Sugar Mountain

Oh to live on Sugar Mountain…
With the barkers and the colored balloons…
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon…
You’re leaving there too soon…
(Neil Young – Sugar Mountain)

Although the title of this weblog would be against what my food beliefs follow, it is also one of my favorite Neil Young songs, and Neil Young is who I listen to, each and every year when the fall weather starts to creep in.

I have chatted about growing up in the West End of my town, the special bonds that I still share with the friends who were part of my childhood and teen years, and the eclectic, free kind of lifestyle we all lived even with being so young. We had such a close knit community, it was the 70s, and it’s just how the times were for us.

In a special place, nestled in an almost magical woods, there was a secret place that we all would hike to as a coming of age rite of passage, almost. We would hike down rocky paths to the most breath taking site of water, water falling, total seclusion. The early and mid fall were the most magical. We would go in our groups, make it a day, camp for the night, always loaded with old boom boxes, or cassette players, for our tunes. It always seemed to be Neil singing to us.

The secret place housed so many of us, in those years. Our fun, our mischief, our music, our bonds of friendship. When the weather turns to fall, I immediately let myself drift back to those colorful, sunny days with Neil Young drifting in the air, and my band of friends all together, in our sparkling secret local place.

Sadly, that local tradition, the local loveliness is no longer. Bulldozed the woods, filled in the secret water falls. All for new neighborhoods of the 90s. Neighborhoods that were built around our small, local neighborhoods, neighborhood grocery…suddenly, all phased out when bigger was better, newer was better and local was out.

Now, look at things…people all crying over the fact that progress took the beauty of our favorite places. That’s what can happen if you don’t protect all that is local. It can be gone in a minute, never to be had, again.

I feel strongly about all things local. Obviously, this is why I feel so passionate about this little local market of love. It’s our market, it’s your market. We are the faces of local, you are the faces of local. Together, we have made quite the local statement with this market. I hear it on the streets, and in meetings. I hear it from local businesses.

We are local…and this fills me with love.

Today, is the last day for market ordering for the week!! Don’t miss out!!

We have new sizes of milk added back on, new varieties of baked goods for the fall weather, herbs and garlic blends for your fall cooking needs, end of the season produce, maple syrups for your hearty breakfasts, locally produced meats for your fall soups and stews, dried beans to add to dishes, coffee to take the chill off of your mornings, new products coming on Thursday, a new vendor which excites me, eggs are back in full force, lettuce is back with a new crop from End of the Road Farms! Tons of upcoming festivals and farm tours and open houses and an upcoming Local Foods Lunch which I will be giving more details on, soon…

We have it all…and, we can make it even more than it already is just by all of you embracing the local love.

Give us a look, place your orders, and let us take care of the rest..

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam