The Market Is Open

Good Morning Friends,

The market is open for commerce.

Announcements:

Arkansas Natural Produce will be closing orders early this week due to travel. Consequently, if you want to order something from ANP, please finalize your orders no later than TUESDAY EVENING (8/4/15).

The Food Preservation Workshops in August and September led by The Root and Southern Center for Agroecology are still open for registration. You can get more information here.

As you make your orders this week, you might enjoy watching a 17 minute video produced this year from the Fair World Project that highlights the integral part small scale farmers can have in not only recreating sustainable food systems, but responding to climate change. One of my favorite food activists, Vandana Shiva, is in the video. The short documentary highlights the central role small scale farmers play in not only global food production, but in establishing regenerative agriculture, or agroecology, that provides real solutions to the damaging effects of modern agriculture on our planet. Our local farmers who grow genuine food for a local economy are part of a non-hierarchical network of producers around the globe who truly are central to helping resolve many of the problems we face with climate change and ecological degradation.

I’ve decided to start a small series on Food Sovereignty as the school year starts and we transition into the Fall. I hope to keep making connections and expanding what ALFN does as a mechanism for generating central Arkansas food sovereignty. I would like to start by suggesting our independence and freedom as eaters is severely limited today. Vandana Shiva, an author and food activist, suggests the global food system is based on a kind of “food fascism.” Shiva argues that patents on seeds by international companies such as Monsanto provide a context of totalitarianism in which research into the safety of GMO crops is curbed, and policies are implemented to safeguard the power of industrial agriculture through subsidies and laws. Food sovereignty is directly related to food sustainability in that local, small scale farmers respond more closely to their local consumers and help reduce the unsustainable production of food representative in modern agriculture.

As we start another week, consider the impact thousands of small, independent choices in favor of food sovereignty can make in our region as well as the larger climate and global food systems.

Take care,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Good Morning,

The market will close tomorrow at noon. Please remember to make your order before 12:00 on Wednesday!

Introducing Volunteer Spot

I have been wanting to use a system where volunteers could sign up in advance to market days beyond the upcoming week. I’ve decided to try Volunteer Spot. The website provides a way for volunteers to sign up for shifts, and I have scheduled out market days from this week till the end of the year. I will still send out calls for help if I am short on Fridays, but I hope this will help some of those volunteers who like to plan in advance. Later today, I will email all volunteers who have signed up to my email list. However, you can also sign up by following the link here: Volunteer Spot. I will usually provide this link in all of my weblogs. Emails are only used to communicate within the group, and Volunteer Spot will not contact you directly. Let’s give this a try and see if it helps us.

As a reminder, remember this week’s market day is the first of August and marks the shift from monthly membership fees of $5.00 to $7.50. However, as stated previously, the annual fee of $60 will not change for those who decide to pay the one time annual fee. Volunteers may continue to receive a $5 credit to their account balance or a $7.50 credit to their monthly membership.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager
littlerockfoodclub@gmail.com

Market Bell

Mosey, rush, sashay, skip, or beam yourself over to ALFN’s market . We are open.

Local News & Reminders:

1. We are running low on printing paper for market invoices. If you or your business has a stack of paper with only one side printed, we would love to use the other side. Email me, and I can come and pick it up!

2. We are still seeking interested persons for the Treasurer and Governance positions on ALFN’s board of directors. Please corral these wild accountants and lawyers of Little Rock and drive them our way!

3. We are entering August this week. The death knell will sound for thousands of children as jingles for back-to-school sales reverberate through radio and T.V. commercials. However, August also marks a small change for ALFN in our membership payment structure. Remember, annual membership fees will remain $60, but those who choose to pay monthly will need to pay $7.50 per month. Volunteers on Saturdays will continue to receive either $5 credit on their account, or one month’s credit in membership fees ($7.50).

4. The Root Cafe is partnering with the Southern Center for Agroecology to lead three workshops on food preservation. The first one was this past week. However, you can still sign up for the other workshops. On August 20, the class will look at Fig & Jalapeno preserves; on September 24th, the class will investigate sweet pepper and cucumber pickling. Each class only costs $35. Preserve your spot here .

Reflection on Membership:

The relentless heat of central Arkansas has reminded me of those who have been suffering without rain for years. The extensive drought in California has large implications for America’s food system. California supplies more than half of the country’s fruit and veggies. With mandatory limits on water usage, residents and farmer’s have been put in a squeeze. Yet, alfalfa—a major export crop to countries like China—uses over 100 billion gallons of water totaling more water usage than any other food crop including almonds. Industrial agriculture has traded the logic of common sense for the logic of a capitalist system based only on profit. According to research, over half of California’s farmland was owned by absentee landlords by 2000. Although 90% of farms are owned by small stakeholders, those farms represent a fraction of total land owned by the 10% corporate agribusinesses.

From my perspective, this is a problem of food sovereignty. We need to democratize our food to safeguard our local agroecology and cultivate robust local food systems. I’m interested in what ALFN can do to be a component in developing food sovereignty for central Arkansas. As a hub for local food, we need to lay the cultural and physical infrastructure for a local food system. I invite you to rally behind this movement not with a simple one day protest, but a longer, steady protest. Invest in ALFN by organizing your food purchases throughout the year with local growers. Invest in ALFN through your membership not only as a paying customer, but an active member. We can grow this market to not only reach more individuals, but reach deeper into every month of the year for a four season market. Thanks and hold those memberships with pride!

Ode to Membership

O! how deeply delightful a melon rests on the tongue,
when the journey to my mouth is short and I know where it comes from

O! in honor of memberships, dollars and sense,
used in organizing food sovereignty and bulldozing the corporate absentee fence

Not everything is solved with a smile and a rhyming couplet,
but membership with ALFN is like an edible amulet

A badge, a protest sign, a vote for the democratization of local food,
a network, a node, a fellowship of foodies, an agro-urban brotherhood (and sisterhood).

Your Cheesy Friend

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Remember to finalize your order before noon tomorrow when the market closes for this week.

Take advantage of the new products in the market such as Marconi peppers and garlic. Melons are still in production and there are still plenty of carnivorous choices from lamb to ground beef.

Enjoy your week. We’ll see you on Saturday!

Sincerely

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Is Open

Good Morning! The market is open!

Announcement: Barnhill will be expanding their offerings and selling various types of salsas (tomato, peach, and garden veggie) and cut Zinnia flowers. Check ‘em out!The heat is atrocious, but it is producing some beautiful peppers. It’s that time of year when we find a 1001 ways to use Jalapeños!

Keep your eyes and ears open for possible candidates for Treasurer and the Governance chair; we are still looking. Also, remember to email me if you are interested in volunteering from time to time.

Please excuse my brevity this week. I still have an ode brewing to $60…stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Remember to finalize your orders in the market before tomorrow at noon!

Mushrooms, berries, melons and veggies are still in abundance this week. As a friendly reminder with the heat we are having, remember to quickly take your produce to a cool area after the market. If you plan on picking up your produce on Monday, make sure you don’t select products that can easily go bad. We refrigerate everything we can, but the melons, greens and other fruits have been sun AND heat ripened so they are best consumed fresh or processed for storage.

All of this is a good thing. I don’t want food that spoils slowly. I’m not interested in eating cardboard, but food that is ready to be eaten now. Fresh has its challenges, but there is a greater joy in the having peach juice dribble down your chin. So tie on a bib and let’s dig in.

Sincerely,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

The Market Is Open

Happy Sunday to all of you. The market is open!

Today I’d like to diverge from the usual and discuss a few important logistical needs with ALFN. I know this isn’t the best hook as a topic sentence, but let’s face it—sometimes one needs to talk nuts and bolts. In our case, we need to discuss a couple of open positions on the Board of Directors and an upcoming change to membership in August.

First, we are still searching for a treasurer to fill Michelle’s shoes this fall. She has done such a wonderful job setting up a structured system, and we simply need to find a person skilled in accounting to come alongside us. The transition should be smooth, but it will help us greatly to find someone early. Please shoot us an email if you know of any possible candidates.

Second, Rebecca Kaufman is stepping down from the Governance position, and we need a fresh individual to help us stay legal. We will miss her professional guidance, but we are excited as she moves to a new place.

Do you know anyone who would be suited for the Governance Chair? Here is a description of the position:

Responsible for organizational compliance with internal bylaws and constitution, as well as advises on any legal questions. Required skills: Significant legal experience, preferably in nonprofit, environmental, agricultural, or restaurant law.

Again, if you know of any legal-minded folks, please shoot an email to us.

Finally, I want to give all of you a heads up to a small change we plan to implement in August. As you know our membership fees help us pay operational costs. Lately, we have found it difficult to maintain a consistent membership quota from our monthly subscribers. We are happy to continue to offer payment plans from the monthly to the quarterly. However, due to the infrastructure of the locallygrown.net website, adjusting monthly/quarterly memberships is quite time consuming. Consequently, the board has decided to make a small change. Annual membership fees will be the same—$60. However, we are asking members who choose to pay monthly to pay $7.50. This small increase will help us maintain a more sustainable management of our time as we transition from weekly market to weekly market. This small change will not begin until the first of August. I will continue to remind everyone, as we change these details on the website.

A final word about membership fees: We hope all of you view these annual costs not as fees, but as membership dues. We hope you feel connected to a larger community of people who are working to establish a more robust local food network. There are numerous people at different stages in this process. We have conventional farmers and organic certified farmers. We have elderly eaters and young eaters. We have vegetarians and carnivores. We have cheerful individuals and… cheerful individuals:) However, through all of our diverse reasons for connecting to ALFN, all of us share the desire to cultivate a local foodshed that ties grower and eater into a web of sustainability and societal health. Sixty dollars isn’t a tax, but a brick for building a local food economy. Thank you for joining us.

After all this talk of membership, I’m feeling poetic. Expect an “Ode to $60” next week.

Enjoy food and friends this week,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Greetings Fellow Collective Taste Buds,

Remember to finalize your orders on the market before it closes tomorrow at noon.

I just received word from ABC Nature Greenhouse and Herb Farm that they have Oyster mushrooms ready for the Saturday market. They have two varieties of Oyster: Black and Pink. They have posted the produce on “What’s New,” but you can also find them on their grower site.

Happy Ordering!

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

A Referendum for Local--Market is Open!

Good morning friends,

The market is open.

This past week has been full of chatter, fear and worry-mongering about Greece’s plight in the EuroZone. Fighting against austerity measures, Greek politicians have been waffling between outright refusal and conciliatory requests. Global capitalist markets have responded to this news with extreme volatility and fear. Under the movements of the European commission and Greek Prime Minister Tsipras, the greek people seem to be the true losers. However, the instability of larger government systems has created countless local movements of solidarity, democratic exchange and governance. Logically, much of the local revolutions have centered around reestablishing local food networks. The mainstream news as well as more revolutionary, anarchic sources have noted the resilience of local communities and the connection between revolution and eating locally. As many ALFN members already know, eating locally isn’t just for taste, but for protesting and rejecting the tyrannical agro-industry’s grip on food. (More on this in some other weblog).

Under the shadow of Greece’s referendum, I would raise your attention to another effort in our region to establish networks of local resistance and resilience. In collaboration with ALFN, The Locals have established an online local directory of farms, markets, and non-profits working to establish a local economy. The site has a fabulous map overview of these various entities. It is a great visual for us to see where those eggplants, cheese, beef, and spices are cultivated. Further, you can sign up for newsletters that educate regional citizens about up-coming events and workshops. Check it out here: The Locals

Raise your corncobs in protest. Let your fork be your pitchfork in the countless micro-decisions against tyranny. (Should someone pitch the idea for a fork revolution?) Kings and queens, thrones and parliaments will fall, but the trees, fields and soil remain. Let’s invest our politics in the geography of our region.

Calling for a referendum of local food,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager

Market Reminder

Remember to make your order in the ALFN market before it closes tomorrow at noon!

Also, please send me an email if you know of any individuals who may be interested in filling our Treasurer position this fall.

Order challenge: see if you can assemble a mixture of products from the market as an edible firework. From veggie sparklers to peach starbursts, I bet we could order up some fantastic colors on the plate that would mirror the night sky this 4th. Order those melons and get everything iced up…it’s time to party.

Cheers

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager