Tuesday Reminder

Hello!!

Just a quick reminder, in the middle of all of your fair fun, that we are open, that we have all kinds of local goodness from produce, to honey, to mushrooms, to fresh garlic, to dried herbs and spices, to coffees, teas, fish, meats, breads, baked goods, candy, candles, maple syrup, eggs, sweet corn, exotic peppers, seasonal berries…just waiting for you!

We know you are busy with fair activities, back to school shopping, vacationing, and just generally enjoying these last weeks of freedom, but if you want to throw us an order or two, it would make us smile!! And it would make you smile!!

The market closes, tonight, at 10pm!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

It's Monday, Honey!

Oh, yes, sugar pie, honey bunch…

It really is Monday, and we now really do have HONEY!!

Go ahead, rush right in, grab your market list, and make sure to make honey part of your weekly shopping, this week!

We finally have local honey, again, and we are so excited to welcome, Dave!! Make sure to go the Growers tab to read all about him while we wait for him to write us, a bit more, about his honey!

Ok, enjoy the local county fair. And, then…get your honey!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

I'm Travelin' On

Been to California, been to Washington, too…
packed away my whole life, when I was lookin’ for you…
You’re not here, now, I’m travelin’ on…
(I’m Travelin’ On-The Coteries)

So, yeah…this is one of my new fav bands to listen to. They performed, locally, here, for us, in our very own local park. Courtesy of our very own local Arts Council. Travelled from North Carolina to perform, and they were an AWESOME show!! Such amazing talent, right here, like so much of our own local talent, performing, needing support, in our own little local community.

I have a HUGE soft spot for musicians, bands, music muses…all of it. And, big surprise, I have a HUGE thing for local. And, food. And, community. And, eating locally/seasonally. I have a HUGE soft spot for our local growers, producers, artisans. I have a HUGE soft spot for our downtown, our surrounding areas, and for all of the people who make this all happen. This scene we like to call local.

One of my favorite local guys is Brad Gregg of Gregg Family Farms. He comes to us from both Rosewood, and Mechanicsburg. He is a seasonal, familiar face up in the ’burg. One of the first vendors at that market, many years ago.

I manage that particular market, and it was such a welcome sight to see him all set up with his sweet corn, this past Tuesday. Up in Mechanicsburg, we run a growers only kind of market. That means our produce, this season, was a little late to get started, but when we hit our stride, it was a beautiful sight.

Brad helped with that sight, along with other local growers. And, now, he is here with us, at our little local market of love. His sweet corn, his exotic peppers…

And, how fitting that a local face comes back to us, the same time as another local fixture…tomorrow, we welcome in the Champaign County Fair!! A summer favorite, a local favorite, a local tradition steeped in local history.

So, here we are…no need to go travelin’ on…we’ve got it all, right here…

I open the market, tonight, to welcome you to our world of local…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Who Loves You, Baby?

Today, our little local market of love, and it’s market managers, are sending huge doses of love, good luck, good vibes, and a huge amount of pride down to our sister market in Miami County!!

Yes, after almost two years, the Miami County Locally Grown market is going LIVE, today!!!

And, at the helm? You know her from our market…it’s Jennifer from End Of The Road Farm!!

We have loved helping, advising, and listening to everyone involved with getting that market up, off, and running!!

Job well done, Brian!! You took the ball and ran with it, and now the market will rock under Jennifer’s management!!

I remember the excitement on the day that this market went LIVE!! And look at us, now!!

Who loves you, baby? We do!!

Much love, peace, and good vibes…
Cosmic Pam

The Time Is Now

The time is ticking away, and you do not want to miss out on this amazing market week!!

We are seeing an amazing market, amazing orders, and more and more additional vendors trying to get on, get their pages set up, and if not ready but tonight’s deadline, watch for them on Thursday at the market opening!

So, did you get your ’shroom fix?? Mushrooms? Organic mushrooms? Go, now, order…Jay is doing amazing, fungi kind of things in his organic facility!!

Produce…organically grown but not organically certified…a mixed box! Like a mixed bag of tricks!! For produce!! From the Hippie and the Farmer’s gardens!!!

To come…honey!!! Just waiting for Dave to get it all listed!!

Welcoming back…Brad Gregg of Gregg Family Farms!! Next week, he will bring us all of his exotic peppers, ghost peppers, and, and, wait for it…his amazing sweet corn!!

All of this newness PLUS all of the vendors and products that you know and love!! Meats, spices, herbs, raspberries, baking supplies, garlic, breads, baked goods, dog treats, jams/jellies, lettuces, greens, fish, coffee, teas, eggs, produce, soaps, syrups…we have got it GOIN’ on!!!

Ok, the market will close at 10pm…race, don’t walk…order!

Keep up the orders…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Oh, Honey!! Oh, Sugar, Sugar!

And, for more market fun, our new honey vendor, Dave, is about to make his market debut!!

Keep watching for my next Weblog as Dave gets ready to go live, today!!

Mushrooms, honey, and Hippie and the Farmer produce! Three new vendors in a few short days!

Keepin’ the Lovelight shining!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes!
Cosmic Pam

The Magic Mellow Mushroom

Well, little local market of love customers…you are in for a huge treat!!

Our market is so excited to welcome Jay Jenkins of Lakeview Organics to our vendor family!! And, to kick things off, he has put just one out of many varieties of his mushrooms on our market!!!! He has an AMAZING facility that he was nice enough to work around my schedule, and Mark’s schedule, the past few weeks. It was SO cool to see how he is growing things, what his plans are, and all that he will be soon offering, along with a future market field trip his place!!

I will let Jay write an intro to him, his partner, and what all they are doing!!

So…let’s all get excited…we’ve got mushrooms!!!! Go, order, be exotic!!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Tuesday Tune

It’s Tuesday!! It’s pick your own tune, and groove it, day!! It’s Tuneful Tuesday!!

And, just like groovin’ to your own beat, your own tune, go ahead and place your orders as only you can! It’s an easy way to shop, you customize your own cart with only the items that you want or need!

Go ahead…see how easy it is to shop local, to make it all your own, to groove your own tune…

The market closes, tonight, at 10pm!! Think about all that we can offer you…think about the ease, the affordability, and the nutrition…

Sing your tune, place your order…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…

Woodstock

We are stardust…
We are golden…
And weve got to get ourselves…
Back to the garden…
(Woodstock-Joni Mitchell)

Introducing the newest duo to this little local market of love…

Hippie and the Farmer, LLC is a business that was formed between Cosmic Charlie Bread and Oakview Farm Meats. We offer, sell, distribute boxes of themed, once a month, boxes to individuals and corporations. Farm fresh goodness, just one field away, from our farm to your door. These boxes are packed with assorted frozen meats, produce, breads, seasonal local fruit, assorted other seasonal items, newsletters, recipes, menu plans, shopping lists, and fun music playlists. These boxes can be purchased by visiting our Facebook page at Hippie and the Farmer. The popularity of our boxes rests on the unknown theme, each month, and the surprise of the contents, each month!

BUT..HERE, NOW, FOR A LIMITED TIME, THIS SEASON…

We would like to offer Hippie and the Farmer mixed produce boxes to our online market, here! The produce comes from the three large gardens, on the farm, of Oakview Farm Meats, also the site of the Hippie and the Farmer, LLC fully licensed commercial kitchen.

We use all organic methods of growing in our gardens, but are not certified as organic!

We do local, we are local, we support local.

Hippie and the Farmer mixed produce boxes…a box of local love!

As we pick from our gardens, we will put these items in your boxes! The fun is in the mystery of what you will find! The picture would be a good example of the items, with other produce as well as fresh herbs, as we have them!

You love us and trust us as your market managers, and now you can love us and trust us as Hippie and the Farmer!

Oh Yeah, Life Goes On

Gonna let it rock
Let it roll
Let the Bible belt come down
And save my soul
Hold on to sixteen as long as you can
Changes come around real soon
Make us women and men
(John Mellencamp – Jack And Diane)

Good Morning little local market of love customers…another sunshine kind of day, a start to the weekend, and a perfect time to begin the planning of your upcoming week, what you will need, how we can help, and how we can off you amazing local goodness with ease, with love, with pride.

Lately, I have been reflecting. Reflecting on all of the changes that I am going through. Adapting to some of the changes. Running with other changes. And then, on some changes, when I really let myself think about them, I find myself needing the comfort of my friends, my quiet, my need for the familiar.

I chose this song lyric and song, today, because it transports me back to 1982. I have been thinking a lot, lately about that year. One of the reasons is that a few weeks ago, my graduating class of 1982 had an impromptu casual reunion. The invitations came via a group text. It came out of the blue, it sounded fun, but it also came with a bit of nervousness. I had not reunited with my class, as a whole, since I moved on in 1982. I have my West End gang, and the few people I have stayed in contact with, but as a whole, I would be revisiting my youth. My glory days, although my glory days were long put away.

The last time I had been in contact with my best friends, my early circle, had been when we all departed for college that fall of 1982. I remember this song was a song that we played, over and over and over, that summer. We took a big vacation, all of my girlfriends, on the open road, off to the beach. Suddenly, pictures were being sent via texts, from that vacation. I sat and smiled, and remembered, and was excited for the mini reunion.

The same week, my daughter began the process of moving to her new apartment. You all know she moved home after graduating college, last year, while she found her post college job, saved money, and planned her next move.

The same time frame, the new business that I am a part of, with your other market manager, had hit it’s huge stride. Like explosion status.

And, as with every summer, I had Art Affair thrown in, that takes my life, my time, my energy. I love it, but man can it drain you.

So, with all of this, I went to my reunion. I had a 1982 playlist happening on my drive. I emerged into the patio of the restaurant, and suddenly I was pulled into one hug after another. Suddenly, drinks were being ordered, all around, and just like that, we were those crazy kids of 1982. Each time someone else walked in, there were more screams, more hugs, and then my inner circle was reunited. And, we spent the rest of the evening reliving, catching up, and now we are all connected, once again, like we never parted. I get daily group texts from my high school pals, and it feels so good to know that while everything changes, some things really do stay the same.

And, my daughter moved. It was so very hard, this time. When she moved off to college, and Italy, I knew she would be in and out, back and forth. This time, well, this time…she is an adult, out on her new path, her new life, in her new pad. I am so proud of her. So excited to watch her next steps. Another change.

So, with all of these changes, and getting used to a new business that already has growing pains, and being overwhelmed with the tasks of the summer, I found a bit of quiet comfort in cleaning out a forgotten cabinet in my kitchen. In doing that, I found my very first cookbook that I got when I was 5 years old. I sat, and flipped through the pages, and smiled, and remembered the recipes that I was always dazzling my family with, back then. And, in the back, was a photo tucked into a page. It was a photo of our 1982 group, right after one of our high school proms. We were all snazzy, and tanned, and had sun kissed hair, and we were all smiles, and our dates were all fresh faced boys, and we were all waving to the photographer, and right there, in my kitchen, I embraced all of the changes of this summer.

Embracing change is one of the hardest things to do, but for me, it’s made easy with piecing it together with a bit of nostalgia with a dose of the familiar.

Like this market…the comfort in this market, for me, is the familiar, and the nod to local food at it’s simplest. Local food is not trendy. Local food never left us. Like all of the changes I have gone through, this summer, the local food scene has gone through twists and turns but in the end…it’s here. It’s always been here. And, we want you to experience a trip back to the familiar.

Take a look at our market. Take comfort in the fact that we are you local familiar. Give us your trust and your orders. And, we will give you the familiar love that has always been here…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam