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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They Say It's Your Birthday!


Go ahead…cue the Beatles birthday song!!

In all of our market history, we have been closed these two weeks of the market because of how the holidays fall in our weeks of operation.

So, not only have we missed you at Christmas and New Year’s, we never get to tell an important part of our market, Happy Birthday!!

Today is your other market manager’s birthday! Yes, it’s Mark’s birthday!! And, while he likes to call himself the assistant manager, he really does more than sit and drink coffee at the market…lol. He is the greatest help, he picks up the slack when I need it, or when I cannot be there, he fills your orders, (usually mistake free)…lol, and he keeps the humor going.

He is the other half of this market team, and we want to all make sure to wish him a Happy Birthday when we see him at the market on Thursday!

So, today’s birthday shout out goes to your other manager, Mark! May his day be merry and bright!

Christmas Is All Around


I feel it in my fingers,
I feel it in my toes,
Christmas is all around me,
and so the feeling grows
It’s written in the wind,
It’s everywhere I go…
(Christmas Is All Around from my favorite Christmas movie, Love, Actually)

Good morning, lovely customers of our little local market of love!

Last night found me in Columbus in the midst of all the other Christmas shoppers. I have spent my month, shopping small, in small towns, and last night I had to hit the bigger town, with bigger shops, to mark a few desires off the Christmas list that has been mocking me in my bag of tricks.

I was not sure how it would end. Would it be a mania of me not finding anything left? Pushy people with bad attitude? Overly heated stores with people in my personal space? Who knew how things would go…but I was about to find out.

To make sure I started in a good mood, I picked a cute vintage outfit complete with a little vintage white hat that I like to call myself the ice princess when I wear it. I picked a Rolling Stones heavy playlist for the drive. Their early, early, less commercial stuff. The B sides of more popular songs. And, a coffee to go. I was on my way.

It was cold but I chose an outside venue for shopping because I like the thrill of the cold, the lights, the music that was tinkling in and out of each store. I was bundled and ready.

And guess what…it was just what I needed. The people were all happy!! Shoppers and store workers were amazing! I ran into an old friend and we chatted and laughed. Each store was more helpful than the last. The items I needed for my list were all there, and some even on way the heck great sales! People kept stopping me to ask about my outfit! (Okay, not going to lie, this always floats my boat) And, when I went to get more coffee, the employee told me that he was paying for it because I looked like Christmas…what?? (Not going to lie, again, I could get used to that)

Anyway…on the drive home, I reflected on the day, and with each pass through the store doors, with each light, with each Christmas song, with each person passing me with a smile, a hello, and watching the fun groups going into some of the pubs, I was, once again, filled with happiness that Christmas really is all around us.

And, while it happened when I was shopping was not the point. It was the attitude and feeling that was taking place. A kindness, a love, even a gentle ebb and flow of hope…

So, while I am all about keeping it small, keeping it local, keeping it at our market, it was good for me to be out and about in the sea of Christmas shoppers, to know that there is love, everywhere…

Especially at this little market…

So, while you are out and about in your Christmas haze of shopping, merry making, cooking baking, cocktail drinking, present wrapping, carol singing…think about us, think about last minute local gifts, think about shopping us for your holiday weekend needs…

Christmas is all around…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Holiday Soap Tales


Hello all!
Can you believe Christmas is only a couple more days away?! I am not even close to being ready yet! And I have a pretty good feeling I’m not the only one….surely some of you have last minute gifts to pick up. Well, this week on the market you can get our soap gift sets for $13.00 (reg. $15). Sometimes procrastination pays off! These sets are perfect for just about anyone…teachers, co-workers, uncles (yes, men love it too! It’s great to use for shaving with!), aunts, grandparents, friends, mail carriers…the list is endless!
Holiday set includes: Frankincense & Myrrh, Holiday Spice, O Christmas Tree, Peppermint, and Sweet Orange Clove
Fabulous 5 set includes: Tea Tree Lavender, Lemongrass, Pink Grapefruit, Peppermint, and Sweet Orange Clove
 
Order away!!!
Christmas Blessings,
Laura (ELM Tree Essentials Soap)

River


It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on…
(River-Joni Mitchell)

One of my favorite Joni songs, as well as another favorite Christmas song…

Well, the weather took a huge turn for the ice and cold, rain, snow mix…the icy surfaces are keeping your market manager in for the night, enjoying a glass of wine, twinkling lights, and music.

I am rather calm for having exactly one million things to do before I can even begin to say I am ready for Christmas. Each year, I get a little more relaxed with it, choosing to just let it all sort of take place.

I did manage to place a market order for this week. Were you able to get your order in? Are you thinking about how nice it would be to order baked goods, breads, meat, eggs, herbs, spices, honey, maple syrup, lettuces, fish, candles, candy, soaps, oils, dog treats, pet bandanas, pies, cookies, coffee, tea, flour in both whole wheat, and gluten free? What can we do to make your holiday an easy and stress free occasion?

Think about it…this is the first time in market history that we are able to remain open right up to the holiday!! Take advantage…we would love to see you!!

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Moondance


Well it’s a marvelous night for a moondance…
With the stars up above in your eyes..
(Van Morrison-Moondance)

I was driving home, tonight, after having closed our little local market of love, a quick stop, and a quick chat with an old friend, and while my little VW was driving through the country roads, the moon was so beautiful, huge, glowing, and amazing!

I groove to the moon…so lovely, so peaceful, so available for glances, so mysterious in her appearances.

I love an amazing moon drenched night. It moves me, it grooves me, it mesmerizes me. Much like this little market.

Tonight, as each customer came to the market counter, I loved seeing and chatting with each one. Some, I missed out on because I was busy with other customers, but then your assistant manager would take on the other customers, making sure all was right in their world, and sending them on their way with their market orders. Kim, the amazing YMCA staff member, even made me, and your assistant manager, a pot of coffee when we begged!

The ebb and flow, the yin and the yang, the good and the bad…it all balances us. Life, the little moondances we all do, the little balances that take place to make sure we are all getting through each day, this thing we call life.

I would like to think of this market as the little moondance in each of our lives. The balance, the stability, the good, the one thing that can make life a whole lot easier.

It is now open, it will remain open for our first time, ever, during a holiday week/weeks!!

Go look at the moon, do your own little moondance, and then order…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Last Call!


You know what to do!!

We close at 10pm!

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Hazy Shade Of Winter


Seasons change with their scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won’t you stop and remember me
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter…
(Hazy Shade of Winter-currently listening to the Bangles version)

The song that could really reflect all of the seasons of the soul. For me, it will always be a wintery song, that used to blast out of my little car, as I sped into the night, down/up/all around Mulholland Drive, back in my Los Angeles days.

Looking out my windows, this morning, I am seeing our own hazy shade of winter, the beauty to some, the dreary to others.

On days like this, who wants to even think about bundling up to trudge out the grocery. Stay cozy, enjoy the glow of the Christmas lights if you are decorated for the holiday, grab a cup of hotness, and pull up our market site. Order all that you may need, this week, for your upcoming days of cooking, dining, or gifting…we can totally help you out!

Let us take care of these hazy shades of winter kind of days…you, just order, and take it easy…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
PS…for real fun, dig out your old Bangles music, put it on, dance it out…a real 80s groove!

2000 Miles


And these frozen and silent nights
Sometimes in a dream
You appear
Outside under the purple sky
Diamonds in the snow
Sparkle
(2000 Miles…The Pretenders/Coldplay also covered my favorite version)

So, it’s pushing toward mid December, we now have the first snow of the season, and once again, I sit on the sidelines of everyone doing their shopping, seeking the other meaning of Christmas. The love, the kindness, the compassion.

Yes, I will soon have to join the masses to buy things. But, it’s something I just do not enjoy. I don’t enjoy someone handing me a list and telling me to get what’s on the gift list. I love meandering around, drifting in and out of little out of the way places, and falling on something that may catch my eye, and immediately makes me smile, because it is perfect for someone in my life.

I hate the commercial Christmas. I love the love of the season, the peacefulness. Which brings me to this post, today. I know that this sounds like I have my resting Grinch face on, but I do not. Christmas is beautiful, and lovely, and brings back so many memories of the West End, my grandparents, and it brings back memories of cold days in college, racing through winter finals, to hit the roads to home. To my old room, to my friends, to my Christmas job at the local mall, the community spirit, back then.

Last night, I was playing a Christmas playlist while I was busy in the kitchen. This song popped on, and to me, it is my favorite Christmas song. It spoke to me in college, it spoke to me when I was a flight attendant, and couldn’t get out of LA to get home for the holidays. To me, it’s the most beautiful expression of the season.

I went to sleep with this song in my head, and woke at 3am. I wake at 3am, every night. I wake, I think, and I go back to sleep. Last night, I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I started to read through my Facebook newsfeed, and ran across a story from my alma mater, Eastern Kentucky University. It was a story about students who began a service. A service that is run only on donations, and the story was sent to the alum pages of Facebook. In case the alum wanted to help. They were appealing to the alum because they knew that many of us, if not all of us, would know what they were doing, and why it was so important to the students who needed this service.

The service is delivering boxes of food to students in need. Yes, there are students who are in need. Not every student has unlimited money, debit cards, credit cards, parents who can fund their every need or desire. These are the students who are in college, but after the needed expenses are paid, have no leftover funds for food. A real struggle. They are not the students who need money for Chipotle and Uber. So, a group of students have come to the alum because back in the day, we pretty much were ALL the struggling college kids. I know I was. My tuition was paid for but any extras, any food that wasn’t on the tuition food plan, any books, all on me. My mother was able to send me 50.00 every two weeks. I know it was the early 80s, blah, blah, blah…but I worked two and three jobs, each summer, to fund the coming year of what I would need. But, I was still very fortunate. I had a way to support my college self.

But, with money tight for most of us, back then, there were students who were way more in dire straits than we were. And, this is where my blog is going…

The story that I was reading, told of the kids getting their inspiration for the service from a legend from our college days. She was a little woman known as Ma Kelly. Ma Kelly opened up her big, old, rambling house, cleared out most of the furniture, crammed tables and chairs, everywhere, and took everything off the walls. She opened up a haven for the EKU college kids. She brought communal dining to a new level. She cooked, she served hot lunches, sometimes a Sunday breakfast, but always for the cheapest of money. I think for like 2.00 you got a huge meal, and a drink. She had chipped plates and glasses, and she allowed us to all sign the walls of the house, write messages, etc. You never knew who you would find at Ma Kelly’s. She served all kinds of southern yumminess, no frills kind of food. She made the best stuffed peppers, and she was only open to college students. If you couldn’t afford her charge for lunch, she let you eat for free. No student left her house hungry. She was a legend in that town.

Eventually, she passed away, and then later, her house was torn down, and the legend was over.

This new group of students are taking the essence of her years, her memory, her kindness, and doing it, dorm to dorm room, free to the students in need, operating on donations from everyone.

I started thinking about our own little market of love, and how we could make that work with people who may need a little extra help, extra love, extra kindness. What if we each thought about a neighbor, a family member, a friend, a co-worker, who may need the extra help of food. What if, when each of us order during any given week, we each order items for a family who may need the gift of food? It doesn’t need to be an elaborate gift basket, or a whole la di da issue. If you know someone who could use the help, buy some items, even the most basic, put them in a box or a bag, and either gift the people or do it on the sly, giver unknown.

Let’s all search our hearts, let’s all be the Ma Kelly of our community…

I don’t know, just a weblog from the heart, from a girl who believes that the magic of Christmas doesn’t have to come from an elaborate store. She believes in Christmas miracles, she believes in love, and she believes that kindness will always win.

Locally grown with local love…go shine your love light on someone…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Blowin' In The Wind


The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…
The answer is blowin’ in the wind…
(Blowin’ In The Wind-Bob Dylan)

I am in a soul searching, Bob Dylan crooning kind of evening state of mind, tonight…

We are early into the month of December, but this is the time of the year that your market manager begins to look back on the year, look back at the paths and directions that I have taken. I put so much into my everyday life, the people that make up my circle, my businesses, this market, you, the market customers, and everyone who I have encountered along the way.

Each year, I begin to form the theme for the year to come. I have decided on my first theme for the coming year, but after listening to this song, tonight, over and over, brings me to my other theme of the coming year. The answer, always, always, is out there, blowing in the wind.

The coming year will usher in many changes in my life. And, instead of worry or doubt or fear, I am looking to the answers that will come to me, in the wind, in a sign, in just throwing all caution to the wind, and letting the chips fall where they may.

This market always is my anchor in a sea of questions. I love this market, deeper than you all can know. I believe in it, I believe in you, and I believe that our mission is still on a winding path. Some weeks, our path seems so straight forward, and solid. Some weeks, we get thrown a curve ball, that sends us asking a million questions. But, even on those weeks, I know that the answer to anything that market gets thrown, is just to keep searching, keep the faith, and know that we are loved, that our market continues it’s quiet chug down the tracks, and that you, the customers and vendors, are the answers that always exist at this little market of love…

So, tonight, I open the market for the week!! Get your shopping lists, your grocery lists, your to do lists ready!! Our market is all about making your life easier, while putting that local flair to it all…

Go ahead…find your answers, and then find your way to us…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam

Don't be left out in the cold


Pam said I should know some song lyrics to put here,but this is Mark your assistant manager. I can’t think of any right now. You can think about what song I should have chosen while you place your orders and let me know at pick-up on Thursday.