Duck out of Cox Hall on a Tuesday afternoon, and you'll run across vendors selling everything from warm empanadas, to roasted pumpkin seed goat cheese tartlets, to heritage turkeys. The weekly farmers' market is one initiative in the Sustainable Emory program, offering fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses from local farmers and artisan food producers.

As the Sustainable Emory website reports, "The farmers market offers a weekly gathering for the Emory community to support local Georgia farmers and to expand knowledge about healthy eating and sustainable production systems. Small Georgia farmers are can sell their products and it allows the community to establish a relationship with the people who grow their food, a component of a local, sustainable food system."

I can tell you from personal experience, from one cook to another, the antibiotic and hormone free, free range, pastured heritage turkey I ordered at the market from White Oak Pastures was sensational - plump, moist, and delicious. The turkeys are available by special order online for the December holidays and will be the tastiest centerpiece of the holiday table.

The Emory Farmers' Market will be open Tuesday, December 6 from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. After a school holiday closure, the market will reopen again on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

According to the website, "Emory's sustainability vision sets an ambitious goal of 75 percent local or sustainably grown food in its hospitals and cafeterias by 2015."

Why not visit campus for lunch, connect with Emory friends and faculty, and enjoy the bounty from our local farms and food producers?