowhere is exactly the origin of so much of our food. Have you every considered the sheer quantity and control it takes to supply stores with a steady stream of carrots or ground beef?

A farmers’ market is a different shopping experience. We intuitively know that when people buy all the lettuce at a farmer’s stand, there won’t be any more that magically appears. The connection of consumer to farmer provides a rational and realistic bedrock that grounds our assumptions about the origin of food. Growing food takes time on limited space. Food cycles back on itself in arcs of sustainability, but food doesn’t come from an eternal source. The hoe reaches the end of a row and only so many lettuce heads can fit on a bed of soil.

So we enter the local farmers’ market with a different set of expectations that are more realistic. Items run out. Severe storms can destroy produce intended for harvest. Local shoppers of local food understand this dynamic. And I would argue, local shoppers are more grounded in the reality of food production. I would even extend that argument and suggest local shoppers of local food can have more robust virtues such as patience, understanding and empathy. This local food virtue is solely born out of making the connection secure between farmer and consumer. When a local farmer runs out of a product during the week, we can recognize the real limits and scale of local farms. In contrast to the agroindustrial deserts that stretch into the horizon, local food must fit in urban lots and small acreages. Cultivating food can’t simply be about production levels. Of course, Wendell Berry describes this much more eloquently in his book “The Way of Ignorance.”

“The exclusive standard of productivity destroys the formal integrity of a farm just as the exclusive standard of longevity destroys the formal integrity of a life. The quest for higher and higher production on farms leads almost inevitably to specialization, ignoring the natural impulsion toward diversity; specialization in turn obliterates local properties of scale and proportion and obscures any sense of human connection. Driven by fashion, debt, and bad science, the desire for more overrides completely the idea of a home or a home place or a home economy or a home community…The result, inevitably, is ugliness, violence and waste.”

Thanks for choosing to use the local market through ALFN.

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Volunteers Needed Tomorrow

We have three open slots for volunteering tomorrow. Sign up at Volunteer Spot if you can help…and thanks!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Reminder...Market & ArkGIVES!

ALFN Members,

I’ve got two important announcements this mid-week. First, Tammy Sue’s Critters will have an open farm day THIS Saturday from 10:00-2:00. You are invited to come out and check out the baby chicks, greet a couple of bottle-fed baby goats and hang out by a fire pit. It will be awesome. Here is Tammy’s farm address: 4 Cheyenne Tr. North Little Rock, 72120.

Also, we are only two days away from the BIG annual Arkansas Gives event. This is a fantastic way to support ALFN and other local non-profits. Again, donations given on this day to ALFN are pooled and bonus dollars given based on how much is raised. Please set your reminders to hop over to ALFN’s Arkansas Gives page and donate on Thursday.

We still have three spots open for volunteers this Saturday. Sign up at Volunteer Spot and enjoy helping fellow members get their produce. We’ve got hot brew and snacks during your shift as well.

Be well.

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

The Market Is Open

ALFN Members,

What a beautiful weekend! The market is open for commerce! Zucchini and squash have wobbled into the market! Also check out new products from Tammy Sue this week.

IMPORTANT NEWS

Remember this Thursday (April 7) is the big fundraising day—Arkansas Gives! From 8 AM to 8 PM on Thursday Arkansans can give to their favorite non-profits. ALFN is on the list again for this year, and we are excited and thankful for the promotion ArkansasGives provides to statewide organizations. During this one-day event, each donation you give will help your favorite nonprofit organizations qualify for additional bonus dollars from Arkansas Community Foundation. All participating nonprofits will receive a portion of a pool of bonus dollars provided by Arkansas Community Foundation; the more a nonprofit raises, the more of the bonus dollars it will receive. To give on Thursday, please go to our page on the Arkansas Gives website: ALFN

ALFN GEAR

Also, it is time for me to purchase more ALFN paraphernalia to replenish our stock. I’m always wanting to catch the pulse of our members so that ALFN moves in sync with our members. I’m looking to purchase ALFN shirts, totes and aprons. Would you mind spending 1 minute to help me gauge interest? Check out this new survey medium…it’s fun. Take ALFN Gear Survey

Thanks for all you do!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Volunteers Needed Tomorrow

Good Morning Members,

We are low on volunteers for tomorrow’s market. We have three slots open. Please sign-up if you are available.

Volunteer Spot

Thanks!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager