On the LAKE Front

VHS Jazz Band @ Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series 2012-05-07

Gretchen went to Tuesday's Brown Bag Lunch and saw a lot of happy lunchers listening to the VHS Jazz Ensemble.

Here's a video playlist:

VHS Jazz Band @ Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 May 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

May 7: Downtown Valdosta Farm Days

Downtown Valdosta Farm Days begin two weeks from tomorrow:

Bringing the best of the country to the heart of the City!

Downtown Valdosta Farm Days is a bi-weekly farmers' market featuring local farmers and artisans and also serves to educate the community about eating local, nutrition and food choices.

Downtown Farmers Market
First and Third Saturdays from May to September
9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Lowndes County Courthouse Square, Downtown Valdosta

There's a calendar on their website, along with how to become a vendor.

• Initial puzzlement at the Lowndes County Commission.
• Gretchen Quarterman encouraged cats and dogs to play together.
• Mara Register explained it to the Lowndes County Commission.

And everybody is purring now. Agriculture, economy, and a festival! And, it costs the county nothing.

More on this story as it develops.

-jsq

Valdosta Downtown Farm Days —Mara Register

Mara Register came to the Lowndes County Commission regular meeting to talk about Downtown Valdosta Farm Days, following up from the Farm Days organizational meeting Monday.

I think her main points were:

1. Provide additional information about healthy eating with food from local farmers, thus helping solve the epidemic of childhood obesity in Georgia.
2. Economic development opportunity for small farmers.
3. Promote downtown district.

When? The Saturday after First Friday and the Saturday after Art After Dark.

Where? The parking spaces around the historic courthouse.

No livestock. Local produce. Here's video of the first part of what she said.

Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Logistics, such as no cooking, because

Farm Days: Connecting Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta

Yesterday I wrote that interactions about Valdosta Farm Days between the Lowndes Commmission and the City of Valdosta "could have been smoother if one or both of the parties had been proactive." The VDT reported that the County Commission wants to know about Valdosta Farm Days, and apparently there was a disconnect between the staff and the Commissioners. Here's how the Commission came to be informed, through interactions of citizens and staff.

First, an excerpt from the paper paper story by David Rodock, "Farmers market proposal discussed by commission", Tuesday, April 12, 2011, page 3A (it's not online):

Being proactive —Gretchen Quarterman

At the Lowndes County Commission work session on Monday morning, County Manager Joe Pritchard distributed a map to the Commissioners from the Valdosta Main Street Manager, Amanda Peacock, detailing a proposal for a Farmer's Market on the sidewalk of the old County Courthouse.

proactive: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation; anticipatory

Lowndes County Commission work session, 12 April 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

While apparently supportive of the initiative, the process could have