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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Looking For Fun and Feeling Groovy


Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobble stones
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy
Hello lamppost, what cha knowing?
I’ve come to watch your flowers growing
Ain’t cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in’ doo-doo, feelin’ groovy
Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me
Life, I love you, all is groovy…
(The 59th Street Bridge Song-Simon and Garfunkel)

This song always seems to kick off the spring season for me. It’s fun, it’s kicky, and it’s a song that we performed in my 7th grade choir, in school, when we had a student teacher in music, that year, who was super cool, and she let us sing all kinds of cool tunes…

The last line also can apply to my recent birthday, on Friday, and the month long birthday celebration of me. I am going to share a writing that I put on my Facebook blog from one of my business pages.

Your market manager went on a personal soul journey, this month…

April has been all about my birthday month…I have taken the month to work hard, but also to take pockets of time to get away for a few adventures, a weekend away with my lovely sorority sisters on our yearly reunion that takes us to various locations.
I have also been so very lucky to have celebrated with some of my nearest, dearest, and life long friends, this month.
I watched my daughter run in a half marathon, this past weekend, and I got teary eyed at the woman she has become, even when she has no idea how totally awesome she really is.
I celebrated myself, all month. My 53rd year was not my best. No clue what was so different, but I felt like I had hit a life change. I was sick for much of the winter. I was going through the motions for most of last year. Everything around me was going very well…my businesses, like in general, but I felt like it was the year of my personal inner struggle. It wasn’t even something that I could put into words. I just was not me. I didn’t broadcast it. I didn’t go around mopey, or talking about what was going on. Simply because I didn’t even know how to explain it.
But, approaching the onset of my 54th year, I started the journey on the first day of the month. I made sure to take time, each day, to celebrate. I celebrated with shopping, I celebrated with alone time, I celebrated by having unloaded some baking jobs, I celebrated by writing, I celebrated by embracing me. My age, my accomplishments, my appearance, my tiny little lines that now dust my face. I celebrated with branching out with new hair with a new, super amazing, and super inspiring girl. I celebrated by letting everyone around me, love me. I took a trip, in my mind, retracing all of my life. The ups, downs, good, bad, happy, sad….I took time to reflect on the people in my life who inspire me, and have been with me, no matter what.
I have said goodbye to the year of the negative 53. I have said hello to the very vibrant, energetic, and possibility filled year of 54…
Life I love you…all is groovy…

I felt like this awakening is also relevant to this little local market of love…each spring, I feel a rebirth in this market. The sunshine, the warm weather, the beginning of new growth in gardens, the blossoming of flowers…it all begins to unfold, awaken, and come alive. Much like the personal journey that took me out of my 53rd doldrums…

So, with this…I did want to announce that one of our newest vendors is now live, and full of color with her floral offerings that have come early to her garden!!

Make yourself feel groovy…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam