Dear supporters of local farmers -
Concerned how this current pandemic will affect your access to your favorite strawberries, melons and farm products? Do Not Fear! Your Carteret farmers are planning ahead and changing some of their practices to accommodate our new reality.
In this new reality, please be understanding and flexible with your purchasing habits. Don’t expect to squeeze the fruits or smell the herbs. Many items will be bagged and ‘behind the counter’ to reduce contamination. Some farmers may prefer alternative methods (credit cards, phone payments, Venmo, PayPal) while others may accept bills but not coins to minimize interaction.
Several farmers now use online ordering programs to help you reserve your veggies and fruits. Some farmers with roadside stands package ahead and allow ‘drive-through’ pickups. Some shop for you while you wait in your car or they supply hand sanitizer and gloves to let you in their stand while maintaining social distancing.
Many farmers who don’t have roadside stands have increased their wholesale deliveries to our area fresh markets - Coastal Community Market, Market at Cedar Point, Island Produce and Friendly Market.
And the Farmers’ Markets are still considered an ‘essential business’ so shop directly from your favorite farmer at The Market at Cedar Point (1st and 3rd Saturday of the month from 9 AM -2 PM), The Morehead City Curb Market, and Olde Beaufort Farmers’ Market, both opening soon.
(Don't forget - all these farmers, farm stands, fresh markets and farmers' markets are easily found on the free phone app - Visit NC Farms.)
Dear local farmers -
Welcome to 2020! What a different season we have compared to the evening of our Farmer Appreciation Dinner on February 7! We at Carteret Local Food Network empathize with your situation on the ground and stand by ready to help.
We are more committed than ever to our CLFN mission - to strengthen the connection between local Carteret farmers and local Carteret consumers - but we have also adjusted our plan on how to help strengthen this connection.
To this end, we offer:
a) Assistance deciding and designing a technique that works for you with online ordering, so you don’t miss out on a single sale. Reach out to Stacy (252-777-2359 or via email at stacy.clfn@gmail.com) if you are interested.
b) Deliveries from your farm to one of the four local fresh markets, FREE at the moment (we’ll see how long that lasts!). Chef Caroline (252-777-2359) is scheduling routes now and will make it work to move your product to a fresh market or another farm stand.
c) ‘Veggie Van’ is a plan in-the-works, a method for more personal deliveries and sales, look for more details in a month.
Farms with online ordering:
Merrell Farm https://www.jwmerrellfarm.com/available-produce
The Farm at Bogue https://www.thefarmatbogue.com/
Two Bees Farm https://www.twobeesflowers.com/
Shenk Family Farm https://www.shenkfamilyfarm.com/
Garner Farms https://garnerfarmsnc.com/
We recognize these modifications lose much of the community that we all enjoy
- farmers meeting shoppers and shoppers meeting farmers -
but more important is our need to keep some connection going until we can all meet again in person, shake hands and say,
'Thank You for feeding me' and
'Thank You for keeping me in business'.