Market Reminder

The market is open.

Update: New Vendor & Community Market Day

We have a new vendor in the market this week. Viney Creek Farm is a dairy goat farm out of Dover, AR. The farm raises Nigerian Dwarf goats, a breed prized for their milk with a butterfat content more than cows and other goat breeds. Viney Creek transforms their goat milk into goat soap. You can find their products on ALFN’s market under Bath, Beauty & Health. Welcome Viney Creek!

Community Market Day

As mentioned in previous posts, this year we will be celebrating local ingenuity, knowledge and skill on the last Saturday of every month. This Saturday, we will have our first Community Market Day of the year. Tammy Pope of Tammy Sue’s Critters will be at the market meeting members and showcasing her products. Tammy Sue’s is a remarkable farm with an outstanding array of products. Many of you love the lotions and soaps made on the farm, but they are also known for their eggs. This Saturday, take an extra few minutes and get to know Tammy and her critters. It is an exceptional opportunity to converse with those who commune with our domesticated animals…especially goats:) During this market, we will have locally brewed coffee available. As a year-round market, ALFN specializes in providing a consistent pick-up point for regional products. However, I hope it will be enjoyable to not just pick-up, but chat for a few minutes with our local producers and thinkers during these Community Market Days. I look forward to seeing all you this Saturday. Remember, if you have something you want to share during one of our Community Market Days, shoot me an email, and we can make it happen!

For those of use washed in critter products, lathered in the butterfat of even-toed ungulates, purified by the ancient, feral Pan god, here is a poem to consider the wild, unflinching goat-gaze. May we all find ways to climb over pasture fences and sit on the knoll with this noble beast and stare back at the rush of civilization.

The Goat and I
by Robert William Service

Each sunny day upon my way
A goat I pass;
He has a beard of silver grey,
A bell of brass.
And all the while I am in sight
He seems to muse,
And stares at me with all his might
And chews and chews.

Upon the hill so thymy sweet
With joy of Spring,
He hails me with a tiny bleat
Of welcoming.
Though half the globe is drenched with blood
And cities flare,
Contentedly he chews the cud
And does not care.

Oh gentle friend, I know not what
Your age may be,
But of my years I’d give the lot
Yet left to me,
To chew a thistle and not choke,
But bright of eye
Gaze at the old world-weary bloke
Who hobbles by.

Alas! though bards make verse sublime,
And lines to quote,
It takes a fool like me to rhyme
About a goat.