LocallyGrown.net Weblog

It's Conference Season!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:15:08 -0500

Late fall and winter is the time growers get together to share their successes and warn against their failures from the previous growing season. I always go to the conferences near me, and as locallygrown.net spreads around the nation, I’ve been invited to those a bit more distant, too.

This month, I’ve been to the Financial Permaculture Summit in Hohenwald, Tennessee, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association conference in Anderson, South Carolina, and the Alabama Organic Production Conference in Andalusia, Alabama.

In January, I’ll be attending the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group conference in Chattanooga, TN. This is probably my favorite conference, and is well worth the journey from wherever you may be.

If you’re anywhere I happen to be, don’t hesitate to say hi and ask any questions you may have. If I was speaking and you’d like to see my slides, you can find them online here.

I look forward to seeing you!

Very Successful Summer

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:24:44 -0500

I didn’t keep up with all the goings on on this page, but it’s been a busy and successful summer for locally grown markets all over the country.

What began as a small alternative market six years ago in Athens, Georgia has spread to other communities in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and California.

My own market exploded this year. The video on this site was filmed two years ago, and I was hopeful that the nearly 50 orders that week as a sign of things to come. Well, we’re now up to almost 800 customers, 40 growers, and enough orders each week to keep five people busy for four hours a week. Instead of merely being an alternative market, it’s now the main farmers market in the area.

The other markets are seeing similar growth. Partly it’s because of the ease of use of this locallygrown.net system, but mainly it’s because people are waking up to the true costs of food harvested on industrial farms and shipped halfway around the world. Attendance and sales at markets around the country are growing like never before, and this online market system just happens to be in the right place at the right time.

I’ve been busy all year adding incremental improvements to the system. Every time customers, growers, and market managers have found things that could be optimized, customized, and simplified, I have done what I can to make it so. In the eight months since I opened the doors, 28,000 items have been purchased earning growers $153,000. It’s not a lot (yet) compared to the industrial farms, but it has helped established small family farms keep going and encouraged many more to begin growing food for their community.

And that is why I put all the effort into this system.

Buy Local on the Mountain!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:14:57 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes the Cumberland Farmers Market sewanee.locallygrown.net/market to the Locally Grown network! The Cumberland Farmers Market has weekly pickups in Sewanee, Tennessee. The folks running this market used to live in the Athens area and have seen first hand how wonderful it is to have a market like this in the community, and we’re happy to have their new market on board.

Connecting North Texas customers with local farmers and craftspeople

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:49:46 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes Cross Timbers Food Cooperative to the Locally Grown network! Cross Timbers Food Cooperative has monthly pickups in Denton, Texas, and serves the entire north Texas area.

MOORE FARMS and Friendsâ€¦Real Food From Real Farmers

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:08:59 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes Moore Farms and Friends to the Locally Grown network! Moore Farms and Friends has weekly pickups throughout the Atlanta area.

Up and Running!

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:41:13 -0500

The Athens switchover happened as scheduled. LocallyGrown.net is now open for business!

Going Live!

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:05:53 -0500

All the major features are complete, and the Athens market will be going live with the new system this weekend.

I’ve got some detailing left to do and some documentation to complete, but the system is ready to use!

Order Processing Under Way

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:36:02 -0500

I’m working on the backend of the system, used by the growers and market managers to fulfill the orders.

To see how the system works from the customer’s point of view, take a look at my market’s site—athens.locallygrown.net

We’re still on track to move our market from the old site to the new in a couple weeks.

A Few Weeks To Go

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:18:21 -0500

I am nearly finished with the customer-facing portion of the system. Most everything is in place from the creation of the market through the placing of orders.

I hope to have the order processing capabilities in place in a couple weeks, and then I’ll “go public”.

I haven’t made any big public announcements about the site or the system yet, but there are groups who have been waiting literally years for me to open up the process enough for them to use it. One of them, Cumberland Co-op in Tennessee, has been using the peices as I get them built to get their market going. You can see for yourself how they’re doing at sewanee.locallygrown.net

Preview Announcement

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 02:52:12 -0500

We’re planning on going live in January, but I just sent an email out to a few people who have been waiting (some for several years) for me to get this far.

If you want to join my announcement list, send an email to software-subscribe@lists.locallygrowncoop.com and the friendly robot at the other end will get you all set up.