The Weblog
The Online Market is open for ordering from 8 AM Wednesday till 8 PM on Thursday.
Spring time is upon us again. The planting of vegetables and flowers is in full spead as we work to provide an aboundance of fresh new products. Please feel free to make your selections from the great products available this week.
Remember the New Customer Referral Program
From March 20 through June 30
How it Works
1. Tell a friend about the CUMMING HARVEST farmers market.
2. Have them register at cumming.locallygrown.net. (the market managers will contact all new customers to ask who referred them)
3. After their third purchase (3 different weeks), your credit will be applied to your account.
Thank you for sharing your love of healthy food and for helping to support our local growers!
Stephen Daniels
770-905-9155
Farmer of Day - Saturday - Heirloom Gardens
Paula Guilbeau, the one and only…Farmer Extraordinaire, will be visiting us at the market this Saturday. Paula’s specialty is propagating and growing organic produce and flowers in her 7 green houses. She would love to meet you and will be there between 9:30-12pm.
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
This week we’ll go over finances. This is pretty lengthy and much of it is copied from our mother market manager, Eric Wagoner, at Athens Locally Grown. He’s got this market thing down since this is his 16th year. We’ve been in business going on 6 years this coming August.
First off, we’re legally an LLC, and the market is owned and operated by me. You may have heard the market described as a co-op but it has never legally been one even though it’s run in a cooperative spirit.
We’re not a non-profit, either, but we’ve structured things so that over time the market can just barely cover its own expenses. Just like all of our member farms are sustainable growers, the market itself needs to be sustainable. So how do we cover its expenses? One small way is through the memberships you pay. The $25 a year you give to the market is enough (to put it bluntly) to cover most of the costs of having you as a customer: banking fees from depositing your checks, paper and ink for printing, web hosting fees, and that sort of thing. There really isn’t much left and I’m happy to provide those that ask, a copy of our budget.
By far the bulk of our funding comes from the growers themselves. They pay a 10% commission on their sales through the site. This money covers the storage we use, the tables and shelves used to spread out and organize your orders, the food allowance we offer our volunteers, rent and utilities, etc. During the slow parts of the year, the sales are usually not enough to cover our weekly costs, but in the busy times (late fall and early spring, for us) there is extra. If we plan things out well, it pretty much all evens out in the end.
In 2014, the total sales and memberships combined through the market amounted to $168,509.00. 90% of the sales went straight to our growers, and the rest went to rent ($120/month), web hosting ($5,140/year), transportation, insurance and various small business expenses. The “profit” gets counted as personal income on my tax forms, and comes out to roughly $2-3000/year.
The growers get paid out of the shared cashbox for their week’s sales when they drop off their items, during the hour before we open the market. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order. We used to then rush to the bank to deposit the money to cover the checks we just wrote to the growers, but now the growers get paid the following week (money you pay via credit cards takes up to a week to reach our account). As explained elsewhere on the website, you are really ordering directly from and paying the growers yourself, but our shared cashbox system makes things convenient for you and them. (Imagine if you ordered from ten growers having to write ten checks when you picked up your items!) This shared cashbox system has so far satisfied the tax man, but it does mean that if you place an order and then never arrive to pick it up, we’re left holding the bag. For that reason, you are responsible for paying for orders not picked up, and that amount is automatically added on to your next order for your convenience.
So, in probably far too much detail, that’s how we operate financially. Our market might be more expensive to run than a traditional “booths and tables” farmers market, but that price buys a system that’s simple, time-saving, and flexible. There’s not much money in the bank, but the market is paying for itself and that’s my primary financial goal. If you’d like to talk with me in person about this or any other aspects of TCH, just pull me aside when you come by to pick up your order.
Many of the decisions I make for the market are based on how the founding market, Athens Locally Grown, is run. The ALG market manager is also the web developer for the website and is in their 16th year of running. We hope to be around for that long too. :)
LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
Google Map
PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
How The Cumming Harvest Operates
Market News
Welcome to 2016, and another year of The Cumming Harvest. This will be our 6th year in operation, and we are looking forward to many more. Many of our growers have slowed down for the winter, delivering every other week or otherwise reducing their availability. Many others, however, are still going strong thanks to greenhouses and other season-extending methods. Now that the holiday season is behind us, we’ll be open every single week.
Each year, I devote the first few mailings of the year to the behind the scenes operation of TCH. This week, I’m going to talk about the many legal issues surrounding our market. Even though many people call us “the co-op”, TCH is legally a market owned and operated me, so I can have a place to sell items I occasionally offer from my own garden. There’s no board of directors, no shield corporation, no pot of grant money. It’s just me, and while that keeps things very simple, it also exposes my family to a ton of potential liability. There are several things I do specifically to minimize that risk:
- The growers list their own items and set their own prices. When you buy from them, it is from them, not from me, and not from The Cumming Harvest.
- The Cumming Harvest never takes ownership or possession of the food. The growers drop it off, and you pick it up.
- Everything at the market has a customer’s name attached to it when it arrives. TCH does not repackage any items.
- When you pay, you’re paying into a shared cash box for all of the growers. This lets you write a single check or swipe your card once for convenience, but you are really paying all of the growers directly and individually. Your money goes in, and the software keeps everything going spits out checks for each of the growers you buy from.
- The growers give a small percentage of their sales, 10%, back to the market to cover the many expenses of keeping the market going. I’ll cover the details of finances another week.
- TCH never buys from a grower and resells the items to you. Although I do take group orders and purchase from out of state items that we can’t get in GA. Things like butter, cheese, cod liver oil, etc.
- When a grower sells items that need licenses from either the state or the federal government, TCH verifies that the proper licenses have been obtained.
In the following weeks, I’ll get more into the nuts and bolts of finances and other aspects of how we work. Many of the decisions I make for the market are based on how the founding market, Athens Locally Grown, is run. The ALG market manager is also the web developer for the website and is in their 15th year of running. We hope to be around for that long too. :)
LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
Google Map
PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
Welcome back, we hope you all had a wonderful holiday. See you at the market on Saturday.
My Daily Bread is off this week, but will be back next.
Your Account
FREE MEMBERSHIP You can now waive your membership fee of $25 just by signing up to volunteer one full Saturday morning, 8:30am-12:30pm. It’s fun and rewarding to experience “behind the scenes” of our locally grown market. Volunteers greet farmers and customers, organize food delivery and pick up, and check-out customer orders using a ipad. Check out this online sign up sheet to find an opening. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4baca92fa13-thecumming
UPDATE CONTACT With all the hustle and bustle of back-to-school and new routines, it’s easy to forget things like picking up your TCH order. Remember that we can’t keep your items past 12pm, and we’ll try contacting you any way we know how to make sure you get what you ordered. Now’s a great time to check the phone number on your account to make sure it’s a number I can reach you at 11:45am on a Saturday. I start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up yet then, and will keep trying to reach you until 12pm, when we have to pack it all up. I hate seeing people’s food go somewhere else, and having a good phone number on your account is the best way to keep that from happening.
Main Market Location and Pick Up
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040. Pick up every Saturday between 10-12pm.
Google Map
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
To Contact Us
The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter
The contact information for each farmer and vendor is located on the Grower page.
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
This is the week to purchase for Christmas dinner…the market will be closed next week and will reopen online Wednesday, December 30th.
Look online today for all our Holiday specials!
KKD has listed several yummy treats and side dishes including pies, sides and yummy bread pudding!
My Daily Bread has a delicious Gluten Free Tiramisu Roll as well as an organic pumpkin roll listed online.
B&B Enterprises will be bringing by some various gift baskets for customers to purchase on Saturday, including items like bees way lip balms, wildflower honey, bees wax candles, and more.
Java Genesis Coffee Roasters has listed their famous Holiday Blend is a great morning cup for those that love a smooth yet balanced cup of coffee during the Holiday season. As you celebrate the season with family and friends, nothing will start the conversation better than a great cup of this blend. It is a Colombian based blend with a bit of our Mexican and Ethiopian coffees that has rich, warm undertones. It’s a well balanced, awesome cup of coffee. Holiday Blend makes a great gift and is available for a limited time only. Pick up several bags to share at your holiday gatherings this year! Note: Listed as whole bean or ground. Coffee will be ground for drip brewers. If you would like to have your coffee ground for French Press, Espresso, Keurig or any other brew method, please email me at javagenesis@gmail.com or call 678-773-0932.
Heirloom Gardens even if you’ve already decorated for the season, a wreath from Heirloom Gardens is still a must have. The pine scent and natural beauty of Paula’s wreaths are good to last you through the season (TIP: Mist it weekly and hang not in direct sun). Hang one of her wreaths up and you’ll have neighbors asking about it.
Heritage Farm No milk this week. He said it would be about another 3-4 weeks till milk will be listed again on our market.
Other milk sources are…
Carlton Farm – pick up on Wednesday from 3:30-4:30pm at Chalcedon Church off Pilgrim Mill Road.
Don’s Farmers Market – off 141
We’ll see you this Saturday and then again in the new year!
Your Account
FREE MEMBERSHIP You can now waive your membership fee of $25 just by signing up to volunteer one full Saturday morning, 8:30am-12:30pm. It’s fun and rewarding to experience “behind the scenes” of our locally grown market. Volunteers greet farmers and customers, organize food delivery and pick up, and check-out customer orders using a ipad. Check out this online sign up sheet to find an opening. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4baca92fa13-thecumming
UPDATE CONTACT With all the hustle and bustle of back-to-school and new routines, it’s easy to forget things like picking up your TCH order. Remember that we can’t keep your items past 12pm, and we’ll try contacting you any way we know how to make sure you get what you ordered. Now’s a great time to check the phone number on your account to make sure it’s a number I can reach you at 11:45am on a Saturday. I start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up yet then, and will keep trying to reach you until 12pm, when we have to pack it all up. I hate seeing people’s food go somewhere else, and having a good phone number on your account is the best way to keep that from happening.
Main Market Location and Pick Up
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040. Pick up every Saturday between 10-12pm.
Google Map
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
To Contact Us
The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter
The contact information for each farmer and vendor is located on the Grower page.
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
The other markets have now closed and all the growers that grow during the winter are excited to supply us with their produce. We are so happy to be able to operate this market for them. For many this is their full time job/love, so having a place to sell through the winter is very important to keep them going. We’ll be open this week and next week, but will be closed the week of Christmas, Dec. 21-26th.
Look online today for the beginnings of Holiday specials on prepared foods and bakery items.
KKD has listed several yummy treats and side dishes to get you ready for the holidays.
My Daily Bread is back this week with their popular baked loaf breads, chocolate zucchini bread and holiday organic pumpkin roll.
Heritage Farm has listed pork bacon ends and pieces at a really great price. Perfect to add to a pot of green beans or any green veggie if you don’t want to cook it up for crispy bacon.
Heritage Farm No milk this week. He said it would be about another 3-4 weeks till milk will be listed again on our market.
Other milk sources are…
Carlton Farm – pick up on Wednesday from 3:30-4:30pm at Chalcedon Church off Pilgrim Mill Road.
Don’s Farmers Market – off 141
I know there is so much more listed (over 600 products!) I just can’t name them all.
Your Account
FREE MEMBERSHIP You can now waive your membership fee of $25 just by signing up to volunteer one full Saturday morning, 8:30am-12:30pm. It’s fun and rewarding to experience “behind the scenes” of our locally grown market. Volunteers greet farmers and customers, organize food delivery and pick up, and check-out customer orders using a ipad. Check out this online sign up sheet to find an opening. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4baca92fa13-thecumming
UPDATE CONTACT With all the hustle and bustle of back-to-school and new routines, it’s easy to forget things like picking up your TCH order. Remember that we can’t keep your items past 12pm, and we’ll try contacting you any way we know how to make sure you get what you ordered. Now’s a great time to check the phone number on your account to make sure it’s a number I can reach you at 11:45am on a Saturday. I start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up yet then, and will keep trying to reach you until 12pm, when we have to pack it all up. I hate seeing people’s food go somewhere else, and having a good phone number on your account is the best way to keep that from happening.
Main Market Location and Pick Up
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040. Pick up every Saturday between 10-12pm.
Google Map
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
To Contact Us
The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter
The contact information for each farmer and vendor is located on the Grower page.
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Market News
Good Morning,
The farmers are anxiously awaiting the market to open so they can harvest for you. They have lots of beautiful greens ready for picking, lots of grass fed and pastured meats in the freezer, hopefully lots of eggs saved up for us and so much more.
Heritage Farm No milk this week. He said it would be about another 3-4 weeks till milk will be listed again on our market.
Other milk sources are…
Carlton Farm – pick up on Wednesday from 3:30-4:30pm at Chalcedon Church off Pilgrim Mill Road.
Don’s Farmers Market – off 141
MOVING – NOT YET
We found out on Sunday that the contract fell through and we don’t have to move, so we are staying!! That doesn’t mean our location is permanent though but at least for the time being we are welcome to stay.
Your Account
FREE MEMBERSHIP You can now waive your membership fee of $25 just by signing up to volunteer one full Saturday morning, 8:30am-12:30pm. It’s fun and rewarding to experience “behind the scenes” of our locally grown market. Volunteers greet farmers and customers, organize food delivery and pick up, and check-out customer orders using a ipad. Check out this online sign up sheet to find an opening. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4baca92fa13-thecumming
UPDATE CONTACT With all the hustle and bustle of back-to-school and new routines, it’s easy to forget things like picking up your TCH order. Remember that we can’t keep your items past 12pm, and we’ll try contacting you any way we know how to make sure you get what you ordered. Now’s a great time to check the phone number on your account to make sure it’s a number I can reach you at 11:45am on a Saturday. I start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up yet then, and will keep trying to reach you until 12pm, when we have to pack it all up. I hate seeing people’s food go somewhere else, and having a good phone number on your account is the best way to keep that from happening.
Main Market Location and Pick Up
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040. Pick up every Saturday between 10-12pm.
Google Map
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
To Contact Us
The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter
The contact information for each farmer and vendor is located on the Grower page.
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is just a reminder that the market will be closed this week to enjoy time with family. We hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Also, we are still looking for a new location to have the market. We are so thankful to our friends, customers and landlord that generously donated our current spot to us for the last 4 years. The building is being sold and so its time to move on.
Ideally a new location would be in Cumming, a warehouse or shared business space with power would be ideal. We would only need to use the space one day a week. If you can think of any ideas let me know.
Again…Happy Thanksgiving!
Suzanne and Bill
Turkey Deliveries tomorrow
For those of you that have pre-ordered a Thanksgiving Turkey and a holiday ham…Greg will be delivering these tomorrow and you can pick them up between 10-12pm.
Here’s what Heritage Farm has to say…
We have the birds all cleaned and packaged and are headed for home. They are BEAUTIFUL!!! They did run a little larger this year so our average size is 19 pounds and the average breast only is about 7 pounds. All whole birds and breasts will have a balance due at pickup. We sold the whole breasts as an approx 4.5 pound item but since they are almost 7 pounds we will have to collect balance at pick up. In most cases this will be about $20.00 extra on the breast only packs. For the whole birds it will be $7.90 per pound less your deposit. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!!!
The Hutchins Family
Heritage Farm
770-377-5380
This Week at The Cumming Harvest
Thanksgiving News
Good Morning,
It’s Thanksgiving time and we have you covered for veggies and homemade baked and prepared dishes. KKD Sweet Snacks has listed a variety of classic Thanksgiving sides for your table. Search for Thanksgiving and you should get the items special for this holiday.
Also, My Daily Bread has their famous dinner rolls and a special pumpkin roll dessert listed for the holiday along with all their other delicious baked breads. A necessity for the table.
Five Hens Farm Reserve your 1/2 of a Hog to be raised just for you. They are a Yorkshire/China Polland/ cross, very tasty, tender and darker pork. Raised outdoors, we feed them a diet of non-GMO, soy-free, locally grown feed and all our farm produce they can eat. We do not use any chemical dewormers, antibiotics or growth hormones. We raise them to around 200-300 lbs. You will get the all the representative cuts of the entire side (chops, Boston Butt, Picnic Roast, ribs, uncured ham steaks (or whole, if you want), uncured bacon (or sausage, if you want), neck bones, and breakfast sausage or Italian Hot or Italian Sweet sausage). You will get around 65 to 100lbs of meat at $5.75 per lb. That price includes vacuum packaged processing. I will bring each half to market for pick up. You can fit about 30lbs of meat per cubic foot of freezer so you will not need a big one. The deposit is to hold the pig for you. The final cost will be adjusted to $5.75 lb. For example if the processed weight is 100 lbs you will still owe and additional $300 when we deliver for a total of $575 for the half hog. If you are interested in the liver please let us know ahead of time. The price includes the market fees paid to locallygrown. Will contact you for cut options. Allow approx 1-2 months for delivery.
Heritage Farm No milk this week.
Other milk sources are…Carlton Farm – pick up on Wednesday from 3:30-4:30pm at Chalcedon Church off Pilgrim Mill Road.
Don’s Farmers Market – off 141
BIGGER NEWS – WE ARE MOVING
The big news this week is that the unit we use has been sold and we will be moving. We are actively looking for a new location and planning to make the move no later than the week of Dec 1-5. Many of our farmers that are able to sell through out the winter do so because that’s their primary income. Therefore, having a transition like this at this time isn’t easy. We hope we can locate a good place and move without much down time not only for them but also for you.
So we can focus on packing, we will not have a market next week, November 28th. We’ll see you next at a new place hopefully not too far in the future.
If by chance you know of someone that has space and would love to support our locally grown coop please let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Suzanne
Your Account
FREE MEMBERSHIP You can now waive your membership fee of $25 just by signing up to volunteer one full Saturday morning, 8:30am-12:30pm. It’s fun and rewarding to experience “behind the scenes” of our locally grown market. Volunteers greet farmers and customers, organize food delivery and pick up, and check-out customer orders using a ipad. Check out this online sign up sheet to find an opening. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4baca92fa13-thecumming
UPDATE CONTACT With all the hustle and bustle of back-to-school and new routines, it’s easy to forget things like picking up your TCH order. Remember that we can’t keep your items past 12pm, and we’ll try contacting you any way we know how to make sure you get what you ordered. Now’s a great time to check the phone number on your account to make sure it’s a number I can reach you at 11:45am on a Saturday. I start calling everyone who hasn’t picked up yet then, and will keep trying to reach you until 12pm, when we have to pack it all up. I hate seeing people’s food go somewhere else, and having a good phone number on your account is the best way to keep that from happening.
Main Market Location and Pick Up
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040. Pick up every Saturday between 10-12pm.
Google Map
To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest
To Contact Us
The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter
The contact information for each farmer and vendor is located on the Grower page.
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!