Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 11:35 AM 12/16/2007, you wrote:

> Here's a good listing of farmers markets
>
> http://www.localharvest.org/
> or zoom in on farmers markets, 3484 listings
> http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?&ty=1&nm=

Well, that pretty much bears out what I said. In a 12-county area of 
southwest Virginia, there are exactly four farmer's markets, all in 
what passes for major cities out here. But most of the little rural 
grocery store/gas stations carry locally grown produce. So it still 
gets widely sold.

My work schedule doesn't permit me to garden as much as I want right 
now, but I am going to sell herb seedlings this spring at our 
farmers' market, assuming it's open. The town applied for a grant to 
develop an old building site that had been razed. After the paving 
was done, they found out that the grant couldn't be used to build any 
kind of structure. So it's just a parking lot, which is no 
problem--the few people who do sell there just open up the back of 
the pick up truck and do fine. But it means the town isn't 
advertising and spreading the word about it, because it isn't 
"official" yet. Sometimes you have to just scratch your head and wonder.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com