The Market is open for ordering!

The Market is open Thursday at 9 – Monday at noon After that, ordering is disabled until Thursday morning. Pick up your order Tuesday from 4:00-7:00 p.m. only at Rancho Alegre Farm at 2225 Givens Road, Dacula, GA 30019. New to The Market? Learn about how it works here.

MARKET NEWS

I thought I would share with you the more “behind the scenes” details on how we operate Gwinnett Locally Grown since many people ask if we can do things not realizing why we may or may not be able to do that. So I’m sharing a little of our hosekeeping rules we follow. I’m going to talk about the many legal issues surrounding our market. Even though many people call our Market “the co-op”, GLG is legally a market managed by me and owned by Pilar and Rancho Alegre Farm, so we can have a place to sell items we occasionally offer from her own garden and the Farm. There’s no board of directors, no shield corporation, no pot of grant money. It’s just me managing the week to week and Pilar’s belief in offering the community a good source for healthy and nutrient dense foods and other chemical free products to make your lives healthier. While that keeps things very simple, it also exposes the Farm to a ton of potential liability. It’s never been an issue (except when the whole raw milk thing erupted a few years ago) but there are several things we 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 us, and not from Gwinnett Locally Grown specifically.
Gwinnett Locally Grown 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 unless it may be stocked on our shelf or you buy a Rancho Alegre product.
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, the software we use to keep track of the growers sales and what is owed them. At the close of Market, I write checks for each of the growers you buy from based on the software’s calculation of what is owed them. This is a labor of love for us, not a huge “money making” business. Just folks wanting to provide a good service to other folks!
The growers give a small percentage of their sales, generally 10%, back to the market to cover the many expenses of keeping the market going. We also pay a 3% weekly fee to the software person who developed our software program.
When a grower sells items that need licenses from either the state or the federal government, GLG verifies that the proper licenses have been obtained.
The ownership issue is key. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t offer delivery, and why we usually can’t hold items for you if you aren’t able to pick up your orders. Delivery might be a good business for someone (if they could figure out all the legal requirements), but it’s not at all what we personally want to be into right now. Many food co-ops and even some farmers markets aren’t as careful with keeping ownership straight as we try to be, and that has gotten other groups similar to us into serious legal trouble (deserved or not) over the years. There are so many grey areas in all this, and the written regulations still don’t even consider that something like Gwinnett Locally Grown might exist. We’re so firmly in the grey areas with most everything we do that it’s just too risky for us.
I hope that gives you an idea of how important this Market is to us and for you! We are very grateful for our customers and their support of Gwinnett Locally Grown!

*_If anyone is still interested in ordering from Green Pastures for Fermented Cod Liver Oil, please email me!

Thanks for a great Market last week!

*Please share with friends and family about us so that we can give more people the opportunity to buy and eat healthy! Local farmers need our support to keep providing us with all the fresh foods! If we don’t give them enough business, it’s hard for them to continue to deliver to us. Please let’s not let that happen! Tell your friends about us so we can keep the Growers supported as this is how they make their living. *

I hope that this year will be the best year in health for you and your family!

Browse through to see all the great Growers we have and maybe you will find something new!

We have Wilderness Family Naturals Coconut Sugar, Flour and Organic Popcorn in the Market for sale! When you come to pick up your order, check them out! They are also now online!

If there is something you’d like to see in the Market, please let me know! I would love your imput!

Remember…
The Market is extending their hours! The Market will now be open from 4:00 to 7:00pm!
Having said that, if you place an order with us, PLEASE remember to pick it up on Tuesday. As I am so grateful for your orders, I also have a family at home waiting on me too! We cannot hold orders, especially cold items due to limited refrigeration space, so please be courteous and come for your order.

CLICK HERE NOW to Shop Gwinnett Locally Grown!

Thanks for all your support!

Shop often and eat well!

Cheryl Gelatt
Market Manager
grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com

Fresh Wishes,
Pilar Quintero
Market Host
Rancho Alegre Farm

Please email grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com for questions pertaining to Market or Raw Milk. It is very difficult to return phone calls. Remember to interact with us on Facebook and follow us on Meetup to get notification on all our wonderful events and news.