The much anticipated Northeast Georgia edition of the Local Food Guide, a free guide to locally-grown food, is now available at grocers, bookstores, libraries, welcome centers, tailgate markets, doctors offices, and newsstands throughout the region. This special edition is a unique publication of Western North Carolina’s highly popular Local Food Guide, one of the largest and most comprehensive local food guides published anywhere in the United States. The web version of this Guide is one of the most visited in the country and is constantly updated. For many people researching the area, it is one of their first introductions to the region.

Healthy local markets for our regional farms mean that farms are preserved as part of our landscape.  Rural economies and cultures can thrive when local economic activity remains in the communities.  As they say, local food is thousands of miles fresher, and that’s why it makes more sense to buy local.

For many years, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) has been producing western North Carolina’s colorful magazine that has successfully connected consumers and small businesses with farms.  And for the last several years, North Georgia Technical College (NGTC) has been fully involved in the Creative Economies movement, a grassroots effort to help boost the local economy by showcasing local talents and producers.  Recognizing this, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), also a big supporter of the movement, awarded NGTC with a grant to produce a version of local food guide specific to Northeast Georgia.  “We were already familiar with ASAP’s  product,” says Greg Roach, NGTC’s Horticulture instructor.  “We knew right where to go for help on this project.”

In the fall of 2008, North Georgia Technical College partnered with ASAP to create a version that spotlights the producers and providers in NGTC’s eight-county service area.  The goal was to have at least 75 listings of growers such as family farms, orchards, and farmers markets, as well as locations to purchase locally grown foods and products such as wineries, restaurants, bakeries, bed and breakfasts, and so on.  One look at the guide and you will see that NGTC and ASAP more than achieved that goal!

The Northeast Georgia edition of the Local Food Guide is available now.  Look for it at your favorite tourist destination, your local chamber, or call Sandra Maughon, 706-754-7715, at North Georgia Technical College for more information on the Guide’s distribution.  The Local Food Guide is also on the web at www.AppalachianGrown.org. Users can search by product, county, farm, or any number of different options.

Sandra Maughon

Continuing Education Director

North Georgia Technical College

P.O. Box 65

1500 Hwy 197 N.

Clarkesville, GA 30523

706-754-7715

706-754-7811 (fax)