LTLT Promotes Locally Produced Food

This year The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) is directly aligning with local production with the intention of bringing awareness to: the value of local food; the need for continued farmland preservation; and the social and economic sustainability of our rural communities.  LTLT is partnering with area Farmers Markets by hosting festivals to bring more attention to locally grown food.  There will be a festival for the Cedar Valley Farmers Market in Murphy on June 26.  In addition to these events, on Saturday July 24^th at the height of the summer season, LTLT will hold its second annual “Local Food Gala” in Franklin.  Like last year’s highly successful Gala, this fundraising event will be an open-air evening with a local wine and beer tasting and a multi-course dinner prepared by local chefs using exclusively foods grown in the region.  New for this year’s Gala will be the addition of a silent and live auction.

The Cedar Valley Farmers Market features everything made or grown by hand and is open every Saturday, rain or shine, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., May through October.  You will find the market on the square in downtown Murphy.  The June 26 festival atmosphere will add activities for children, music, and craft demonstrations to the already abundant local food and craft available.

The first luscious bite of a fresh strawberry, the crispness of lettuce straight from the garden to the salad bowl – these early rewards are full of the promise of more to come as the season progresses.  Not only do local foods reward our sense of taste, but locally produced food nourishes and strengthens our families and communities, sustains our mountain farming traditions, and protects our natural resources through productive land conservation practices.

Please join LTLT in supporting your local growers – buy from their farms, their stands, their booths at the farmers market, and purchase tickets to attend the Local Food Gala to support LTLT in conserving productive land to keep farmland available for future generations.  Gala tickets are available for sale at the LTLT office in Franklin or web site www.ltlt.org

LTLT thanks local growers for their support and enthusiasm for our local food gala and recognizes their sponsors: Macon Bank; United Community Bank; Duke Energy; Farm Bureau in Jackson County; the Smoky Mountain News; Sylva Herald; and Macon Printing.

Since 1999 the Franklin based Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) has conserved over 12,000 acres including 1,000 acres on working farms in Macon and Cherokee Counties.  LTLT serves the six far western counties of North Carolina – Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Clay and Cherokee.

For more information please contact Kate Parkerson at 524-2711 or kparkerson@ltlt.org