The Weblog
It's That Time Again - Ordering Time!
Good morning.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
The holidays are just around the corner. I am already planning our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. When my parents and siblings and all of the grandchildren get together, it’s a crowd – 30 people! We have lots to do, and success depends on good planning.
The Wednesday Market is an excellent source for Thanksgiving dinner ingredients. Just remember that pick up during the week of Thanksgiving is on Tuesday, Nov. 22, between 3 and 6 p.m.
I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy this unusually warm weather today. We’ll be at the soccer fields this afternoon.
Thank you for supporting locally grown agriculture. We’ll see you at the Market.
Thanks,
Beverly
The Market is Open for Orders!
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. Check the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link:https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
The holidays are almost upon us, and thankfully, some cooler weather! On that note, please mark your calendars now: Pick up for Market orders during the week of Thanksgiving is Tuesday, November 22, from 3 to 6 p.m.
The Wednesday Market is an all-volunteer managed entity, and we are in need of a new volunteer to make the weekly “milk run.” We are so thankful to Jennifer Adams, who took over bringing milk orders to market after Griggs and Brenda Fayard retired from the task. And now, Jennifer is ready to train a new volunteer so that she may have the freedom to pursue some important projects of her own. We trust that the right person will soon come forward and learn the job so that we all may continue to enjoy products from The Good Shepherd. If you are interested or have questions, please call Anna Evans, (770) 584-5056, or Sharon Fox, (404) 569-0582.
We also want to share another opportunity with our farmers and customers. Melissa Steele of Oconee County, Georgia, is looking for someone interested in using her family’s land in Woodland (Talbot County), Georgia, for organic farming. This is Melissa’s story:
“I am originally from Woodland, GA, in Talbot County. My family of farmers goes back there to the mid 1850’s. My grandfather, Cullen Miller, and grandmother, Myrtle Allen Miller have deep roots in that area. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss them.
“My husband and I live near Athens in Oconee County and we have a small mini farm ourselves, among our other endeavors.
“My parents now, and for the last 25 years, live in the Woodland home place, but have never done any sort of farming on that city limits lot, but for many years my grandfather had an abundant garden that fed our entire clan. The soil is probably near perfection after all his years of diligent TLC. Only grass grows there now, and my Dad keeps it neat.
“My parents are in their late 70s and it’s beginning to become evident that their days in that location are numbered. The thought of selling our family home so that they can move closer to us rips me to shreds.
“I am on a mission to find just the perfect people to love and nurture that treasured spot as none of our family is available to take it. So, I’m reaching out to a network of people who care about land, organic farming, home, and heritage.”
If you are interested in learning more about Melissa’s family’s land, please let us know, and we’ll put you in touch with her.
Thank you for your support of locally grown agriculture and for choosing to purchase locally. Have a great Sunday, and we’ll see you at the Market.
Thanks,
Beverly
We're Open! Order Now
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for details on all of this week’s offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
We hope you all have a great Sunday! Our family has a packed day ahead of us. We’re off to the Concord Jubilee, Pike County’s annual harvest festival, to work the Taco Wagon, and then on to a soccer match this afternoon.
Thank you for your support of locally grown agriculture and for choosing to purchase locally.
See you at the Market!
Beverly
Ordering Time Again
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for all of this week’s product listings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
Concord Streets is off the market for this week, as my boys are on school holiday, and we want to do something fun.
Thank you all for your support of locally grown agriculture and for choosing to purchase locally.
Have a great Sunday, and we’ll see you at the Market.
Thanks,
Beverly
Order Today
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for this week’s product listings. Here is the link:
https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
Here is a reminder to everyone who has ordered shrimp from St. Simons Island Shrimp Specialist: the delivery of your orders is this Wednesday.
I hope everyone has an opportunity to get outside today and enjoy this glorious weather. Have a great Sunday, and we’ll see you at the Market.
Thanks,
Beverly
Ordering Time is Upon Us Again; New Growers
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See our website for all of this week’s product listings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
Several new growers joined our market this week.
S & H Seafood sells wild caught Georgia shrimp. Royce and Regina Skaggs of Pike County are the company owners. Gina grew up on the coast, and her mom still lives there. Some of you may have already met them, as they sold their shrimp in person at the Market for the past two weeks, and they also sell at Saturday’s Market on the Square in Zebulon.
Patricia Pfrogner of Patty’s Bakery makes Brigadeiros (Brazilian sweets) – handmade, freshly, with fine chocolates and other ingredients.
Mary Jo Jester of Mary Jo’s Repurposed Crafts upcycles feed bags for general use totes and garden aprons.
Please welcome these new sellers to our Market. Also, be on the look out for the listing of seasonal goodies from our existing vendors.
Thank you for your support of locally grown agriculture and for choosing to purchase goods right here at home. We hope you all have a glorious Sunday, and we look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.
Thanks,
Beverly
We're Open!
Good morning.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the Market website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
St. Simons Island Shrimp Specialist is back to the Market this week. Orders will be delivered the first week of October.
Even though the calendar will soon mark the beginning of the Fall season, our weather is not yet cooperating. The National Weather Service in Atlanta reported the following in its report on September 15:
Due to consistent very warm temperatures in the 80s and 90s with high evaporation rates, the soil moisture continues to decline in areas that received less than 2 inches of rain across North and West Central Georgia during the past two weeks. Consequently, a severe to extreme drought prevails over North and West Central Georgia, which includes the Atlanta Metro area. The driest areas were from Summerville to Dalton, Canton to Marietta, and LaGrange through Barnesville and McDonough to Madison.
The report went on to say:
For October, the outlook for North and Central Georgia is above normal temperatures and below normal rainfall. The drought conditions will persist.
It doesn’t take a climatologist to tell us that the dry weather has affected our plants. My husband’s little garden is just about spent. The squash and tomato vines are shriveling as I write this blog.
Please show our farmers your support through this drought.
Thanks,
Beverly
It's Ordering Time Again!
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. Check the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
Thank you for supporting locally grown agriculture. We’ll see you at the Market!
Thanks,
Beverly
Don't Forget to Order!
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pick up between 3 and 6 p.m. Check the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link:
https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
We hope everyone has a pleasant holiday weekend. Thank you for supporting our local farmers and producers and for choosing to buy locally. We’ll see you on Wednesday.
Thanks,
Beverly
Get Your Orders In!
Good afternoon.
The Wednesday Market is open for orders. Please place your order by 10 p.m. Monday. Orders are ready for pickup between 3 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. See the website for all of this week’s product offerings. Here is the link: https://wednesdaymarket.locallygrown.net/market
What follows is perhaps the longest weblog I have ever written for The Wednesday Market. I hope that you will take the time to read it and think about what is in the food that we buy.
Who do you trust when it comes to knowing what is in the food you eat? I want to share a cautionary tale with you about what happens when we don’t know or don’t pay attention to what is in our food and what it can do to our bodies.
A few months ago, in an effort to get my son Stephen (age 12, soccer player) to drink more water, we purchased a product called “Mio.” It comes in various flavors and you add drops of it to a bottle of water. This product smells really good and turns the water pretty colors, kind of like the Kool Aid that I grew up drinking. Indeed, Stephen did drink more water while using this product.
Flash forward to a few days ago. My son Charlie, age 7, decided to add some “Mio” to his water bottle. By bedtime, he had broken out in a rash. We dosed him with some zyrtec and swabbed him down with some benadryl lotion to control the itching and put him to bed. I went to bed worried about my baby.
The next morning, the rash was MUCH WORSE! I took one look at him and knew we’d be spending the day at the urgent care center to have him seen about. Racking our brains trying to figure out what caused Charlie’s rash, my husband and I reviewed everything that he had eaten the previous day. The only “different” or new item that he had consumed was the “Mio.” Before we went to the doctor, we looked at the list of ingredients on “Mio” and noticed acesulfame potassium. I immediately suspected it as the culprit, because a few years ago, Charlie had reacted with a severe rash to a sulfa drug he was taking for an infected insect bite. I reasoned that acesulfame potassium is a sulfa compound and that must have caused the reaction.
The doctor confirmed our suspicions that the rash was an allergic reaction to something Charlie ate and encouraged us to make a follow up appointment with our pediatrician and to have our son seen by an allergist. We received prescriptions for a steroid and hydrocortisone cream for the itching. A few hours after the first dose of steroid, the rash began to clear. The next morning, a Sunday, my boy looked much better. On the way to church, we stopped and bought him a chocolate milk, which he promptly consumed. Then, during church, the rash reappeared with a vengeance! When we arrived home, I checked the ingredient label for the chocolate milk, and what do you think I found? Acesulfame potassium!
What is acesulfame potassium and why is it added to food? According to www.healthline.com, “Also known as acesulfame K or Ace-K, the ingredient is a calorie-free sweetener found in sugar-free products. Though it’s considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), some are convinced it has potentially dangerous health effects. What is it? Acesulfame K is an artificial sweetener, found in a variety of foods and drinks. Alone, it’s a white crystal powder with a slightly bitter after-taste. Because of this taste, it’s often blended with other sweeteners like sucralose (used in Splenda) or aspartame (used in Equal) — both controversial in their own right. Acesulfame K can be found in soft drinks, protein shakes, drink mixes, frozen desserts, baked goods, candy, gum, and tabletop sweeteners. The FDA’s approval of Ace-K’s use in soft drinks came in 1998, increasing consumer exposure to the ingredient.”
Charlie’s exposure and reaction to acesulfame potassium was a scary experience for us. You see, two of my siblings have food allergies so severe that if they ingest one of their allergens, they suffer anaphylactic shock! I surely do want that to happen to my Charlie. I will be reading ALL processed food labels from now on to be sure they do not contain acesulfame potassium or other sulfa compounds. Furthermore, I plan to do a lot more “from scratch” cooking so that I can control what goes into the food that my family eats.
The good news is that Charlie continues to recover from his allergic reactions. He is still on steroids, and we still need to see an allergist, but to see him today, one week after his last breakout, you would never know that he was covered head-to-toe in a nasty rash.
This experience makes me even more thankful for The Wednesday Market’s network of farmers and producers. I encourage all of our customers to inform themselves about our food supply. If you know your farmer, you will know your food, and if you cook your own food, you will know exactly what’s in it!
Thank you for allowing me to share our story. Have a good weekend, and we’ll see you at the Market!
Thanks,
Beverly