The Weblog

The local foods movement is alive and well in Champaign County! Here are some updates on other projects while we finalize our virtual market:

Local Producers Map:
Our local producers map is ready for publication and you will soon be able to find it on gochampaign.com. Copies will be distributed around the community, in the local telephone book, and other “hangouts”. The guide lists the location and contact information for nearly 50 local producers within our county. The map was a project of the Local Food Council and printed with the help of some local sponsors including the Monument Square District, Champaign Bank, the Community Improvement Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and others. It is a great start to finding a local source for Champaign County’s finest!



 
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Take The Long Way Home


Does it feel that your life’s become a catastrophe?
Oh, it has to be for you to grow , boy.
When you look through the years and see what you could
have been oh, what you might have been,
If you’d had more time…
(Take The Long Way Home-Supertramp)

The long way home…I’m not quite sure where I am going with this because, tonight, it has so many different levels of meaning for me.

As we all know, I grew up in the west end of my hometown. I lived in a little capsule of suburbia houses mixed in with big, old, rambling houses. Both of which I lived. The west end kids were a close, scrappy bunch, who banded together while building forever ties, and these are the ties that run deep in my heart, forever.

There did come a time in my west end life, that would force me to venture in other directions, take new friends, keep the old friends, and make new paths.

This was called high school for me. Back then, the west end, the east end, and the middle end?, all went to the same high school. Freshman year found me taking on a new life, new adventures, new friends. While the west end taught me how important my friendships with the boys were, high school brought me into my first real friendships with girls.

Thankfully, I met up and began a lifetime friendship with a group of girls who all hailed from both the east end, and the middle end. I was the only west ender. We began to carve our places in the hierarchy of high school, we crushed over boys, we grooved the same activities, we partied, some of us cheered, some of us were in band, and some were on student council. We were the girls of 1982, making our mark in high school, not knowing we would become life long soul sisters.

Over the next, um, well, oh…you know, a number of years, we all watched as we departed off to colleges, as we each took off for far ends of the United States. We watched marriages, kids, divorces, deaths, finding ourselves, losing ourselves, sending our own kids off to colleges, marriages of them, and as things always go, we all found our way back to our group.

But, as age goes, as time goes, it has become our norm, to begin comforting each other, as we watch the passing of our parents. When did we grow up? When did we watch our parents age? How do we deserve this love that each of us, unconditionally gives us, in this most amazing group?

Tonight found me at the side of one of our soul sisters. Her father has passed away, and most of the high school gang was on hand, from out of town.

I looked around, I comforted, and hugged, and smiled, and had tears, and then I departed. The funeral home was on the side of town where my high school coming of age happened, so, after I left, I took the long way home, and drove around old, familiar roads, thinking, remembering, and feeling so lucky to have built these amazing friendships.

The long way home,the paths we travel in life, the people, places, and things that are on that road that takes us through life, only to wind us around, right back where we started.

I talk about how much I value my growing up, my friendships, the paths I chose in life, and the people who love me, who shaped me, and who encouraged me. This is why I feel so strongly about this little market, this little community, this little bit of love, that we are able to bring to you, each week.

We all have had journeys, we all have gone that long way home…that is why you are all so important to us. Together, for these past years, we have all just been traveling’ on that long way home, with the one hope that we are that light, that shines you on your way.

Get your orders in, tonight…we are here for you until 10pm. Think about the love, think about the light, and think about this journey of local products, nutrition, and pride that we bring to you.

Make this market your little stop on your own long way home…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam