Opening Bell, Old Trucks, and SSAWG Scholarships!

Season Greetings Conway Locally Grown Community,

Sadly, automobile mechanics was not part of my liberal arts education, but I do know that screeching sounds and smoke coming from under the hood means this: something is wrong. And so this past Friday afternoon found myself, my driver Troy Hopkins, the Falling Sky Farm delivery truck, several hundred pounds of undelivered meat, and some of your precious orders all stranded at a repair shop in south Little Rock.

While waiting for Andrea to come to our rescue, I reflected on the breakdowns (pun intended) of our little market, and concluded that the success of the local food movement depends largely on the willingness of customers to accept a degree of uncertainty in the supply and distribution of their food.

The day may never come when everything that is ordered through our market makes it smoothly, without delay or mix-up, from farm to market to customer. I prefer to see these small failures in a positive light however, like blemishes on an heirloom tomato. In the same way that the ugly spots do not diminish the superior quality of the fruit, the hitches in the distribution of local food are a small price to pay for the rich rewards of the local food experience.

So the next time something is missing from your order, think of it as proof of the authenticity of your food experience, a guarantee that your food is real, and it’s being produced by real farmers who are subject to the uncertainties of nature (and old trucks).

CLG Community To Provide 4 Scholarships For SSAWG Conference
The Community Fund is going to provide four scholarships to the 2012 Southern SAWG Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms Conference in Little Rock 25th thru the 26th. The event attracts over 1200 farmers and food advocates and offers fifty-six 1.5 hour sessions on a broad range of topics. These sessions will provide organic and sustainable production and marketing information for commercial horticultural and livestock producers, enterprise management lessons, farm policy education and community food systems development information.
Click here to learn more about the SSAWG Conference!

Applications for the SSAWG Scholarships are due by this Friday December 21st and will be awarded on December 24th. Anyone in the CLG Community is eligible to apply!
Click here to fill out an application!

For all of those wondering, CLG will be open the week of Christmas and New Years!

The market is now open. Go to Conway.locallygrown.net/market to place your order. Remember to hit the checkout button when you’re finished, and you will receive a confirmation email when your order has been placed.

Sincerely,
Gabe Levin