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!
Sunday's Best
Every day is just like the rest but Sunday’s best…
(Sunday’s Best-Elvis Costello)
Sunday really is the best day of the week. It’s one of those days that when you wake up, you first are freaking out because you think you overslept. Then, your brain finally kicks in to let you know that it’s still the weekend. But, not just the weekend, and not like Saturday.
Sunday is all it’s own to do with it what you will. Some Sundays, I am a total bum, hide out, drink coffee, watch mindless tv, take a million naps, and linger in the kitchen, working on a recipe or two. Tinge the whole day with music, rumpled clothes, and messy hair.
Other Sundays I am all about the crazy organization of my life. If I know I have a super busy week, ahead, I do everything that I can, on Sunday, to ensure that I pull the week off. That means house cleaning, planning/prepping dinners, making a detailed list for each day to come. Sometimes my own relaxation comes from this kind of Sunday craze.
And, while I am getting my life all worked out, I make sure to sit and place my market order at this little local market of love.
If I know my ordering is taken care of, I can mark that task off of my Sunday list.
Why not give yourself that same sense of accomplishment? Go ahead…take a little time, today, out of your Sunday, to make it the best…
On a side note…my products are all on Vacation Mode for this week. I have back to back events that started, last night. On Thursday, both of your market managers will be involved with Empty Bowls. Our combined business of Hippie and the Farmer will be offering two of the soup selections for the evening. And, yours truly, will be the evening’s bread baker, once again, and that means I will be busy baking for that. I had to take time off, this week, from you, my lovelies.
But, I will return, for next week’s ordering!!
Okay…make your Sunday the best!
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Hello To Another Week!
We are live, we love your love, and we want to fill your ordering needs!
Show your local love!
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
And Just Like That...
…it’s Wednesday!!
This means that you have until 8am to get your orders in!! It’s been kind of a crazy week of work, the weather has been so kind to us all, and the week just sort of got away from me. Do you feel the same?
If so, take a bit of time out of your morning, to look at the market, and let us take care of the rest. You enjoy the rest of the week, and let us worry about getting you ready with all of our local goodness…
Go ahead…make your life, your week, your days easier…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Your 2018 Love In-Be In!
Hello, little local market of love customers, vendors, staff of the YMCA!!
We war well into this new year, and well into amazing market weeks of sales, thanks to our customers who keep us strong, and the staff of the YMCA, who keeps our finances all in shape, and gives us free housing of our market!!
Without this winning combination, we would be toast!!
Our market held it’s yearly meeting, this past Monday evening, to access the market, it’s vendors, it’s amazing success story, and to plan our plan into the future.
One of the things that I wanted to touch on, but got sidetracked, was how we have made the physical side of the market, AKA the pickup night at the YMCA, become more green!!
In the past 3-4 months, your market managers have been using the new features of the market site to go paperless at pick up!! We used to line the shelves with a print out for each customer, a basket, and a whole lot of time, money, and wastefulness in paper.
We now can check in vendors, check in customers, and check off the exit of each customer, all on our smart phones!! We no longer have a huge paper trail, a whole lot of ink usage for all of the print outs, and a whole lot of wasted paper that customers left behind.
Also, going into season 6, we no longer need individual baskets, papers, and stuff. We can breeze through our cyber reports, grab each item for each customer, and send them on their way with no paperwork!!
What does this mean for you? The environment? The market?
As a customer, we are adamant that we never charge you a table fee!! Most online markets charge a table fee to the customer. With going totally green, and paperless, we cut or costs WAY THE HECK DOWN!!! No more replacing printing paper and ink cartridges. Keeping things on the inexpensive side for you!!
No more large amounts of waste and trash with paper, ink cartridges…we love our environment, and want to treat it with healthy respect!!
The market runs so much more efficiently as we check each customer out with our phones!! The front desk keeps your names in the computer, with your totals!! They do a simple check out, and send you on your way. If you need a receipt, they can provide one!! If you need a detailed list of your order, you can print your own list off of your order, on the market site!!
We thank you in your support of this market, and all that we do to keep the cost down for you, the customer!!
Mark and I are totally volunteers, again, keeping your cost down, and we love that we can keep it green, in our new way to check you out!!
Now, go…order…love the love of this market…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
A Lovely New Week!
We are opening for another lovely week of market orders, and customer love…
Go ahead…don’t be shy…we love your local love!!
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Turn On Your Lovelight!!
And, get your orders in, on this love filled day of Valentine’s Day!!
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
8am is your cut off time…make the love connection…
You're In My Heart
Breezing through the clientele
Spinning yarns that were so lyrical…
You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul
You’ll be my breath should I grow old…
(You’re In My Heart-Rod Stewart)
Who isn’t a sap for a great love song on Valentine’s eve? This one always makes me smile, and takes me back to college days. My treasured roommate/sorority sister was a huge Rod Stewart fan. Like, big. Like, we still text each other his song lyrics, if we feel the other needs a pick up or a laugh.
One year, I think it was our sophomore year, we were totally down on our luck with the boys. The ones that we liked, were not showing the love. The ones we didn’t like, were chasing us all over campus. We both had impossible crushes on two guys, at that time, but they were simply not looking our way. We decided to ban Valentine’s that day. We blasted anti-love songs, we laughed at the sappy cards and flowers being delivered to sorority sisters. We decided that to counteract the sappiness, we would head to the downtown happy hour to drown it all out. We did. We got silly. We proclaimed our love of the single life, and we were quite obnoxious. We strolled on home, stopping at different house parties, on the way, to throw one more stab at taking down the day of love.
The next day, I came in from class, to see two huge floral arrangements at our house mother’s desk. I laughed, went up to the room to have a nap, and once I was asleep, awoke to a ringing phone to tell me flowers were waiting for me. I went back downstairs, grabbed the flowers, and laughed as the card read that while we proclaimed our distaste of the holiday, we were both, always in the hearts, of this one particular fraternity, (which will remain nameless in this story). The other floral arrangement was for my roommate.
So, this weblog is dedicated to the lovers of love, the naysayers of love, the ones out there spreading the love, and to you all…our lovely customers who show us the love, and the love of local, each and every week.
Let this be our Valentine to you…and let’s make this a total love fest to end all love fests!! You have all day, until tomorrow at 8am, to show your love by ordering!!
You’re in OUR hearts, always!! And, remember…love comes in unexpected ways…just like my college saga proved. We love the love that you shine on us…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Pleasant Valley Sunday
The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
They serenade the weekend squire
Who just came out to mow his lawn
Another pleasant valley Sunday…
(Pleasant Valley Sunday-The Monkees)
Need a Sunday playlist to kick your day into gear? Add this to your Sunday songs…and, while you are at it, pop it on while you are perusing the market!
The Sunday weather looks gloomy, dreary, and uncertain…make your Sunday, truly pleasant, by trusting us to help you through the week.
Take the morning to get organized, make your list, and then breeze through…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Local Love!
It’s what we do…local love!!
Jump on the love train to join the market fun!
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam
Riders On The Storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out alone
Riders on the storm…
(Riders On The Storm-The Doors)
Well, we are certainly having a bit of a snow storm out there, this early cold morning!!
Yesterday, I baked all afternoon, and while listening to a selection of classic rock songs, this came on. So fitting for the weather we are experiencing. Aren’t we all riders on the storm? Today, the snow, one day the rain, any day, whatever that storm may be?
Let us help you make the storms, be it weather related or life related. We can’t make it all better but we can help make it easier by taking the hassle out of your shopping.
We have one hour before the market closes for the week. We have so many selections, and so much for you to easily fill your cart with, press pay now, and then forget it until Thursday when you come to grab it all from us.
You just have to exit your car, pay at the desk, and dance on over to our market area where we are waiting, with your order in hand, with smiling faces, and a basket full of local loveliness…
Go ahead…be that rider on the storm but let us at least offer you a bit of shelter by handing you your local…
XOXO,
Cosmic Pam