Category Archives: Food and Drink

VDT on Foxborough v. McDonalds

It looks like the strategy I recommended to the Foxborough opponents to McDonalds worked: go to the County Commission work session and you may get in the newspaper. Kay Harris writes in the VDT about Issues with development, Neighborhood upset about commercial encroachment:
According to Vince Schneider, the spokesman for the residents, the majority of the neighborhood is opposed to the possibility of a McDonald’s restaurant openin g there. The property is currently listed with Lowndes County as owned by First State Bank, but the county engineer, Mike Fletcher, confirmed Monday at the Lo wndes County Board of Commissioners work session that he has received a plat fo r the proposed development.

Schneider appeared before commissioners at the work session to request they rec onsider the commercial zoning in the area.

Many of the residents only found out aboout the proposed McDonalds from a cryptic mention by Kay Harris in the VDT a few weeks ago. Naturally, the VDT ends the current story on a note of finality: Continue reading →

Videos of Hahira Farmers Market, 10 July 2010

Every Saturday morning in June and July, there’s a farmers’ market in Hahira on West Main Street, near the caboose.

Here Andrew Young tells us about it, Saturday morning, July 10th:

This last Saturday,

Here’s a playlist for all the movies. There are more pictures in the flickr set.

-jsq

Good Meeting, Foxborough vs. McDonalds

Vince Schneider of Foxborough Avenue sums up the sense of a well-attended meeting (7PM Thursday July 8 2010) at which residents said they don’t want a McDonalds at the entrance to the Foxborough neighborhood. Vince will be speaking at the County Commission meeting Tuesday at 5:30 PM July 13, and also at the work session Monday at 8:30AM July 12.

See you there.

-jsq

Hahira Farmers Market, 3 July 2010

It’s bustling in the morning at the Hahira Farmers’ Market:

This time we picked the day before, and got to the market by 8AM. Gretchen moved quite a bit of sweet corn and okra, and some squash, pickles, and jam. Our most unusual items were the pumpkins. Continue reading →

Media to Attract Local Industry?

In addition to those previously blogged, some other projects are also mentioned in Sunday’s VDT article about the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Malynda Fulton’s writeup of the February Industrial Authority meeting mentions a couple more projects, Project Butter, and Project Loaves, both about baking, that don’t appear in either the January or April articles. This leads to the question: what are the current projects, and what is their status?

Apparently the media campaign discussed in the January article didn’t happen, since it’s not mentioned in either of the later articles.

The February writeup does brag about the Industrial Authority’s “newly-designed Web site”. Well, it’s fancy, all right. Continue reading →

Backyard Gardens for Community Self-Sufficiency

If they can do this in Silicon Valley, we can do it here. Joe Rodriguez writes in the San Jose Mercury News that “Latino theater director quits the limelight to help poor people grow food at home”:
Sugar peas, butter lettuce, red and white Spanish onions, cauliflower and other veggies filled the 4-by-8-foot planter boxes, which Lozano gave them. With four children of their own, the Lopezes live in a small house with two other families, 14 people in all.

The modest harvest won’t eliminate Lopez’s trips to the food pantry, but it does save the family the cost of fresh vegetables it would otherwise have to buy at the market.

“This is saving us quite a bit of money,” said Arturo Lopez, a wall-framer who hasn’t worked since injuring his back last year. “Our children are eating better. They come back here and eat a leaf of lettuce like candy.”

Who will be the Raul Lozano of Lowndes County? Continue reading →