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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What's The Story Morning Glory?


What’s the story morning glory?
Well…
Need a little time to wake up wake up…
(What’s The Story, Morning Glory?-Oasis)

I had a lot of nicknames when I was young…two of them were, Mary Sunshine, and Morning Glory. Both were very tongue in cheek, in direct conflict with my morning mood as a young child.

I hated to be talked to or looked at, while I was waking up, over my glass of genetically modified Tang Breakfast Drink, and bowl of healthy Trix. I had hair that looked like an egg beater went through it, my eclectic 70s outfits, and my big attitude. So unlike me, in my later years, when I perked right out of bed, grabbed coffee, and a much healthier breakfast, and bopped right out the door.

Anyway…Morning Glory was the nickname my grandmother gave me, and when I stayed the night at her house, she kept me away from the Tang and Twix, and fed me a real breakfast. My grandfather poured me real orange juice, and snuck sips of his coffee to me.

As I got older, I began to notice the difference in food at my house, versus my grandparent’s house. I came from the cliché 70s household where we practiced all of the food fads. When my parents divorced, it was a free for all of packaged, easy, not real food.

Lucky for me, my grandparents were a short bike ride, in the West End, and I biked there for my dinners, and most of the time, slept in my room, at their house, and enjoyed a real breakfast before catching the bus to school.

Now, not saying that my own household was poorly run. It was just a house of the 70s. That’s the direction the food front was taking, and a lot of parents of suburbia jumped on the bus taking them to a life of ease, with very little cooking.

These days, you know me…I’m the old school culinary hippie. I raised my own daughter with my old school, organic, crazy hippie granola ways. I had her in 1993 when the food front was even more of a mess. I refused to join the bandwagon of the moms, back then, and ignored the Lunchables, etc. I was determined to heed my grandmother’s teachings. Real food, in real time.

So, with all this behind me, another fun fact about my nickname, Morning Glory, is that when I very first relocated to this area, back in 1999/2000, I started a brief stint as a muffin baker for early morning delivery to a Springfield business, and yes, you guessed it…I called that little business, Morning Glory.

My grandmother was still living, then, and she helped me go through her old recipes, and together, we brainstormed. But then she got sick, they had to sell there home, and move into a facility better suited for her needs, and then she left us, and I put Morning Glory to rest. My inspiration was gone, and I didn’t want to move it forward without her.

And then, much later, I launched my bread business, and while I named that business a different name, the old Morning Glory attitude has always been there.

So, in your own morning glory state, we are moving into a Monday, and we have many new products added to our market. Take a bit of time while you are waking up, wiping the pixie dust from your eyes, and place your orders…

We are here to make your mornings, your days, your week, easy…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam