280 Living
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neighborly news & entertainment
Volume 5 | Issue | July 201211 | |July 2012
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Referred for a reason.
Farming for the future
July Features
Off the beaten path- Page 10
July 4 fireworks
6
People you should know
9
Mrs. Alabama USA
11
Heardmont Park history
12
RueRue Originals
13
Farmer’s markets
15
Barbecue recipes
16
Restaurant Showcase
17
280 Business Happenings
18
Business Spotlight
19
School House
22
Sports
24
Library Happenings
27
Rick Watson
28
Paul Johnson
28
Kari Kampakis
29
Calendar of Events
30
Live music schedule
30
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Farm Manager Keith Caton and Jim ‘N Nick’s CEO Nick Pihakis run the community farm in Mt Laurel. Photos by Madoline Markham.
By MADOLINE MARKHAM In a valley lies a farm. On its land lives a farmer. From its ground comes sustenance to feed the people who live around it. This is what you find on Highway 41 near Mt Laurel, but it’s not common outside most urban and suburban landscapes in Alabama, according to Nick Pihakis, the mastermind behind the restaurant empire of Jim ‘N Nick’s. This year Pihakis is funding the 25-acre Mt Laurel farm, which is owned by Ebsco, to use as a model for small farmers to sell goods to restaurants like his. Ultimately, he hopes this experimental three-acre
farm model (only about three acres on the Mt Laurel property are farmed) will help rebuild the agriculture structure in the South so that farmers are guaranteed a buyer for their goods. “It’s a good deal on both sides,” said Pihakis, a Mt Laurel resident. For Keith Caton, farm manager at Mt Laurel, a small model farm like this would be a homestead and also sell veggies. There would be a milking cow to make butter, plus chickens to raise for meat and a couple of pigs. Today, most people farm for the
lifestyle, not necessarily because it is sustainable, according to Pihakis. Farmers spend a lot of time driving around to restaurants and farmers markets to sell their goods. The question is this: What if you could have the lifestyle and make a good living? This combination is normal in an area like San Francisco, but when Pihakis drove around Alabama and Mississippi with a friend a few years ago, they couldn’t find these farmers.
See FARM | page 14
A rally for Ally By KATHRYN ACREE
Eleven-year-old Ally Nelson’s fight began with a limp noticed by her mother, Christina, in March. Ally said it didn’t bother her too bad, but by the time the family went out of town for spring break, the pain in her thigh was no longer
See ALLY | page 26
Chelsea Middle School student Ally Nelson with her mom, Christina. Eleven-year-old Ally is battling Osteosarcoma. Photo courtesy of Christina Nelson.