Monthly Archives: June 2016

LOVE the Farmers Market

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The Old Lady sees Farmers Markets everywhere these days.  Downtown parking lots as well as highway roadsides blossom with displays of fresh produce and other locally made delicacies.

Hand-made soaps
Hand-made soaps
Happy shoppers!
Happy shoppers!

Valdosta, Georgia, offers Farm Days on the courthouse square downtown every Saturday during summer.

Farm Days in Valdosta, GA on the courthouse square
Farm Days in Valdosta, GA on the courthouse square

Spending money at your Farmers Market not only gets you fresh, local, healthy food – it also ensures that your money stays in your own community instead of vanishing into the Great Corporate Black Hole.

Hot fresh falafel with tzatziki sauce and fresh baked bread
Hot fresh falafel with tzatziki sauce and fresh baked bread

FALAFEL!!!
FALAFEL!!!
Music, unplugged
Music, unplugged
Grass-fed beef
Grass-fed beef

LOVE what you eat, and LOVE your local farmer!

Listen to The Old Lady!DSCF1165

LOVE on the Farm

pan field clinicThe Old Lady lives in extreme south Georgia, which is a mostly rural and agricultural area.  Farmers recruit people in other countries to come plant and pick the crops, people who work the fields in the broiling sun up to sixteen hours a day seven days a week for minimal pay with no health benefits and in areas so remote that there is nowhere they can go for healthcare anyway.clinica gratuitacircleEvery June a group of medical students and medical professionals from Atlanta spend a week of their own time setting up temporary clinics in those fields to offer free healthcare services to the farmworkers.waitingEach evening a different local church hosts the healthcare workers for dinner, with the congregations cooking so much food that there is always more than enough.food healthworkers 2

Rev. Stan White of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Valdosta prays before the dinner
Rev. Stan White of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Valdosta prays before the dinner


food healthworkersAfter these selfless medical workers eat they usually go right back out to hold another clinic in another field until late in the evening, and they take all the leftover food with them… to feed the farmworkers they are serving.  Imagine what a treat, after working so hard in the heat all day, to come in from the field and NOT HAVE TO COOK that evening especially since the waiting lines for medical services can be long.food at fieldThe LOVE shown by the healthcare personnel who are so generous with their skills and time, as well as the local churches who are so generous with food, literally takes The Old Lady’s breath away… in a very good way.ag health initiative

LOVE on Fox Mountain

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The Old Lady enjoyed the Gemini Mountain Music Fest at Fox Mountain, honoring all born under the sign of Gemini.DSCF0933

There was music…DSCF0979DSCF0985DSCF0992DSCF0994… community food…DSCF0942DSCF0927DSCF1001

… community work…DSCF0921

… community dogs and children…DSCF0922DSCF0941DSCF0982DSCF0925… and just plain COMMUNITY.DSCF0929But, more than anything else… there was LOVE.DSCF0972DSCF0973DSCF1002DSCF0974DSCF0981The Old Lady enjoyed most the LOVE.DSCF0996