Dancing Days

Dancing days are here again as the summer evening grows…
You are my flower, you are my power…
(Dancing Days-Led Zeppelin)

Well, the summer weather, the warm breezes, the opening of even more area farmers markets, and the beginning stages of seasonal produce at both this market, and the outside farmers markets, I would say we are about to be in full swing of our local love!!

It’s time to take full advantage of all that will be coming to this market, each week, now! It’s also important that you take advantage of the early seasonal asparagus, live plants/herbs…we about to see the end of the plants/herbs!! Get it all while we still have them!!

For the past few weeks, your market manager, and assistant managers have been working hard, researching, networking, exploring. Charlene has opened up the local Champaign County Farmers market, and has also been busy with side projects, and her own amazing, beautiful gardens.

Mark has been busy in the fields, he has been busy with barn work, he has been busy with raising Oakview’s hogs, moving hogs, restocking his shop, our market, and his area locations with locally produced product, and busy with his never ending promoting, researching other market venues, and side projects. He will help me, this Tuesday night, along with Michelle Comer of Homecomer Traditions, kick off the Summer of 2015 season with the Mechanicsburg Farmers and Artisans Market.

Me? Well, my little downtown local shop front is doing so very well, I have been out and about researching other market venues, I constantly bake for my shop, for this little local market of love, for the venues I am featured in, and I am getting ready to begin my crazy baking for market season. I have been working on Art Affair on the Square, promoting the downtown, and even had a quick news spot on the Channel 7 news, this past week. I will open the market up in the ’burg, on Tuesday, work my shop all week, work this market for you on Thursday, and then join the many vendors of the Springfield market, next Saturday. There is also the summer season of festivals and events, coming up…

So, not only are the three of us working hard for this little local market of love, we are also out in the trenches, rockin’ and rollin’ each and everyday!! Just like all of you…

But, in these crazy, dancing days of summer, it’s nice to have the calm of this online farmer’s market. The ease of ordering from your home, or any location. The ease of shopping without lifting a finger. Knowing that this market brings you the best of the best in products, prices, vendors…we are very vocal to our vendors, and they know that we expect the best from them because we want the best to come to you.

Part of our market research has been to explore what it out there in surrounding counties. What we can do better, or what we can do to better serve you. Our findings are this…we do local like nobody else does local. We are passionate, informed, loyal, local…we are so very lucky to have this county, this kind of local spirit, this kind of local love…

It’s Sunday…it’s a rainy day. Show some local love by placing your orders. You know you love us, we love you, and we share this love fest vibe…start your dancing days of summer..

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

We Bid You Good Night!

And, sometimes, we have to say good bye for short amounts of time during the busy market sesson!

Tonight, we say, see you soon, to bothe Homecomer Traditions and Sunshine Gardens…

A blurb from Michelle…

Homecomer Traditions is in vacation mode until October. :)
Sunshine Gardens also in vacation mode until then (at least.) Katie’s products are still available by order, call 937-834-3667. Customers can pick up their orders at Sunshine Gardens retail store 11772 State Route 4, Mechaniscburg. Her products are also available at Champaign County Farmers’ Market some weeks and at the flea market at the Champaign County Fairgrounds the first Saturday of every month.
Thank you so much.

Rosemary

All around her…
The garden grew…
Scarlet and purple…
And crimson and blue…
(Grateful Dead-Rosemary)

Happy Thursday evening, little local market of love customers!! Can you believe it’s Thursday, and time to open the market up for the week, again? And now, with the passing of the Memorial Day weekend AND the ending of my weekend away at the annual Jubilee music festival, it’s time to get down to the business of the upcoming summer season!!

YES!!! Summer Of Love…Let The Good Times Roll!! It’s the time of year that is my favorite!! The days grow sunny, bright, hot, long. The old familiar feeling begins to creep in that was part of my youth. The carefree, throw caution to the wind, see what each day brings kind of mood!!

My music festival was most fun!! It let me relax, regroup, rejuv, and get my dancing vibe on. I feel like a new person, again, ready to take on the months of physical market season, festivals, events, and this never ending love for the little local market of love.

This market is amazing, easy to use, cost effective, packed with local goodness, and ready to help you with all of your needs!

We are also very seasonal…so, if you want to order live herbs and plants, you need to do so, pronto!! Same with seasonal asparagus, green onions, and all of the other seasonal items that will be coming our way!! Get them, savor them, and enjoy them while we can!!

It’s also the official time for grilling season!! Look at our local meat selections to make your dinners easy, grilled to perfection, and making your life easy! What about fish? A great grilling idea for those hot and hazy evenings.

We have it all to get you through the week!! Herbs, vegetables, meats, cheeses, dairy, breads, baked goods, syrups, jams and jellies, eggs…so much to get your summer groove on!!

Look to us for your Summer Of Love goodness!! We are here for you…we want to make your summer as pleasant, stress free, and packed with local goodness as we can!!

And, to make it even more fun?? I am bringing back the fun of the Market Love CD Playlist…everyone LOVED that, last summer season. Get ready…a set list of songs and lyrics that I use, on a cd, randomly picked for a customer, each week!!

We really do offer it all!! And, we do it with so much fun!!

The market is now open, you may place your orders, and we look forward to your smiling, happy faces, each Thursday!!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

A Whole Lotta Love!!

A whole lot of local love goes into this market! A whole lot of seasonal love! A whole lot of year round love! A whole lot of the best local products around!

We do local like nobody else does local! And, we do it with love, with honesty, and the real deal!

I got back from the magical, mystical music festival weekend, yesterday. I was so filled with love, with fun, and with determination that the markets I manage, will be the best little local markets, around!!

Show us some LOVE, tonight!! Get your orders in!! I have been crazy busy since my return so I am leaving the market open until 10:30!! Go, order, feel the love…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Open For Business!

The market is open!!

Get your groove on!!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes!!

Cosmic Pam

Are You Kind?

Anybody’s choice…
I can hear your voice…
Wo, oh, what I want to know, how does the song go…
(Grateful Dead – Uncle John’s Band)

Shedding a little Grateful Dead into the market, tonight. One of my very favorite Dead songs. Off of Workingman Blues. I urge you to pull this song up, listen to it as you place your market orders.

It will put a smile on your face, a song in your heart, a big thank me, always, after you are done listening.

I am about ready to depart to my annual music festival trip, this weekend. Off to celebrate The Grateful Dead, relax, meet up with old friends, get a whole lot of sunshine, soul shine, groovy vibes. By the time I pull into the gravel lane that is Maggie’s Farm, I am transported back to the 1960s, 1970s…it’s all peace, love, music.

We all set up our camp, we get our tapestry lounges all set up, we greet all of our camping neighbors, make sure our tents are all secure, and then the fun begins! We all drift down to the stage areas, the sun sets on Friday evening, and we are treated to hours of the first night’s music. Grateful Dead fun, dancing, feel good times.

It’s such an outpouring of fan loyalty, fan love, bongo drums, fire twirlers, flower children…a little slice of local love. Just like this market. A slice of little local heaven. The best products, the best vendors, the best prices, the best way to shop. Full of love, full of goodness, full of good vibes.

So…how does the song go? It goes like this. We are extremely fortunate to have a market like this. It’s a farmer’s market made easy. Take a moment, think about the upcoming weekend holiday, and think about how your song will go…

You have until 10pm to get your orders in. Don’t leave your groove until the end. You never know what you might miss! We make it easy, we make it fun, we make it full of love…

I will be twirling out of town on Thursday. Your market will be run by Mark and Charlene…thankfully, they realize how important this weekend is to me. I couldn’t run the market without them!

Go, order, show some love…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Welcome Back!!

We now give a heart felt welcome back to the gang at End Of The Road Farms!!! When we last saw them, they had just had baby Mary, they were heading into winter, and they had big plans for the upcoming season!!

And so…now they are back!! With their first offerings of the season…take advantage, make your orders, and just like with all seasonal produce, it won’t be around for long!!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

The Look Of Love

That’s the look, that’s the look…
The look of love…
(ABC – The Look Of Love)

So, this past weekend was the graduation of the Cosmic Co-Ed, who is now the Cosmic Graduate? Anyway, sitting at the ceremony, crying, and feeling so proud of my daughter, I listened to the speeches as they spoke about many things that come with being an alumni of EKU. It made me think of my own EKU pride, my own reflections back to the some of the most amazing times, amazing bonds, and amazing memories and accomplishments.

I graduated in the mid 1980s. I remember it like it was just yesterday. The college years, the music, the sorority, the clubs, the friends, the classes..as we left the ceremony, on Friday, with the excitement of the day, the many hugs with the graduates that I have grown close with, over the past four years, big hugs to my own graduate, and many memories, I took a quick buzz through the campus, one last time. I took a buzz through the pretty little college town. I remembered each downtown place, each club, each hangout. 80’s music was blasting in my brain. And, this song totally summed up my thoughts, my goodbye, my closure. Will I go back? Yes, I will be back for homecoming festivities, sorority alumni functions, but to actually make trips down to be with my daughter, no, not so much.

Anyway, this song also has popped into my brain to describe my day, yesterday, after scouting out multiple surrounding county farmers’ markets. I am not going to name the counties or the markets. It was for an education, of sorts. Research. But, in the midst of this, I stumbled on some very amazing findings.

The Look Of Love…our little local market of love. This sentiment never rang more true…

After the research, I would like to give the vendors of this little local market a HUGE dose of love!!! And, of thanks!!!

Hands down, the products offered on this market are superb to some that I ran into on my research frenzy. The vendors of this market? OMG…you are the best!!!!! You sell your booties off, you are SO customer friendly, your products sell on their own but our customer base LOVE seeing your smiling faces, when they can, with your products. Price points? TOTAL love fest, here!!! Your prices and your dedication to making sure you keep your prices at an affordable price point for our customers are what makes this market soar!!! The product offerings on this little local market of love? Totally blows other markets out of the water!!

So, as market manager, fellow vendor, market cheerleader, I thank vendors and customers from the bottom of my heart!!! Pride, love, pricing, product quality…you do it all, you do it with the look of love, and you make this market what it has become!

The look of local was never filled with so much LOVE…

The market is open, the products are outstanding, the seasonal products will be short lived, and we would love to show you what local love looks like!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Jammin'

We’re jammin.. I wanna jam it with you!!
We’re jammin.. jammin…and I hope u like jammin too…Bob Marley

So, in honor of the Jubilee music festival I am leaving for, next week, and the fact that it’s a festival heavy on the Bob Marley and Grateful Dead, AND, the fact that this week, Cathy Pullins of Champaign Berry Farm is offering their red raspberry jam, on sale, at our little local market of love!! All other Champaign Berry products are regular priced!

Go, order the amazing jam!! We’re jammin’ to these prices!!

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam

Graduation (Friends Forever)

So if we get the big jobs…
And we make the big money…
When we look back now…
Will our jokes still be funny?…
Will we still remember everything we learned in school…
Still be trying to break every single rule?…
Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?…
Can Heather find a job that won’t interfere with her tan?…
I keep, I keep thinking that it’s not goodbye…
Keep on thinking it’s a time to fly…

(Vitamin C-Graduation-Friends Forever)

So, yeah…as local goes, as local love goes, as the seasons come and go, so does graduation time. It seems like it was just a second ago that I was sitting at the graduation of my Cosmic Co-Ed’s Graham high school graduation. It was big tears, lots of memories, lots of what now? Lots of throwing myself into the early stages of Cosmic Charlie. Lots of bittersweet thoughts as she went on with college.

That was four years ago. She is graduating from my alma mater. She is graduating wearing the ribbons and sash from our shared sorority. Yes, alma mater AND same sorority. I was so proud when she became a college freshman, at my college, and pledged sorority in my sorority. She had the exact college experience as I had down in the most beautiful college town and campus in Kentucky. I became entrenched in going back, active in alum sorority events, reconnecting with my Kentucky ties. Once you are a part of Kentucky, it remains in your heart, forever. I have bonded with her sorority sisters. Was voted sorority mom of the year. She thrived and took her department by storm. Just like she was such a vibrant part of this local scene, she became a vibrant part of the local scene, down in Richmond.

As kids go, she’s a pretty special girl. She is my only child. She overcame a whole lot in her young life. She went through major heart surgery at 6 months old, and major back surgery when she was in 6th grade. She defied all odds. She went on to enter school at age 4, and thrive. She went on to take her back surgery, and make it a positive. She retrained herself in gymnastics. She cheered varsity football and basketball back in the heyday that was Graham’s super basketball seasons. As exciting as the games were, nothing excited me more, or moved me to tears than to watch her do backflips up and down the court. Not many people knew what she had to overcome to be out there, doing what she loved.

When people talk about heroes, she is all I can think about. Hands down, she is one of my greatest heroes and inspiration. She never gave up, never let things get to her, she knows how to keep pushing, she is goal oriented, and she is the best of the best.

So, tomorrow, is graduation for the class of 2015 at Eastern Kentucky University. It is so emotion packed for me. She is trying to say goodbye to her sisters and friends of the past 4 years. Once Richmond captures your heart, it’s very hard to pull away. She is looking at the roads she would like to travel, next. I am saying goodbye to the campus beautiful, one last time.

It’s a love and pride and dedication. Much of what this little local market of love exists on…love, pride, dedication. Lives change, new paths are explored, we leave, we return, we love, we lose, we grow…it all happens, and it all happens in a local fabric. Local love is everywhere…make this local love mean something to you. Place a market order, get to know who your local faces are, what we stand for, what we are trying to accomplish…

Tonight, I open the market to the many local and seasonal products!! We’ve got it all!! Take advantage…being local was never so easy. Show your pride, your love, your dedication…

Peace, Love, Good Vibes…
Cosmic Pam