Saturday, September 26, 2009

Rain Delay

Somehow we just knew that the rain would nail us on the last day! Our plan right now is to call a two hour rain delay and start the Bounty of the Barrens Market at 10 a.m. instead of the normal 8 a.m. See you then!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Last Day of BOTBM 2009

Well, this summer has flown by and the Bounty of the Barrens Market has been a great success, but this Saturday will be our last market day of the season. We want to make sure you are healthy enough to come back next year, so TJ Samson will be at the market tomorrow morning doing free health screenings. They will be doing blood sugar and cholesterol checks via finger stick as well as blood pressure checks. As always, there will be plenty of local, healthy food available as well as several local arts and crafts vendors. We would like to thank all of our supporters and customers who have made it down to the BOTBM and we hope you will make it a part of your regular Saturday morning routine next summer. Hope to see you at the market tomorrow morning as we close out the 2009 season.

Eating Local on Planet Green starting October 12

For those of you who have Glasgow EPB Digital cable, next month, the channel Planet Green (channel 103 on EPB system) is set to premiere the six-part series The 100 Mile Challenge, based on the 2006 bestselling book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating.

The show is being billed as part reality series, part docu-soap, part social experiment. It follows the people of Mission, British Columbia, as they take on the challenge to eat food that was grown and produced within a 100 mile radius for 100 days. The book's authors, James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, serve as guides to the experiment, providing behind-the-scenes access to the experiences of six families. Produced by Vancouver's Paperny Films, the show premieres on Planet Green on October 12.

This should be really good television!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Big Food vs. Big Insurance

No matter which side of the health care debate you presently find yourself believing in, we all want to be healthier, live longer, and have good health insurance to cover us in case we start to stray from those desired outcomes. Curiously, we all seem to be arguing about the interests of doctors, government, insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical companies, but missing the real center of the problems with health care in our country - our diet.

This article from Michael Pollan does a fantastic job of making that point.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Invasive Plant Awareness at BOTBM on Saturday

The Glasgow Garden Club, a Natural Resource Specialist from Mammoth Cave, and the Horticultural Class will be providing information and have samples of invasive plants and trees at the Bounty of the Barrens on Saturday, Sept 12th., from 8 - 11 am, to facilitate Kentucky's Invasive Plant Awareness Month. They will provide information on control / eradication and alternatives to invasive plants. Bring in your invasive plant for identification. There will be a "mystery" plant for everyone to try to identify. A $30 gift certificate from Lowe's will be given to the person whose name is drawn for correct identification.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

SG Meeting- Thursday, September 10, 2009

Sustainable Glasgow will be hosting a general membership meeting on Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 6pm at the office at 108 E. Public Square (beneath Alexander Law). We invite you all to join us to help direct this movement. Bring your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.... we want to hear from our members! We also encourage you to bring a friend who might be interested in joining Sustainable Glasgow. Sustainable Glasgow has seen great success with the Bounty of the Barrens Farmers Market and we want to continue with this momentum in new projects while also maintaining and improving the BOTBM for next year. The last official day of the 2009 market will be Saturday, September 26 so be sure to stock up on items to can for this winter.

If you are interested in SG but cannot attend the meeting on September 10, please send your ideas to localfirst@glasgow-ky.com. You can also join SG by clicking on the link on the left side of the blog page and mailing your application and membership fee to Sustainable Glasgow, Inc., PO Box 1654, Glasgow, KY 42142.

We look forward to seeing you all at the meeting!

Lauren Ray

What We Learned Over the Summer

As the opening season of Bounty of the Barrens Market winds down (we plan to fully operate the market through September), it is time for the members of Sustainable Glasgow, Inc. to review what we learned during our Saturday mornings spent at the market.

First of all, our belief that the region’s land, and our neighbors that farm the land, are capable of feeding us was confirmed. The forty-plus vendors that tended the soil and their booths at the market were perfect proof of that theory. Obviously we would need a lot more vendors, just like we would need a lot more local folks to become convinced of the value of eating locally and supporting the vendors who live here, to make it all work. But we clearly learned that having a sustainable food economy is possible.

Next, as mentioned above, we learned that it is going to be a lot more complicated than just establishing a place where vendors and consumers can meet for commerce on Saturday mornings to make real progress toward a sustainable food economy. We have to counteract decades of marketing by the big box retailers to awaken our neighbors to the dangers of over reliance on distant boards and stockholders for our daily bread. Way too many locals still think that their food comes from Wal Mart instead of from the miracles of soil and sun and the farm families that tend that soil under that sun. Education will take a very long time, but it is possible.

We also learned that most of the vendors that came to Bounty of the Barrens Market are eager to expand their operations and provide more local food, but they are stymied by the lack of available labor to support their expansion plans. This really came as a shock to all of us! When we are reading a steady stream of bad news about local employment during the week but then hearing local farmers lament the unavailability of labor to allow them to grow, well, we scratch our heads. There is a promise of expanded employment in this sustainability movement, but it is going to take a while to figure out how to get potential employees and motivated employers together. Still, we know it is possible to accomplish.

We learned a lesson about the abundant crop of local musical talent as well. For eighteen straight Saturday mornings, we were blessed with unbelievable local musicianship. These locals came for free. They brought their guitars and fiddles and banjos and keyboards. Many brought their own sound and amplification systems as well. Most of all they brought with them a love for their art and for their fellow man. They brought all of this along with a stunning portfolio of talent and passion. I was humbled each Saturday morning by their talent and love. We discovered that we can not only feed ourselves, we also possess the capacity to entertain ourselves! Why should we continue to leak our precious local treasure to neighboring communities for entertainment. We clearly have all the talent necessary for our needs right here at home. With the right cooperation and attention to detail, it is possible to continue this exhibition of local talent right through the Fall and Winter and trap tons of local entertainment dollars right here in our local economy.

Finally, we learned that our community is hungry for more “quality of life” improvements like Bounty of the Barrens Market. The team at Sustainable Glasgow has learned this lesson well. Locals want more opportunities like the market presented. They want to be able to commune with others in the neighborhood in the presence of local vendors and artists. They long for things like bicycle paths and lanes. They want more local businesses brimming with local products and local expertise. Our community spoke to us on Saturday mornings at the market, and we have planned a program of work for 2010 that will begin to address those wants and the other lessons mentioned above. Do you have other things you want from our community? Do you want to be a part of the solution and the provision of these wants? If so, join up with us at Sustainable Glasgow! We can use your help!

William J. Ray