We had a full house at Ninth Street Bakery last Wednesday night! In addition to the twenty or so people from Durham, folks came from Alamance, Orange, Chatham, Wake, Cabarrus, Franklin and Mecklenburg counties! We even pulled in a guest speaker from Washington, DC. The excitement about Slow Money NC really is growing as Andrea said so well in Mouthful, her News & Observer food blog. The piece is titled “Slow Money Showing Growth” and well worth a read!
“Slow Money NC”, Andrea writes, “reminds me why I love the Triangle’s vibrant local food scene. The demand for local food is so high that we add farmers markets every year. Farm-to-table restaurants thrive as well as farm-to-table food trucks, and you can sign up for weekly deliveries of local vegetables, meat, cheese, seafood and even soup. People aren’t just supporting the scene with their appetites; they are opening their wallets even further.”
Andrea is such an asset to the local food movement in the Triangle. And she’s right. People are supporting their local food scene. And it’s making a difference.
Frank Ferrell, owner and baker extraordinaire, talked about the deck he plans to build, his new locally made kombucha, and plans for more events and extended hours. It sounded like a great idea and he rustled up support from several new Slow Money lenders.
The Durham Herald ran a story about our gathering as well. Frank isn’t smiling in their picture, but after the meeting he certainly was.
Marc Dreyfors also had an idea to showcase at the same event. He plans to covert a couple of used Duke transit buses to help promote local food. He got a Slow Money loan to purchase one that he plans to use for farm tours, and he may get another to convert into a mobile farmers’ market.
A story about his Greenway Transit business ran in the Durham paper yesterday.
We’re getting attention, we’re making loans almost every week, and we’re happy. Little by little, one local farm and food business at a time, we digging a deeper, healthier local foodshed.
