Category Archives: Health

This Week’s Vegetables from Homestead Creamery – 06 July 2010

Option A BoxOption B Box

We received 2 vegetable boxes from Homestead Creamery, but they only charged us for one, because the quality and selection of vegetables they received from Sausser Farms weren’t all that great.

We signed up to buy one 5lb Option A box and one 5lb Option B box each week.

Option A is supposed to be a combination of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, squash, and herbs.

Option B is supposed to be a combination of cucumbers, egg plant, greens, string/pole beans, broccoli, and zucchini.

Sausser Farms Announces Saturday Morning That Roanoke Stand is Closed Saturday

I received an e-mail from Sausser Farms at 8:36 this morning stating that “Just a reminder to those in the Roanoke area that the stand will be closed today, July 3rd.”


Reminder? A reminder would imply that we were informed previously that the stand would be closed today. We weren’t.

The survey for this week clearly asked when those of us in Roanoke wanted to pickup our vegetables on Friday or Saturday. I chose Saturday, and I guess I’m out of luck.

I replied to the e-mail with the following, “You’re announcing on Saturday morning that the stand is closed today. How much worse can your customer service get?


The response I received was:

Steve,

They have been letting everyone know at the stand and it has been posted on the Website. Out of courtesy, I simply sent out a reminder…that has to be better than not reminding people.

-Chris

And my response to that was, “No, it wasn’t posted on the website until this morning. The survey that we were asked to fill out for the week clearly asked if we planned to pickup Friday or Saturday.

When did they tell the people at the stand – yesterday? If they picked up yesterday, they are not picking up again today, are they?

The customer service just keeps getting worse.

Sausser Roanoke Survey for weekend of 7/2 – 7/3:

Sausser Farms Roanoke Survey for Weekend of 7/2-7/3

Sausser Farms Roanoke Survey for Weekend of 7/2-7/3

the email:

 Just a reminder to those in the Roanoke area that the stand will be closed today, July 3rd.


Thank you!


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Sausser Farms
9175 Patrick Henry Hwy
Phenix, Virginia 23959

Sausser Farms Ruckersville Vegetable Stand Problems

Members of the Sausser Farms coop in Ruckersville found the building abandoned when they came to pick up their shares on June 16th.

Sausser Farms vacated the building without paying rent and without giving the landlord any idea it was leaving.

When the Greene County Record asked Sausser why he had vacated the Ruckersville without paying his debt, he said, “I never got a bill.” Asked about breaking his lease, he said, “I never signed a lease.”

The landlord said that both Sausser and his wife both signed and initialed the 13-page lease.

[Read](http://www2.greene-news.com/gcn/news/local/article/ruckersville_co-op_building_abandoned/57562/ “Read the Article”) (Greene County Record)

Sausser Farms Now Requires us to Pay for the Cardboard Boxes

In addition to getting vegetables delivered from Homestead Creamery, I paid $35 for a share in Sausser Farms CSACo-op, which was supposed to result in 5lbs of vegetables a week for 24 weeks, and they were supposed to have a presence at the Salem Farmers Market.

They haven’t opened at the Salem Farmers Market. Their website says they plan to open in Salem in July, but I’m not holding my breath.

That means the Roanoke Farmers Market is the closest location. The first time I went there, the Sausser Farms Rep wasn’t there, so I left, ate breakfast, came back 2 hours later, and their stall was still empty. The second time I went, the rep was there; however, there was a very long line of people with Sausser Farms cards in their hands, and the only thing the rep had left was cabbage at 10:45 in the morning.

Since then Sausser Farms has reduced its Lynchburg and Roanoke hours and is now requiring customers who pick up their vegetables in Lynchburg and Roanoke to select a prepackaged box.

This week, the [choices](http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HLGJPSP “Sausser Farms Choices for weekend of 7/2-7/3”) are:

  • Option A = Tomatoes, Zucchini, Cucumbers/Pickle Cucumbers
  • Option B = Tomatoes, Yellow Squash, Cucumbers/Pickle Cucumbers
  • Option C = Okra, Zucchini and/or Yellow Squash, Cucumbers/Pickle Cucumbers

*Okra and Tomatoes are still in limited supply. We will do our best to fill all requests.

I just received an [e-mail](http://hosted.marketingcenter.intuit.com/18111/bb22980fe0/5401107/f7179a3de3/ “e-mail from Sausser Farms”) from Sausser Farms that those of us who pick up our vegetables in Roanoke are now required to pay $1 per cardboard box that the vegetables come in, but we’ll get an extra pound of vegetables. So, this is really a price increase of 53%.

I don’t need another pound of squash, zucchini, or pickling cucumbers. Can I bring my own bag, dump 5lbs of vegetables in my bag, leave the box, and skip the $1 fee?

The email has been pasted below in case the link stops working.


Please read this if you need help with the survey.

I've received some e-mails that some people are having some challenges with the survey. I don't know that would cause these issues, but I can tell you that the majority of people are able to access the survey and fill it out.

Below are some suggestions that might be helpful:

You completed the survey, but hit the Done button prior to printing. Go back in and fill out the survey again and hit Print under the File menu of your browser and then hit done.

For some reason the link is not working for you. Try the following:

Close your browser and then reopen it and try again.
Delete your Temporary Internet Files and clear your History
Try Firefox instead of Explorer or vice-versa
Type it directly into your browswer: http://www. surveymonkey. com/s/HLGJPSP (Please notice that I put a space after each period, so be sure to remove the spaces.) Or go to SurveyMonkey.com and then add /s/HLGJPSP to the Web address.
Survey Monkey is asking for a user name and password. I have not clue why it would do that. I've tried it and it doesn't ask me. Possible solutions:

Delete your Temporary Internet Files and clear your History
Delete your Temporary Internet Files and clear your History
Try Firefox instead of Explorer or vice-versa
Type it directly into your browswer: http://www. surveymonkey. com/s/HLGJPSP (Please notice that I put a space after each period, so be sure to remove the spaces.)
FYI...I was told there might be a $1.00 box deposit but along with that you will be getting 6 pounds of produce instead of 5. The fee is regardless of whether or not you give the box back at the time of pick up or not. I am sorry, I meant to mention that in the first e-mail, but forgot.

I know the Pick-Your-Share option is not ideal for many of you and filling out the survey is a pain. I wish we didn't have to do it either, but something needs to be tried so that things can improve. TRUST ME, I FEEL YOUR PAIN AND THEN SOME!

And please remember I simply do not have the ability to respond to every individual e-mail. It is not that I don't want, it is that I don't have the time.

Doing the best I can to help the Saussers and the members out,

Chris

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Sausser Farms
9175 Patrick Henry Hwy
Phenix, Virginia 23959


This week’s vegetables from Homestead Creamery – 2010 June 29

Share Box 1Share Box 2

This week we received 2 vegetable boxes from Homestead Creamery. It’s the first week we’ve received 2, and it’s the first week that I’ve received any tomatoes, herbs, egg plant, and non-pickling cucumbers.

The only other items we’ve received so far this season are cabbage, carrots, one mess of wax beans, one beet, and lots of pickling cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. Some weeks the squash and zucchini look like they should have been picked a week or two earlier.

They purchase their vegetables from Sausser Farms, and so far, the vegetables haven’t met my or Homestead Creamery’s expectations.

We signed up to buy one 5lb Option A box and one 5lb Option B box each week.

Option A is supposed to be a combination of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, squash, and herbs.

Option B is supposed to be a combination of cucumbers, egg plant, greens, string/pole beans, broccoli, and zucchini.

Scientists give dirty children a clean bill of health

Researchers from the School of Medicine at UCLA have found that being too clean could impair the skin’s ability to heal.

The team discovered that normal bacteria that live on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt.  These bugs dampen overactive immune responses which can cause cuts and grazes to swell, or lead to rashes.

[Read](http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/23/grubby-children-scientists-immune-system “Read the Article”) (The Guardian)

Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?

The potency of interval training is nothing new. Many athletes have been straining through interval sessions once or twice a week along with their regular workout for years. But what researchers have been looking at recently is whether humans can increase endurance with only a few minutes of strenuous exercise, instead of hours? Could it be that most of us are spending more time than we need to trying to get fit?

[Read](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/ “Read the Article”) (New York Times)

Gray Hair Caused by Cell Stress

Work or personal stress may make you want to pull your hair out, but it’s cellular stress that actually turns it gray, a new study has found.

That’s because DNA is “under constant attack” by damaging agents, such as chemicals, ultraviolet light, and ionizing radiation.

The stem cells within hair follicles responsible for color are the most impacted by this irreparable DNA weathering.

[Read](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090616-stress-gray-hair.html “Read the Article”) (National Geographic)

Bird Flu Survives in Landfills

After an outbreak of the bird flu, most carcasses end up in landfills. There, according to a new study, the virus can survive for up to two years.

Landfills are designed to contain waste for far longer than that, so the practice is probably safe. Still, the new study suggests that waste managers might want to be particularly careful with how they dispose of infected birds.

[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/09/bird-flu-landfills.html “Read the Article”) (Discovery Channel)

Study Finds 1 in 4 North Carolina Children Under Age 6 Go Hungry Each Day

The Department of Agriculture found that North Carolina has the highest number of hungry children, second only to Louisiana.

The number comes from a [massive study](http://feedingamerica.org/our-network/the-studies/child-food-insecurity.aspx “View the Study Results”) that finds one in four children in the Tar Heel state go hungry every day.

[Watch](http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/wlos_vid_2564.shtml” “watch”) (WLOS)

Emergency Rooms Fill With Record Numbers, but Many Aren’t Ill, Just Afraid That They Might Have Swine Flu

Some hospital emergency rooms have seen record-breaking numbers of patients this week as those with coughs, sore throats and fevers — and sometimes no symptoms at all — have sought reassurance that they do not have swine flu.

Although the pattern is far from universal, the surges have been particularly heavy at children’s hospitals.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/02er.html “Read the Article”) (New York Times)

Madison County Community Garden Sprouting Interest

A community garden in Madison County is bringing people together and giving the local economy a jumpstart at the same time.

The garden, located along Route 29, just opened to the community a week ago. The garden is giving the people of Madison a chance to take the locally grown food movement to a whole new level.

[Read](http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=10208124&nav=menu496_2_4 “Read the Article”) (NBC-29)

Dentists Cancel this year’s Mission of Mercy free clinic in Roanoke

An annual two-day free dental clinic that has treated more than 1,000 people a year has been called off for 2009.

For two years the Roanoke Mission of Mercy dental clinic has been a spring event at the Roanoke Civic Center, but scheduling conflicts with dental conferences forced organizers to cancel this year’s clinic and plan for Spring 2010.

Organizers face escalating costs and may change the location. Roanoke city officials have decided to charge Mission of Mercy part of the cost of using the civic center.

[Read](http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/197056 “Read the Article”) (Roanoke Times)

*The City of Salem should step up and offer use of the Salem Civic Center for free to Mission of Mercy.*