Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 7th, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People
Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube


Good, Bad, Ugly & FANTASTIC

Valley Store Closed - Farm Continues
This week has been full of the good, the bad, the ugly and the fantastic. Where to start, I always think it is better to get the bad and ugly out of the way so here goes. Your support is showing as our store sales have been consistently going up (this is not the bad part). This led us to decide that we needed to drastically improve the Valley store. So we put together a plan that would include expensive expansion of cold and frozen units, expanding the inventory and adding beer and wine. To do this we needed various permits. As we perused the permits and got shuffled around through various government departments we landed in a conversation with the planning department and this is were the wheels fell off. Even though there has been a food/grocery store at this location for over 50 years it is not zoned for this use. Therefore we could not get the necessary permits to allow us to expand the store and finally make it profitable. So the sad state of affairs is that we have closed the Valley store.

What about the farm you ask with sadness. Well have no fear we will continue to finish out the farm season and with the owner permission, continue to farm there in the future.

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School Land To Be Purchased Before Winter
Ok now onto the fantastic. This change of events and the success of our season have lead us to believe we are ready to set up the farm school. For this we need land that is owned by p.e.a.c.h. So we have launched the Farm School fundraising campaign to raise at least $50K for the down payment on farmable land. To kick it off we have a commitment from an avid supporter for $10,000 so we are 1/5th of the way there!!! We are looking for farmable land with good soil, with or without buildings, near a bus line, with a good source of water. We need to pick the land before the snow flies.

LOCAL Feast Dinner - October 3, 6-9pm - Mark Your Calendars
To raise money for the Farm School and other p.e.a..c.h. projects we will be holding our first annual LOCAL Feast Dinner and action on October 3rd from 6-9 so mark your calendar so you can join us for an evening of great fun. We are looking for items for our silent auction if you can offer a service certificate or item for the auction contact us at peach@freshabundance.com

Fresh Abundance Deli (Gluten Free) Opens Tuesday August 11th
More good news, our gluten free deli just got the stamp of approval from the health department. We can now serve coffee, juice, green smoothies, soup, sandwiches, baked goods, pizza, etc. We are creating our menu and ordering supplies. We will be serving juice and coffee by Tuesday August 11th.

p.e.a.c.h. Green Drinks 5-9 Tuesday August 11th (21 and over) - Fresh Abundance Warehouse
Speaking of Tuesday August 11th p.e.a.c.h. will be hosting Spokane Green Drinks from 5-9 this Tuesday. This will be in the Market warehouse behind Fresh Abundance located at 2015 N. Division. Fresh Abundance is providing snacks and you can purchase your favorite wine, beer or cider from Fresh Abundance and join us out back for Green conversation while you drink your green drink (this is 21 and over).

Ok so are you still with me, we still have a ways to go. I told you this was an intense week. I realize that reading all this is hard but imagine my life, I lived through all this so please keep reading.

p.e.a.c.h At Magic Lantern Friday August 7
Today Friday August 7th we will be set up at the Magic Lantern Theater at 25 W Main St downtown for the movie Food Inc. Fresh Abundance/p.e.a.c.h. will have an informational table set up from 5:30 to 9 with snacks and a display of foods from many of our local farms.

Community Roots Market - Every Sunday 11-4 - Special Auguest 30 Live Musice, Bike Tune Ups, Children's Activities, Lectures
Community Roots Market is every Sunday 11-4 located at Fresh Abundance 2015 N Division St. We will be having a bigger then usual market on August 30 with live music, free bike tune ups by pedals2people, children's activities and lectures.

New Neighborhood Farmers Market - North Of Francis
At  p.e.a.c.h. we also work to enable other projects that increase our local food supply. I have been working with Catherine Donnelly to encourage her and other far north side backyard growers to launch a neighborhood farmers market of their own. They are excited to invite you to the newest market in Spokane. The market is every Wednesday from 5 - 8 p.m. at "The Big Red Barn" 7316 North Smith Street, Spokane North of Francis St.

Hey look you made it to the end you deserve a local treat. You could have blueberries, melon, peaches, and the list goes on and on. I love this time of year.

Till next week eat LOCAL,
Brightspirit