Seeds and Greens is celebrating its second birthday on Saturday, October 22.

Congratulations to the Freiberts and best wishes for the future.

Two Year Anniversary Celebration

Celebrating our TWO year anniversary on Sat. Oct. 22nd, 10am to 4pm. Special give-aways all day! FREE SAMPLES and GIFT BAG DRAWINGS.

10% OFF all gift items, essential oils & diffusers, salt lamps & cooking stones, BlueQ bags, mushroom grow kits, beauty product(soap, lotion, bath, face) all Aliffia 15% off.

*does not include items already discounted, supplements, books, or food items. Avail. on in stock items so shop early for best selection starting at 10am.

Here's the agenda for Tuesday morning's merchant group meeting (8:30 a.m., Seeds and Greens).

My agenda item.

Like we said ...

The monthly merchant group meeting is 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 21 at Seeds and Greens.

Strictly speaking, these merchant meetings are not "presented" by Develop New Albany, although these past few months, the DNA logo has appeared with correspondence. As such, I've affixed it below. At least it isn't an anchor.

Speaking of DNA, Mayor Gahan lavished some slobbering love on the organization at last week's Pillar Awards:

"DNA does a lot of things to protect our history and our downtown. They also preserve our downtown uniqueness, and we have a lot of people to thank for that," Gahan said. "But at the same time, DNA urges us to move forward. They encourage us to improve and more importantly, they challenge us to grow."

Right. Well, there's no better time than right now to take a nice, long shower, so here's the agenda for tomorrow morning's meeting.

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New Albany Meeting Agenda
May 21st, 2016 at 8:30 am
Open to all merchants, restaurants & businesses
Seed & Greens Natural Market and Deli
207 W. 1st St., New Albany

Thanks Stacey for hosting our June meeting.

Conducting the meeting: Kim & Teresa

Introductions:

City updates: Courtney/Tonya
Old Business/New Business:

Southeast ISBDC: Presenting “Social Media” Advertising & tips

Ribbon Cuttings:
Adrienne & Co – Wednesday, June 22nd 10 am

Adjorn:

Next meeting is July 19th at 8:30 am location to be determined. If you would like to host a meeting, please let Kim or Teresa know.

Do you have a topic you would like to discuss at these meetings? These meetings are for you and we want you all to be a part of this.

The Seeds and Greens One Year Anniversary Celebration Weekend is Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16th and 17th.

The Seeds and Greens One Year Anniversary Celebration Weekend is Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16th and 17th.

Everyday new boxes with samples or gift baskets arrive for our Anniversary Celebration to be held this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16th and 17th. Seeds will also give away a $75 gift card. Stop in any time this week and sign up. Thanks to all the companies who send samples and baskets: Kehe Natural Foods Distributors, Namaste, Nature's Path bars, Zum Soaps from Indigo Wild, Alaffia soaps and lotions, Pamela's Gluten-Free Bars, Kirk's Castile Soap, Country Life Supplements, Real Salt, Tanka Meat Sticks, Dr. Bronners, Spry Gum & Mints, Grandpa's soap, Nourish Lotions and Soaps, Teecino ... and more."

Congratulations to Seeds and Greens on Year One, and best wishes for the years ahead.

Lost in the supermarket? Consider visiting the Vegan Fair this Saturday at Seeds and Greens.

Don't be lost in the soulless multinational marketplace. Our former BSB employee Nikki, now at Seeds and Greens, is spearheading a Vegan Fair this Saturday, November 8.

SAVE: many vegan foods will be offered at a 10% discount.
SAMPLE: vegan food items.
SOCIALIZE: meet fellow vegans and share like ideas, interests, and recipes.

There you have it.

Seeds and Greens grand opening coverage in the Courier-Journal.

With the Gnaws and Trombone absent, presumably having its belly scratched somewhere in Steamboat Days, the C-J receives kudos for covering an important downtown New Albany opening.

Seeds and Greens opens for business, although City Hall wouldn't know it.

Come to think of it, were any Harvest Homecoming officials there on Saturday?

Seeds and Greens embraces farm-to-table living, by Jenna Esarey (Special to The Courier-Journal)

Seeds and Greens Natural Market & Deli drew large crowds during its opening Saturday.

Owner Stacey Freibert welcomed shoppers, proudly showing off New Albany's newest downtown business and offering samples of products and items from the store's deli.

Seeds and Greens focuses on high-quality organic, natural, and minimally processed foods, dairy, eggs and meat, house care items and homeopathic products. It will support local farmers, carrying only non-genetically modified products free from pesticides, chemicals and artificial preservatives.

Gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free foods are available along with vegetarian and vegan items."If you're taking a step towards a healthier life we want to be here for you," said Freibert's husband, Jeff.

Seeds and Greens opens for business, although City Hall wouldn't know it.

Seeds and Greens Natural Market & Deli opened yesterday with a 9:30 a.m. ribbon cutting. I'd estimate the crowd to be 75, perhaps more. State Representative Ed Clere gave a short and appropriate speech, contrasting today's downtown with the situation only a few years ago.

Read about the building housing Seeds and Greens.

First, congratulations and best wishes to the Freiberts, and everyone who helped them put this ball into the air. We'll be shifting a percentage of our shopping to this locally-owned store.

Next, a side note: I'm often criticized for suggesting (and repeating) that the city of New Albany has no discernible economic development plan for downtown. Yesterday, City Hall offered a typically vacuous reply of sorts, because not one of its elected or appointed officials attended the Seeds and Greens opening.

That'll show me, won't it?

The inattentiveness doesn't end there. Zero council persons were spotted, and no political party chairmen or functionaries, though the absence of the latter surely qualifies as a blessing. In fact, Rep. Clere was the only elected official of any sort, unless I missed seeing someone.

City Hall constantly pleads monetary poverty when the subject of downtown economic development arises; the proper time-honored, good-old-boy tools just don't exist outside the industrial park, officials always repeat, indicating they remain mired in the same old abatement and direct subsidy rat trap inhabited by generations of "experts".

Shouldn't it be obvious by now that a chronic absence of creative thought and improvisational skill constitutes not fiscal, but intellectual impoverishment?

We got nuthin', they mutter ... and all the while, our one-way, auto-centric, plainly unsafe street grid remains a neglected afterthought, one seemingly incapable of principled adjustment until a paid consultant assuages municipal timidity with dollops of political cover.

Yes, of course Seeds and Greens has a parking lot, and people driving cars will come there to shop. But the speed with which they travel, the way the street grid is designed -- the overall downtown milieu -- is subject to immediate adjustment to reinforce the downtown commercial climate, not urinate on it.

An example:

Must we wait for a traffic study to slow traffic and put crosswalks at the corner of Main and W. 1st?

Apart from when the city winks and hands its infrastructure to Harvest Homecoming's junta each year, the city does control its streets and sidewalks. The city can alter these so they're conducive to better business. Right-sizing, completing, calming, converting streets ... slowing traffic speeds, enforcing crosswalks, enhancing walking, biking and a human-scale district ... all these factors are favorable for the new generation of downtown independent business, major pieces of which might have been commenced years ago.

City government taking action to improve business prospects.

That's economic development, isn't it?

Why, then, isn't any of it happening?

The NABC Weekend: Slept off the HH hangover? It's time for more beer.

Let's begin with a tremendous welcome for Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli (207 W. First Street in New Albany, near The Exchange), which will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday morning with a ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m. There'll be food samples, door prizes and a chance to look around. The market will close at 5:00 p.m. We're very happy to have this new option.

Before, during and after your Seeds and Greens inspection, here's the weekend beer list at Bank Street Brewhouse for rehydration.

The NABC Pizzeria & Public House has started periodic pourings (Wednesdays and Fridays) of Franconian lagers via traditional gravity-dispense (Anstich) kegs from breweries in Bamberg’s Franconian hinterlands. These come to us from Starlight Distribution via Shelton Brothers, and are a yearly ritual. The beer for Friday, October 17, is Weissenohe Altfränkisch Klosterbier. It will be tapped at 3:00 p.m. and won't last long. For more information, visit the NABC web site.

Today through Sunday (October 17 - 19), Jeffersonville is reviving its Steamboat Days civic festival, and NABC's Hoosier Daddy and Black & Blue Grass will be on tap at the Craft Beer Garden, operated by our friends at Cluckers.

Tonight (Friday, October 17) is one of our favorite annual events: LIBA Louisville BrewFest, held at Louisville Slugger Field. According to LIBA, “This Louisville celebration of local, independent brewers, independent businesses, and independent thinkers will shelve uniformity and celebrate our uniqueness.” NABC's Community Dark and Hoosier Daddy will be joined by Action! APA in the VIP slot.

Through October 25, open Thursday through Sunday each weekend, ReSurfaced: A Pop-Up Plaza on Main takes place at 615-621 West Main Street in Louisville.

Thursdays 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Fridays 11:00 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Saturdays 3:00 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Sundays 1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Here’s the idea, courtesy of the city of Louisville: “The first initiative in the ReSurfaced movement is to take the currently underutilized space behind the facades of 615-621 West Main Street in downtown Louisville, and create a six week long pop-up beer garden, outdoor cafe, and event space beginning on September 19, 2014.”

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NABC has two locations in New Albany. Our original Pizzeria & Public House near IU Southeast offers a pizzeria-style food menu, NABC’s beers of proven merit and a list of quality guest beers. In downtown New Albany, our taproom at Bank Street Brewhouse no longer prepares meals, but you can pair NABC drafts and bomber bottles with delivery food, carry-in or the contents of your own picnic basket.

2. With downtown normality almost restored, there's hope: Seeds and Greens Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting.

This easily is one of the most eagerly anticipated openings in downtown New Albany. I might just bring beer with me ...

Seeds and Greens Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting

Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli Grand Opening, Oct 18th. The day will begin with a ribbon cutting at 9:30. We will sample food and have drawings for door prizes. Come and meet our staff and take a look around the market.

Update: Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli is coming in early October.

Do you see it, in back of where the farmers market should be relocated after we utilize the current corner as necessary housing infill construction?

It's the future location of Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli, and by future, we mean quite soon -- early October, in fact.

Here are two previews from Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli's Fb page.

"Our goal is to be open the first weekend in October. The address is 207 West First St, New Albany, IN. We are across from the YMCA next to the Exchange."

"Seeds and Greens is still in need of a few more employees. If you have experience or an interest in the natural food market, juicing, deli etc complete the attached application."

The application and much more can be found at the Fb page. We can't wait for the Freiberts to get rolling with this much anticipated (and needed) new business.

Of greengrocers, farmers markets, Seeds and Greens ... and urban food.

Like I was saying just the other day.

Applying the Bloomington solution to New Albany's farmers market.

... We'd be moving the center of farmers market gravity a few blocks west, which is good for Westendia. Putting some love into this area might encourage Schmitt Furniture to uncover its windows. Furthermore, there'd be a natural affinity between the farmers market and the forthcoming Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli.

You remember the forthcoming Seed and Greens, right?

Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli coming to downtown New Albany in Fall, 2014.

 ... Stacey Freibert, owner of Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli, says the re-model will begin June 1st and the store expects to open the fall of 2014 in downtown New Albany. Seeds and Greens will sell organic and local produce, natural hormone free dairy products, local meats and free-range eggs.

Not to mention the old Wolfe's grocery building, awaiting adaptive reuse. I'm headed toward a link to NPR (thanks B), but before we go there, a gentle reminder that the words "big-spending locavores" should be lofting more than a few red flags. We have enough problem with inequality as it is, wouldn't you say?

How do we make the connection between localism in food and those of us incapable of being "big-spending"?

Urban Greengrocers Are Back, To Serve Big-Spending Locavores, by Maanvi Singh (NPR)

 ... It's a new version of the old-school neighborhood market, which is popping up in cities across the country. There's Urban Radish and Cookbook in Los Angeles, Farm to Market in Austin, and Milk and Honey Market in Philadelphia — to name just a few.

These aren't your parents' big-box grocery stores. They're closer to the places your grandparents might have shopped — but updated for the modern foodie.

Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli coming to downtown New Albany in Fall, 2014.

This one's been floating along the rumorama for a while, and now here it is: Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli, slated for an autumn opening later this year in the West 1st Street frontage shown above -- behind Aunt Artie's, and with NA Exchange immediately to the east.

For now, here's the press release. I've known Stacey since high school, and expect much more information to be coming through the pipeline as the year progresses. Best of luck to the Freiberts from New Albanian Brewing Company.

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Stacey Freibert, owner of Seeds and Greens Natural Market and Deli, says the re-model will begin June 1st and the store expects to open the fall of 2014 in downtown New Albany. Seeds and Greens will sell organic and local produce, natural hormone free dairy products, local meats and free-range eggs. Customers will find allergen free foods like gluten free/soy free, vegan, and vegetarian foods. The store will carry natural and organic grocery, frozen foods, bulk foods (grains, seeds, coffee etc), gluten free beer and locally produced wine and beer, as well as natural health and beauty products, non-toxic household cleaning products, natural baby items, nutritional supplements, and sports nutrition. The market will sell non-GMO and fair trade products and will support local farmers. The deli and juice bar will offer fresh made to order sandwiches and drinks. There will be a self-serve soup and salad bar with a seating area and healthy fast-food to grab and go.

Jeff and Stacey Freibert bought the building that currently houses Aunt Artie's Antique Mall. This will be an ideal location for a natural market and deli which is catty-corner from the YMCA. Aunt Artie's Antique Mall will remain as tenants in the 15,000 square ft. building occupying 3/4 of that space. Seeds and Greens will have 3,000 sq. feet with a new store front entrance off First Street (the side of the building). For more information or if you have a product suited for the market visit seedsandgreensmarket.com or email seedsandgreens@twc.com