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Driven from land in Zimbabwe, couple in their 50s seize opportunity in N.C.

AYDEN - In Zimbabwe, Wally Herbst would’ve left this kind of hard and dirty work to his hired hands. But in North Carolina, stripped of his vast African ranch and starting over at 58, his only hands are his own. So he bends to his filthy task, the removal of a bloated, dead pig that weighs more than 200 pounds, its stink thickening in the humidity of the July afternoon. He ties a simple knot with a piece of rope — a “bit of African technology,” he says — and pulls a loop tight around the pig’s hind legs. Using a 4-foot board as a ramp, Herbst yanks the carcass into the bed of a pickup.

In Africa, Herbst worked a 13,000-acre farm, part of which had been in his family for generations. He grew paprika that was exported to Spain, ran a successful safari business, raised cattle and employed more than 150 people during the busy harvest seasons.

That life ended in 2002 when men armed with automatic weapons evicted the Herbst family from its farm. In a land redistribution campaign overseen by President Robert Mugabe, political loyalists seized thousands of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe and turned them over to impoverished blacks.

The seizures wrecked the country’s agricultural infrastructure, leading to extensive food shortages and stratospheric inflation. The United Nations estimates that 1 million people have lost their livelihoods and homes as a result of the redistribution.

Herbst and his wife, Helen, are among them.

Theirs is a refugee story turned upside down. They were not poor political dissidents, but successful farmers whose skin color and economic achievement made them vulnerable in a violent, hostile environment.

At an age when most couples are spoiling their grandchildren and mapping retirement plans, the Herbsts packed four suitcases for a chance at the American dream. In Africa, the couple lived among giraffes and elephants, and hunters from overseas paid big money for the right to hunt sable antelope on their land.

In Ayden, south of Greenville, their first home was a one-bedroom apartment across the street from a Piggly Wiggly.

Nearly broke when they arrived a year ago, the Herbsts need to save money so they can eventually retire. Wally secured a visa and a job with a large hog operation near Greenville. It’s grunt work, but he does not complain.

As if to prove this, he finishes his gruesome chore, pulling another pig that has succumbed to natural causes into the back of the pickup. It will be taken to a compost bin.

Wally smiles.

“It keeps me young.”

Dispossessed

Wally is built like a middle linebacker, with a strong-willed attitude to match. Helen, 53, has the red hair and fair complexion of her Irish ancestors, and she is the chatty one. In an African accent that exudes its British ancestry, she shares their story:

Wally and Helen, both born in Africa, were married in 1977 and have three children. They lived and worked in rural Matabeleland, a region in southwestern Zimbabwe.

Wally employed about 30 permanent workers, who lived in traditional African huts on the property. Their homestead was a three-bedroom, two-bath house that, until 15 years ago, depended on generators for electricity.

Chaos and violence has defined Mugabe’s 28-year presidential reign. In the 1980s, he dispatched troops to attack a rival tribe in a campaign that became known as the Matabeleland atrocities.

It was during this time that Wally found a mass grave on the farm. The police removed about 20 skulls, including those of children.

By 1997, Mugabe announced his plan to seize white farms and redistribute the land. Five years later, Helen was home eating lunch when an employee rushed to tell her that police were parked at the gate and wanted to speak with her.

Read More:News & Observer

(ARA) - As Halloween approaches, the seasonal “to-do” list, typically marked with finding the perfect costume and trick-or-treat route, is a bit more complicated with the growing need to protect the environment and manage household budgets. In preparing for your neighborhood ghosts and goblins, try these easy tips and tricks to “go green,” and spend less on your families’ spook-tacular celebration.

Howl to be Green
Incorporating small changes into your holiday preparation will go a long way to create an eco-friendly Halloween. Whether you’re hosting a party or adding colorful flare to the home or office, take inventory of your decorations and go back to nature by using locally-grown pumpkins, apples or fresh gourds to create tabletop and front porch accents. Organic, pesticide-free produce is widely available at farmers markets, grocery and specialty stores and leaves little waste once the celebration ends.

Also look for ways to “re-use” your Halloween accessories. Cloth or canvas shopping bags and pillowcases are great alternatives to paper, plastic bags and more traditional plastic jack-o-lanterns used by many trick-or-treaters to collect candy. Gather fall-colored scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons or food coloring and spend the afternoon with the kids decorating a recyclable trick-or-treat bag. Use the custom creation to hand out candy at your door and your house will be the hit of the neighborhood.

Howl to Save
Spend less this Halloween by using old or outgrown clothes, sports equipment or dress-up items to make one-of-a-kind costumes. Unpack your graduation gown and buy a gavel at a thrift or prop store to transform your trick-or-treater into a judge. Dust off a wedding gown or bridesmaid’s dress, polish an old pair of pumps and grab a wig from a costume store and you’ve got a princess. Host a costume trading party and make sure everyone comes with old clothing or accessories to trade. Let the kids use their imaginations and see how many new and different costumes come to life.

You can also save by using recyclable household materials to decorate. Bed sheets hung from the ceiling or tree branches make convincing ghosts, as do balloons covered with a white sheet, tied with a ribbon around the neck and black felt tapped on for eyes. The sheets can be taken down, laundered and returned to the linen closet once Halloween is over.

Howl to Have Fun at Home
Consider baking at home this year to get everyone in the Halloween mood. Find unique recipes for Halloween treats that can be used as decorations or centerpieces before you indulge.

Gather everyone around and make creepy “edible eyeballs” with mini white powdered donuts, Life Savers Gummies, red icing and chocolate chips. Cover the hole in the center of the donut with a thin layer of icing and top with a gummy. Next, dip the bottom of a chocolate chip in icing before layering it on the gummy. Make the eyeball scary by drawing lines from the center of the donut to the outer edge with red icing. Finish the treat by poking each donut with a lollipop stick and arranging them in a bowl of candy corn to make a freaky yet tasty centerpiece.

Howl to Be Safe
Set the seasonal mood by decorating trees and sidewalks with lights and lanterns while making it easier for trick-or-treaters to find their way from door to door. Neat, well-lit landscapes make everyone feel more comfortable and confident.
Another simple way to help ghosts and goblins find their way door to door is to use makeup to finish a costume as an alternative to masks. Face paint makes it much easier for trick-or-treaters to see … especially at night

Chicken lovers push to lift town’s ban on backyard coops

CARY - Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because Cary told it to scram.

That’s a growing joke in urban poultry circles. Long stereotyped for its rule-happy sameness, Cary refuses to allow backyard chicken coops. Too noisy. Too smelly. Too … well, un-Cary.

But the town’s defiance has stirred a grass-roots chicken push; its supporters hope to bust Cary’s reputation as a snooty killjoy.

Check out the new Web site carychickens.com, or the poultry fans flocking on Facebook, the popular Internet social hub.

They point to Raleigh, where chicken coops are common enough that in some neighborhoods you can pass three on a single block, and where the annual Tour d’Coop draws a curious crowd.

Wake Forest just relaxed its poultry rules — letting homeowners keep up to 10 hens — and Durham is pondering the fresh-egg benefits of city chickens.

Cary, like the farmer in the dell’s cheese, stands alone.

“They don’t want to be seen as rednecks,” coop hopeful Michael Manfre said. “I don’t see how that association works, because cities like New York, they also allow chickens.”

In July, Manfre and his wife, Alissa, laid out their chicken plan for the council.

The rules: No roosters. No slaughtering. Permits required.

The perks: Tastier eggs. Locally grown food. Pets that eat bugs.

But the idea died when the council voted down a motion to study the possibility. Cary does allow poultry in its scarce agricultural zones, but council members backed firmly away from putting birds in neighborhood yards.

“Everywhere I went, I had people begging me not to let this happen,” council member Don Frantz said. “Noise, smell, disease, property values. It’s not an urban thing. It’s best left to the country.”

As to Cary’s image, and whether the chicken ban adds to its renown for regulation, Frantz shrugged.

“I guess that’s part of the reason we win so many national awards,” he said.

Chicken supporters in the Triangle and nationwide say most of the fears are misguided.

Having a few chickens in the backyard isn’t any noisier or messier than keeping a pet dog, fans say. Roosters are a different story, but they aren’t asking Cary for anything that crows.

“I’m not a morning person,” Manfre said. “I don’t want to hear them, either.”

Most towns require coops that keep hens from wandering, and any owner will tell you that a coop needs constant cleaning.

Cary leaders warned that for every law-abiding chicken keeper, you’d see two scofflaws. But in Raleigh, longtime chicken owners say they are vigilant.

“All of us are sensible, so they don’t crack down,” said Bev Norwood in the Five Points neighborhood. “We had our chickens for months, and the people whose bedroom window is 20 feet away didn’t even know we had chickens.”

Manfre said it is ironic that Cary would hold up its award-winning status when defending the no-chicken stance.

The town recently ranked 16th on Money magazine’s list of best small cities. Nearly every place that ranked higher — including Fort Collins, Colo., and Round Rock, Texas — permits poultry.

Cary’s council might not fret about how that looks to outsiders, but some residents do.

Read More:News & Observer

ARA) – Disappearing plant species, endangered wildlife and adverse health effects for humans – all grab headlines whenever talk turns to the impact pollution has on our world. But pollution also affects production of pearls, the gem American pop culture has made an icon of exemplary womanhood.

From June Cleaver to Marge Simpson, a perfect strand of pearls has come to represent the essence of feminine perfection in American culture. The bestowing of an heirloom strand from mother to daughter is a treasured rite of passage in many families. Yet pollution’s effect on the mollusks that produce pearls may mean fewer pearls – and higher prices – in the future.

Pearl production and a pristine environment are tightly linked. Pearl-bearing mollusks are filter-feeders. To get their microscopic food, they filter as much as 106 gallons of seawater a day. Filter-feeding makes the mollusks extremely sensitive to pollutants in the water.

Pearl-bearing mollusks are also very sensitive to water temperature. Mollusks that produce pearls evolved over millions of years to live in very specific environments. Although those that live in temperate latitudes are accustomed to seasonal fluctuations in water temperature, an unusual rise in summer can kill them. Pearl-bearing mollusks that live in tropical latitudes can survive only within a very narrow range of water temperature. A small rise at any time of year can kill them.

People Can and Do Help

The mollusks’ sensitivity to temperature increases and pollutants make people who are dependent on the mollusks’ productivity acutely aware of environmental factors. Pearl farmers — people who grow cultured pearls — have a stake in mollusk health and productivity. That stake makes pearl farmers good stewards of the environment. If water pollution or temperature increases kill their mollusks, pearl farmers lose their livelihood.

Jewelmer, a pearl-farming company in the Philippines, has been especially active in promoting environmental preservation. The company has strongly lobbied the Philippine government to outlaw cyanide and dynamite fishing in the islands. Those fishing techniques produce big, easy catches, but they’re environmentally destructive, and they adversely affect the mollusks on the pearl farms.

“Jewelmer produces some of the finest golden South Sea cultured pearls,” says Jeremy Shepherd of PearlParadise.com, Inc., a leading online pearl-seller, “and the company has been among the most aggressive in protecting the pearl-farming environment.”

Forum for Pearl Lovers

www.Pearl-Guide.com is a pearl forum that has more than 3,000 members, many of whom contribute posts about pearls every day. Since pearls are the members’ passion and reason for participating in the forum, they are naturally concerned with pollution’s and global warming’s effects on pearl culture. Without protecting the delicate environment mollusks need to produce pearls, Pearl-Guide.com members and other pearl lovers around the world would lose their favorite gems.

In Romania, where poverty and hunger followed the breakup of the communist system, Heifer provided cows that made a difference.

(NewsUSA) - Oh, the holidays. You could prepare to wait in lengthy store lines in crowded malls to buy the same old gifts that will more than likely be returned, or you could just buy a cow.

That’s right, Heifer International offers alternative gift ideas that can help end world hunger by instituting self-sustainable communities where households receive training and livestock instead of food handouts.

Donors, while honoring friends and family members through their gifts, purchase more than just dairy cows, water buffaloes, goats or chickens. They help poor families achieve a life of dignity while also providing agricultural education for small farm initiatives.

“From Heifer’s training and the sale of our additional calves, I’ve been able to put food on my table, send my children to college and learn how to manage my finances better,” said Arthur Neal, a member of the Delta Livestock Enterprise in Tallulah, La.

The nonprofit’s Thailand program established improved agricultural techniques for families whose farming method quickly depleted the land. With starvation being a serious threat, people left home to find work that too often led to prostitution and drug addiction.

“Today we can establish ourselves as a community,” said Amui Wazu, Thai villager. “And Heifer has introduced us to kitchen gardens, which have been our savior. We have vegetables year-round!”

Founded by Dan West in 1944, Heifer International has impacted more than 45.3 million lives by providing so-called “living loans.”

Farmers prepare for the arrival of their animals through training sessions, by building sheds and by planting vegetation. The animals bring the benefits of milk, wool, draft power, eggs and offspring.

Families and communities repay their “living loans” by donating one or more of their animals’ offspring to others. This “passing on the gift” multiplies the impact of every donation-donations that support the entire Heifer mission and not just animal purchases.

So, this holiday season, give a unique gift and participate in a vision of a world without hunger.

For more information about this unique gift idea, visit http://www.heifer.org.

(ARA) - Whether it’s five stories up in an apartment building or in a tiny backyard, it’s possible to grow greenery. As long as there is access to water and sunshine, people with the desire to add a little plant life to their living space can break out the watering can and create a green space.

Small-area and container gardening are easy, relatively inexpensive activities that people of all ages can enjoy. Today’s lawn and garden market is full of products aimed to satisfy the garden enthusiast in any location. Windowsill boxes, mini-herb gardens, packaged potting mixes and containers of all shapes and sizes make it easier than ever to grow something beautiful, no matter where you live.

“A container garden offers residents in smaller, often urban, spaces the chance to grow and eat fresh vegetables and enjoy beautiful flowers,” says William Moss, a master gardener specializing in urban gardening and author of the “Moss in the City” e-newsletter for the National Gardening Association. “A well-maintained vegetable container garden can produce enough vegetables to prepare nutritious meals and save money at the same time.”

Little Time, Big Convenience
One of the many benefits of small-space gardening is the small amount of time and effort it takes. As with any type of garden, it requires commitment and care. Ensuring plants get the proper amount of sunlight and water is crucial. However, a smaller space means less weeding and fewer pests. Slow-release fertilizer and automatic watering systems also cut down on time. Miracle-Gro Watering Can Singles are great time savers, making it easy to feed plants with convenient pre-measured packets of water-soluble plant food that can be quickly poured into a watering can.

Other considerations include the plants’ location. It is important to secure plants kept on windowsills or terraces so they won’t blow away during strong winds. If plants are frequently exposed to inclement weather, they should be moved to a sheltered spot or protected using supports and cages.

Doing a Lot with a Small Space
Another important benefit of small-space gardening is the amount of room needed. Depending on the plant, almost any container is acceptable as long as it can hold eight inches of soil and has holes at the bottom for water to drain. Rocks can be put in the bottom to assist drainage if there are no holes. Containers also tend to dry out quickly, so paying attention to watering and feeding is critical. Avoid filling the container with ground soil that can contain bacteria or fungi. Instead use packaged potting soil that is supplemented with fertilizer and other nutrients. Be sure to look at the care instructions that come with the plants and follow the directions on the potting soil and supplements to ensure the best outcome possible.

Growing For Food and Fancy
Different types of flowers, fruits, vegetables and plants thrive in containers. Vegetables such as peppers, garlic and lettuce are all easy to grow in containers. Herbs are especially well-suited for pots, and are easy to maintain since most pests tend to avoid them and they’re not susceptible to disease.

As long as there is adequate sunlight, herbs can be grown outdoors or indoors. Many herbs, like basil, dill, oregano and parsley, grow easily from seeds, which are less expensive than seedlings. Plant height is important to keep in mind, as basil, parsley and dill can grow one foot or taller.

For a plant that’s a beauty and easy-to-care for, try miniature roses. Available in a multitude of colors and varieties, it is easy to find one for just about any small space. Other colorful and low-maintenance container flowers are geraniums, impatiens, begonias, marigolds and zinnias. During the summer, Moss recommends growing plants with tolerant dispositions that can stand up to heat, pests and stormy summer weather. Flowers like the crinum lily, nasturtium, trailing petunia and moss rose are all colorful, low-maintence and grow during the summer months.

“Many different plants grow well in containers, but depending on location, some plants will flourish where others will wilt,” says Moss. “Check with local nurseries for flowers that thrive in your area.”

For more tips and fun ideas on starting a container garden or growing in small spaces visit http://www.itsgrotime.com  and check out Moss’ page on the National Gardening Association Web site, http://www.garden.org/urbangardening/  .

ARA) – Sure, you know greens are good for you. You occasionally toss a broccoli stalk or two into your chef salad – after all, anything tastes good with ranch dressing on it, right? And you often eat spinach when you visit your favorite neighborhood restaurant . . . and order the spinach-artichoke dip. Unfortunately, with that, you also get plenty of fat.

But if you still avoid more mysterious greens like kale, bok choy and mustard greens because you just don’t know how to prepare them so that they taste good, there’s a simple solution: green smoothies. A growing number of Americans, including TV personality Montel Williams, advocate the health – not to mention flavor – benefits of smoothies made with so-called “super foods” like green, leafy vegetables.

“Kids aren’t the only ones who don’t particularly like the taste of some greens,” says Jodi Berg, a fan of green smoothies and the executive vice president of Vita-Mix, manufacturer of commercial and household blenders, including one mentioned in Williams’ recent book on healthful living. “By incorporating raw greens in smoothies made with fruit and other flavorful ingredients, you can enjoy all the health benefits of these super veggies, plus the taste and fun associated with smoothies.”

The nutritional value of super greens has been well known for years, but the far-reaching positive impact of some nutrients is just now coming to light. From improving eye and blood health to lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, the nutrients found in leafy greens have multiple health benefits. “The challenge in reaping these full benefits has been the taste,” Berg says. “Many raw leafy greens have a bitter flavor that even cooking can’t completely mask. Most people expect a green smoothie to have some of that bitterness as well, but there is none. When you combine the right ingredients in the Vita-Mix machine, the result is silky-smooth and surprisingly sweet and delicious.”

So what’s the secret of whipping up a great-tasting, nutrient-filled green smoothie that both kids and adults will love? Here are some tips:

* Start with fresh fruit to provide the sweet flavor. Any fruit that you like will do the trick, but remember there’s an added nutritional benefit with some fruits. Blueberries or pomegranate, for example, will impart sweetness and an antioxidant punch. Pineapple or orange will deliver tart sweetness and plenty of vitamin C, while potassium-rich bananas will also add thickness and body to the smoothie.

* Next, choose a healthful green that you likely wouldn’t eat any other way, like collard greens, Swiss chard or bok choy. In addition to being an excellent non-meat, nondairy source of calcium and iron, the high fiber content in these greens balances out the sugar content of the fruit so that you don’t experience a spike in your blood sugar levels.

* Use fresh, filtered water and ice with the fruit and veggies. You can also add fat-free or low-fat yogurt, plain or flavored, to add nutrition and flavor to your smoothie. Do avoid high-fat additives like ice cream that also contain refined sugars.

* Be sure to use the right equipment. While the average blender may do just fine to mix milk and ice cream into a milk shake, you’ll need a heavier-duty device to chop, blend and smooth hearty greens. The Vita-Mix Super 5200 has the power and precision to completely pulverize whole foods and breaks them down to the cellular level. Nutrients are freed and valuable fiber is not stripped away.

Berg offers her favorite smoothie recipes to get you started:

“Green Goddess”
by Valerie Waugaman, American Gladiator star

Ingredients:

4 ounces vanilla soymilk, unsweetened
2 ounces pomegranate juice
3 cups fresh spinach leaves, gently packed
1 kiwi, peeled
1/2 cup green grapes or 1/2 pear
1/4 avocado, peeled
1/8 slice lime with rind
1 scoop protein powder (vanilla flavor)
dash of vanilla extract
5 drops Stevia (optional)
2 cups ice cubes

Directions: Place all ingredients in Vita-Mix blender and blend until smooth.

Going Green Smoothie

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh spinach or the leafy green of your choice
1/2 cup pineapple (fresh or frozen)
1 cup green grapes
1/2 banana
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ice

Directions:

Place all ingredients in Vita-Mix container and secure two-part lid. Select variable speed 1. Turn machine on and quickly increase speed to 10, then to High. Process for 1 minute or until smooth. Makes 3 1/2 cups.

To learn more about the Vita-Mix and for more recipes and ideas on incorporating super greens into your diet, visit http://www.vitamix.com .

(NewsUSA) - The latest “flavor of the week” in federal immigration enforcement bills is the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, which relies on the electronic employment verification system (EEVS), which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls “E-Verify.”

EEVS sounds easy. Employees fill out an I-9 form proving that they are authorized to work in the U.S. The employer enters this information into a computer, which searches the Social Security Administration (SSA) and DHS databases. If the information provided matches the database, the employee is eligible to work. If not, the employee has a short time to fix the glitch with SSA; if they do not, they must be terminated.

The SAVE Act would require the country’s 7.4 million employers to participate in a mandatory EEVS program. Currently, 55,000 employers use E-Verify - fewer than 1 percent of employers. Adding over 7 million employers to the E-Verify program would cause widespread chaos:

U.S. citizens would be adversely affected: Employees who receive a non-confirmation from E-Verify are often fully eligible to work. The error may be due to a name change, adjustment of immigration status or a data-entry error. SSA estimates that 17.8 million of its records contain such discrepancies - an error rate of 4.1 percent.

E-Verify spurs discrimination: Contrary to state policy, 47 percent of employers using E-Verify entered their employees’ information before the employee’s first day of work rather than after hiring, as required by law.

These employers, fearful of fines and hassles involved with non-confirmation notices, racially profile their prospective employees to begin with and avoid hiring those who appear foreign-born, or refuse to hire those who do not “pass” the E-Verify test. Others encourage those who receive non-confirmations to not contest them; still others take advantage of the non-confirmation status to require their workers to work longer hours under poorer conditions.

It is clear that E-Verify is not ready for prime time. Neither the DHS nor SSA databases have reached the level of accuracy required for a mandatory electronic employment verification system to function fairly and efficiently. Rather than enacting harsh new “enforcement only” measures like the SAVE Act, Congress should get back to the hard work of enacting smart, workable immigration reform that serves America’s interests by protecting employees and employers alike.

For more information, visit The American Immigration Lawyers Association at www.aila.org.

(NewsUSA) - Farmers’ markets are not new, but they are gaining popularity in the United States.

In general, farmers’ markets comprise area farmers convening in one location, indoors or outdoors, to offer the freshest food available, including many canned or bottled goods and handcrafted items such as soap and clothing. Specialty items like jam and honey are also prominent at year-round markets.

The number of farmers’ markets has recently seen a dramatic increase. According to the USDA, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. increased almost 20 percent between 1994 and 2006. And in 2000, 19,000 farmers reported selling their produce only at farmers’ markets.

Honey, a year-round mainstay at most markets, is an all-natural food that leaves a small eco-footprint. Purchasing local honey may be beneficial to the environment because it promotes sustainability. Many farmers have hives on their land, in part because bees are responsible for one out of every three bites we consume. If there were a decline in honey bees, we could suffer from a limited supply of oranges, apples, blueberries, cucumbers, strawberries and other farmers’ market staples.

There are more than 300 different types of honey in the United States, each with a unique flavor and color profile influenced by the types of blossoms bees visit when searching for nectar. Floral source, location and climate affect local honey production. Regionally, one can find avocado honey in the west, blueberry honey in the northeast, cotton honey in the south, and one of the country’s favorites, clover, around the globe.

The following recipe, courtesy of the National Honey Board, highlights some of the freshest ingredients available at local farmers’ markets.

Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds ripe yellow tomatoes, seeded and chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup chopped red onion

3 cups tomato juice

1 can (14 1/2 oz.) chicken broth

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients; whisk together until well blended. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Cover and refrigerate one hour or overnight.

in this issue

– Fresh This Week…

– Elodie Farms Dinners on the Porch

– MoonDance Soaps & More

– Sarah’s House of Clay

– Angels Nest Bakery

– Fickle Creek Farm

– Meadow Lane Farm

– Photography by Pamela Strand

– SEEDS

– Harlands Creek Farm

– Terra Clotha

– Market ScheduleDuring the winter, the farmers’ market appears to be in our off season. There are fewer farmers selling their goods at market, we are open for fewer hours and less often. However, behind the scenes the market is buzzing with activity. During the winter, we accept applications for new vendors and inspect farms and businesses in order to uphold the integrity of our claim that we produce what we sell. We work on advertising for the new season, order merchandise, coordinate events for the coming year, plan a new Wednesday market (!!), and have our annual meeting. Not to mention, all of the spring planting that the farmers are doing!
Farmers’ markets around the country are set up in many different ways. Some are run by local governments, others, like the markets around Washington DC, are managed a non-profit group that was established to set up and mange markets in a region, and others, like many of the markets in this area, are independently run. Here in Durham, our market is a membership organization and is governed by a Board of Directors that is made up of members from the organization. No matter how the markets are set up, it is pretty common that every year, the membership meets to discuss plans, business and have some time catch up outside the hustle and bustle of market. So, with our meeting coming up, I’ve got to run, there’s lots of work to be done.

Thanks for shopping with us and supporting your local farmers, bakers, and crafters.

See you at the Market!

Erin Kauffman
Market Manager
Vegetables: Beets, Carrots, Broccoli, Cabbage, Green Onion, Kohlrabi, Napa Cabbage, Rutabega, Sweet Potato, Turnips
Greens: Arugula, Lettuce, Salad Mix, Spinach, Chard, Collards, Kale, Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens,
Herbs: Cilantro, Parsley, Rosemary
Meats: Beef, Pork, Bacon, Lard
Etc.: Eggs, Fresh & Aged Cows Milk Cheese, Baked Goods, Preserves, Honey, Pecans, Crafts and much more…
Elodie Farms Dinners on the Porch
Hello Friends,
We are all set to start taking dinner reservations for March and April. This is a new way of making reservations and we will try to make it as hassle free as possible. If you encounter any problems, please send an email to March08dinner@elodiefarms.com (for March reservations) or April08dinner@elodiefarms.com (for April reservations.) There is a link from our website (go to the Dinner on the Porch page) or you can use this link ONLINE RESERVATIONS.
Sam Poley, former chef/owner of Starlu Restaurant will be our March guest chef!! We look forward to seeing you on the Porch!
Anne & Dave
website

MoonDance Soaps & MoreOur scratch and dent bins will be fully stocked this Saturday with confetti soaps and other odds and ends. Come by early to ensure you “get your fix”. Folks wait months for these babies to appear and our “ugly stepchildren” are usually all snatched up before you know it. We’re just happy they’re all going to such loving homes where their true inner beauty is fully appreciated. See you at market!! Rachel, MoonDance Soaps & More, 919-870-8063,   info@moondancesoaps.comwebsite

SEEDS

Durham Inner-city Gardeners will return to the market this Saturday to represent SEEDS with a few turnips, chard, collards, and some baby lettuce mix. Stop by early because we will run out fast. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

Durham Inner-city Gardeners will return to the market this Saturday to represent SEEDS with a few turnips, chard, collards, and some baby lettuce mix. Stop by early because we will run out fast. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

Harlands Creek Farm

Harland’s Creek Farm will be at market on Saturday March 1, 2008 with fresh carrots, spinach, parsley, cabbage, and green onions. We also plan to have a few bunches of narcissus and maybe some other flowers. We hope to see you there.

Terra Clotha

Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

email: info@durhamfarmersmarket.com

phone: 919-667-3099

web:  http://www.durhamfarmersmarket.com/   

Garner NC City Guide