Local Food and Friends everywhere I go! Thoughts from Santa Fe, New Mexico.....

[Ty Mellon]

Wow! What a wonderful day I had yesterday at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. Not only is Santa Fe one of my favorite cities, but the farmers market they have put together is just fantastic! They have outdoor and indoor areas, both of which are stationed by MANY local farmers and artisans. I am excited to have captured quite a bit of content including pictures and videos, which I will post both on www.foogs.org and our facebook page. One of things I am continually impressed with (the 'awe' never seems to fade) is the amazing amount of knowledge and expertise these craftspeople bring to their trade. I met farmers, cheese-makers, herbalists, artisan bread-makers, ranchers, young kids with amazing musical ability (who were rightfully raking in the $$) and many other sorts of neat people, all having a wonderful time doing what they enjoy doing and are fortunately gifted and skilled enough to do for a living (or at least supplemental income).




There were a couple of things that really stood out to me; the first is the wonderful job the Santa Fe Farmers Market institute has done enabling SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) transactions so that people that receive federal and state food assistance can purchase wonderful, organic, local, HEALTHY produce for themselves and their families, not just the processed stuff that we typically associate with such transactions. Those people that believe that Food stamps should only be used to purchase necessities and not junk food or other unhealthy items may cheer the fact that programs like this exist and likely around the country. I'll continue to dig into additional information that (hopefully) supports this supposition.



Another thing with which I was duly impressed is the level of involvement in the growing,

harvesting and going-to-market process the younger kids have and how they are an integral part of creating an income for their families. One of the primary reasons FOOGS was started was because I wanted to help my kids develop a sense of connection to their food source and be
involved in the process. It's wonderful to see kids doing just this on a daily
basis, not just because its the right thing to do, but because it is how their family makes money. Talk about a tight-knit family unit. I guess that "The Family that grows together, grows together."

Being from Austin, I tend to think of my city as very progressive and therefore, pretty far along the curve when it comes to local food, slow food and the like. And we ARE, but it is really good for me to travel, get out of my bubble, and see that people across the country are like-minded and want a connection to their sustainable, local, home-grown food sources enough to engage in healthy, spirit and body fulfilling activities such as this.

I'll be putting up the vids and pics in their respective sections on FOOGS.org shortly. I hope you'll take a look and enjoy them on our site as I did in person, even as you realize I am NOT a professional photographer/videographer! :)

Best Regards and Happy Lives to you!

Ty Mellon
CEO, Founder
FOOGS.org

[Ty Mellon]

So as a nice little follow up to this post - I just ran across a YouTube video that shows a spontanteous dance party at the same Farmer's Market I wrote about. I'll post the vid here on FOOGS if it's not protected! :)

[Jennifer Nazak]

Nice, Ty!!!