Tag Archives: VDT

Canning at Lowndes High School

Our outing today to the canning plant was a grand success. We had peas shelled, blanched and bagged and canned some peaches!

The canning plant at Lowndes High School is a wonderful resource in Lowndes County open now to the public for shelling, canning and more. Behind the Lowndes High School on Norman Drive.

Here are pictures from the canning class I taught there yesterday, organized by the Valdosta Community Garden group. These pictures are also on facebook.

Perfect timing. The Valdosta Daily Times had Continue reading →

SOGALO14 Farm Tours in the VDT

Most of the front page of the Valdosta Daily Times Saturday was about the South Georgia Growing Local 2014 Farm Tours.

Stuart Taylor wrote on the front page of the VDT 25 January 2014, Growing Local Farm Tour gets under way,

While past South Georgia Growing Local conferences have had self-guided farm tours, this year’s conference offered a guided tour through four local farms, starting off Friday morning at Raisin’ Cane.

“We teach people about agriculture,” said Jessica Bolesta, who Continue reading →

VDT on Farmers

Gretchen noted this VDT Editorial for 12 July 2010: What We Think: Thankful for our farmers:
Here in South Georgia, we are blessed with an abundance of farmer’s markets, both large and small, that enable us all to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables at low prices. Families, restaurants and schools all benefit from the local farms and markets year round, not just during the summer months.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are healthy, inexpensive, and an essential part of any diet. Take advantage of nature’s bounty that surrounds us and visit the markets. Take your family to one of the peach sheds and spend an afternoon picking your own and enjoying fresh ice cream.

Be thankful that the farmers are still willing to work hard on the land and be thankful you live in an area that encourages farmers and supports agriculture.

Here’s one of those farmers’ markets, in Hahira.

-jsq

Valdosta Cutting Back

On the same day a VDT editorial said “NO!” to any negative talk about the local economy, the VDT published this:
Published March 05, 2009 12:40 am –

Valdosta deals with economic downturn
Hiring freeze, possible furloughs part of the plan
By Matt Flumerfelt
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA — The city of Valdosta recently announced it is taking measures to compensate for declining revenues. Among the steps considered at the city’s recent annual planning retreat to adjust to the revenue shortfall is a hiring freeze on new positions and possibly furloughing some city employees.

“The city of Valdosta is experiencing the same effects from the economic downturn that all other governments and businesses are experiencing,” said Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson. “The unemployment rate in Valdosta and Lowndes County has nearly doubled over the last 18 months. That means revenues such as sales tax have decreased.”

There’s more, all well worth reading.

That the city was retrenching was no secret to anyone who attended the mayor’s state of the city address, but apparently the degree has increased since then.

VDT Goes Ted Stevens

stevens21.jpg Tired of hearing people say newspapers are dying, the Valdosta Daily Times channels former Alaska Senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens’ favorite response:
My answer to all of the above is an emphatic “NO!”
The other talk the VDT is saying no to is about foreclosures and job loss. It’s curious about the foreclosures, since it was a little more than a year ago that the VDT published “Lowndes area not immune from home foreclosures” by Billy Bruce, in which he used counts of foreclosure ads from the VDT as data. That was a big change from the previous VDT tune of this area being immune to the financial problems plagueing the rest of the country.

Ah, but Billy Bruce doesn’t work there anymore! And the VDT is back to its old tune. The verse this time is that Lowndes county is not as bad as metro Atlanta counties in foreclosures. Yes, that’s true, and we’re all glad of that. Yet foreclosure rates are up here, too. And above 7% unemployment is not as bad as Atlanta, either, but isn’t normal.

This is a curious excuse: Continue reading →