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Archives for January 2017

The Power of We over Me

January 27, 2017 by monte Leave a Comment

The promise of Spring is coming

www.SKRS.Farm

I have noticed something recently; social media seems to have been flooded with shots of crowds and not selfies with puckered up lips looking like a guppy fish. Our country seems like a fired up place right now. People marching in protest. People walking in support. And people jogging just to hang onto those final threads of their New Year’s resolution. Whatever the reason, there is a very strong sense of We right now in our country wherever your political flag is planted.

With all of this energy, I am sure that many probably feel uneasy, chaotic, or that the apocalypse is nigh. But I have to tell you that I love the energy of the people. I will take energy any day over the slumber of complacency.

And energy never comes from a person or individual; it stems from a group. As a fired up person people start to think you have a screw loose, like the guy who started yelling at me out of nowhere on BART when I was riding the train in San Francisco. But the energy of fired-up people is special. It is why we pack ourselves in like sardines to sporting events just to feel great when some stranger is screaming in your ear. Actually, I am usually the dude screaming in someone’s ear.

This type of herd energy makes us feel alive and like we belong to a cause greater than ourselves. Like we are A Part of the group and not Apart from the group. And yes, unfortunately, sometimes this energy gets misconstrued and some jerk throws a brick through a window. But overall, we need this energy to keep us going in life.

So that is my preface to tell you about an incredible trip that I took to Austin to visit and tour with Andy, one of the owners at Farmhouse Delivery. Farmhouse serves the Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio areas and has a very similar business ethos and model that we have here at SKRS.

You may not know this about me, but I am an online stalker. I like to find businesses throughout our region who are doing what we are doing (or close to it) and then see what they are up to. What are their hopes, dreams, worries, and concerns? It is amazing how much you can learn once you realize (and admit) that there is so much more out there to learn. Our pride is our greatest shackle.

So back to my visit. I was expecting to see so many differences between our models, but the more and more I looked at things, all I could see were similarities and opportunities. The staff there felt like I was looking into the eyes of our crew: young faces driven by a passion for food, positivity, and change.

These are not the polished offices where deals are made. Spaces like Farmhouse and SKRS are the gritty places where things get done. The front line of a changing food industry where success is judged by meals served and kitchens touched. These are the places that feel like home for me. And it was amazing to see what they are working on and how we can learn from each other. Collaboration and sharing ideas offer so many paths to making things better, so why is it the exception and not the rule in business?

Too often business gets painted with the brush of a zero sum game; someone can only win if someone else loses. And that secrecy is the only way to protect ourselves from “the competition” (insert horror scream). The truth of the matter is that we are our only competition. The best way that I can spend time is thinking about how we can bring you a better customer experience. The worst way is walking through boring grocery stores to see what the “competition” is doing.

Every year I like to pick a word that becomes my mantra for the year. 2016 was Focus. And it was in leaving Austin with a piece of BBQ brisket stuck in my back molar, when I realized what my word for 2017 would be: Authenticity. I know that the big box stores can bring folks everything in the world except for genuine Authenticity. And so that is the nail that I am going to hammer the heck out of this year; bring you so close to the source of your food in the most genuine and authentic way possible. So grab a bib and get ready for some truth soup. This is going to be a good year!

Farmer Monte

Filed Under: Featured, Newsletter

Race to the Middle

January 20, 2017 by monte Leave a Comment

Some gorgeous fennel coming your way this next week.

Morning Harvest!

www.SKRS.Farm

I read a pretty interesting article that I have to tell you did not sit all that well in my stomach next to my breakfast burrito. The article was highlighting how chain restaurants are flooding into Albuquerque right now trying to find their position in a very competitive market.

Now, the article was highlighting ABQ, but in all honesty, I bet you could substitute almost any city center into the story. And the conclusion I know is the same throughout this country; Mom n Pop restaurants are under attack.

Now the Adam Smith laissez-farie economists will argue that this marketplace metamorphosis into a slew of huge restaurant chains is just what happens in a free market economy. Demographic research for restaurant placement, marketing campaigns, buying food less expensively through volume discounts, and even having professional interior decorators furnish restaurants. These are all things that most Mom n Pop restaurants just don’t have and cannot compete against.

But there is one thing that you will never get at a chain restaurant: authenticity. You might be able to get a good burger at a chain restaurant, but you will never get an amazing experience. And I don’t know if I have just grown cynical in my 41 years, but good just does not excite me anymore, I want great. I want incredible. I want memorable. These are the kind of experiences that make our lives richer.

And let me clarify that I am not talking about 5 star dining with every meal. Some of the most amazing meals I have enjoyed in my life have been the least expensive. I bet your experiences with memorable meals have been the same. Passion for food does not look at the price tag on the menu.

For me, I have found that the closer that I can get to the source of my food, the closer I get to the passion of the food. Having our orchard guru, Paul from Excelsior, hand me an apple, I feel as if he has handed me one of his family secrets. He doesn’t toss it to me like a tennis ball, but places it in my bear paw. Taking a bite out of the apple, you can taste the difference that has gone into growing and caring for it.

The same happens with chefs and cooks. You can tell when a restaurant looks at its food as a commodity or as a passion. As something to sell or something to share.

So back to our free marketplace. We are the masters of our own destiny. We vote every time we make a purchase. If we want our communities to be diverse economic landscapes, we have to support that. This is at the essence of why Wendell Berry said that “Eating is an agricultural act.”

What we eat shapes what businesses are in our towns. What we eat shapes if our fields will be sprayed with chemicals and animals raised in factories. We can no longer hide behind the veil of ignorance. We know too much and we are responsible for places we call home. We have the power to make change regardless of what our governments do or don’t do.

It is one of my biggest pet peeves when someone is talking to me and they say “Oh I think what your farm is doing is so great for the community.” But then on the other hand they are not even members supporting it. Folks, for us to truly bring change to this food industry, we need to plant more lettuce, sustainably raise more animals, bring Organic foods to the masses. We don’t run this farm to get pats on the back; we bust our tushies day after day to bring positive change. And this positive change stems from community support.

Businesses are not around by accident. They are not around because someone gave them a good pep talk at a basketball game. The businesses in a community are simply a snapshot of the desires of the people. Democracy in its raw form. So seeing how it is inauguration day, let’s get out there and make our food great again!

Farmer Monte

Filed Under: Newsletter

A Little Mental Floss for You?

January 12, 2017 by monte Leave a Comment

Gorgeous photo of tangerines coming off the tree for you!

www.SKRS.Farm

So I have a mental exercise that I would like for you to do as homework before throwing a tooth into some amazing foods. Or maybe do it while you are chewing. Up to you amigos.

Think about your job, profession, or parenting responsibilities for a moment. Ask yourself why the heck do you do what you do. Then imagine telling someone, a complete stranger, why you love what you do without using the products or services you provide. How would a teacher describe his/her work without talking about students? Or a parent talking about the importance of their job without mentioning their child.

When you start to look at your work in life through this lens, you begin to see some naked truths or the bare essence of why it is we do what we do. For many of us, the products or services that we focus on daily are merely distractions from our true purpose. Spend some time thinking about this exercise and you might surprise yourself with what your gerbil comes up with running in its wheel.

In doing this on a solo 14 hour road trip recently, I was amazed at how the purpose of the farm began to transform for me. Ideas like encouraging time spent with family, fostering creativity, and promoting healthy living. All of these “passions” or things that I love to think about had absolutely nothing to do with food. They were all larger than the food that we grow/source/sell. For us, our fresh food is The vehicle that we have in order to bring all of these larger scale passions to life. It is an incredible mental exercise to get down to the essence of why we do what we do as individuals.

From there I had to follow the rabbit hole and ask myself the question “why is healthy food the exception in our society and not the rule?” I think if you were to ask a wide sampling of people that question the majority would say “It is too expensive.” There is a pretty major misperception that it costs a lot of money if you want to eat healthy. And I am probably preaching to the choir, but that is just a bunch of manure.

Not only is it manure, but I think that it is the excuse that folks tell themselves in order to not feel guilty about having more personal accountability in their lives. If you convince yourself that something is too expensive, then you have the perfect “Get out of jail free” card. It’s not my fault that I don’t eat healthy; it is the food’s fault for being so darn expensive.

I have been challenging myself with this notion that good food does Not need to be expensive. So I have been making some pretty ridiculous meals (all modesty aside) while keeping the price tag under $6 a person. And folks, it ain’t that hard to eat very well without killing your budget.

So as a follow-up to last week’s newsletter and the teaser about the coming meal/recipe plans, we will also be keeping the price of the meal down so you can feel good in your purse while feeling healthy and vibrant in your mind/body. We received a note this week from one of our members and it made me smile because I share her excitement.

She wrote, “I LOVE having all the fruit and veggies in the house. I have saved so much money this week by eating at home and I am feeling healthier than ever! I might need to eat more fruit each day though! Can’t wait to get my next order tomorrow!”

I loved reading this because it highlights just how easy it is to take control of your kitchen. There is no Herculean feat that she is pulling off here. Just “might need to eat more fruit each day.” Man, if only all Drs’ orders where that simple.

Again, I know that I am preaching to the choir on much of this stuff, but it is so cool and amazing to hear all of the stories that come back to us from the folks who munch on all of the tasty eats we bring you every week. Keep it up and let’s have a great 2017!

Farmer Monte

A funny photo from one of our members!

Send me some of your favorite SKRS photos and we’ll add them to the newsletter.

Filed Under: Newsletter

Arizona Dreaming and 5/20 Meals

January 6, 2017 by monte Leave a Comment

www.SKRS.Farm

What a great kick off to 2017. I could not be happier with all of the fresh produce that we are seeing right now. This week will hit the low 70s pretty consistently on our Arizona farms. And for those of you who are like me and can speak to plants, you know that when temperatures are in the 70s plants are happy. That is when plants are in their “chill zone” (I made that term up so don’t try and Google it).

But the chill zone is where life is good and not stressful. They do not need to spend a lot of energy or water trying to keep cool and there is no Jack Frost at night to beat the plants down. So in the 70s you will see the best growth from the majority of produce plants. Melons and eggplant like it hotter, but citrus, greens, and roots are very content. So we will highlight the happy produce this time of year. Enjoy.

A little tweak to the Harvest Boxes. Most things don’t happen by accident, and we are making a few changes to the Harvest Boxes and I would like to share the reasoning with you.

I realized through my own shopping experience on our web site that I would like to see more diversity in the Harvest Boxes besides just produce. I love produce, eat the heck out of produce and grow the heck out of produce. But there are just some times in a man’s life (and woman’s life, too) where we need something besides produce to tie our lives together. For me, that means enjoying some high quality pasture-raised pork and beef that we have.

Seeing as how 85% of all our orders have a Harvest Box associated with them, that seems like the easiest way to have our members try out our natural meats. Therefore, we have added 3 types of pork and a grass-fed ground beef to the Harvest Boxes to help add diversity and help round out our healthy food offering. These meats will change with the harvest just as our produce does. So keep your eyeballs peeled for additional meats to our already awesome Harvest Boxes.

New Web Site. I know that I teased you before the holidays about a new web site that we are on the cusp of launching. Then a funny thing happened over the holidays…no one worked! So we got pushed back a couple of weeks but it is still on the way and will be here soon. You will love it.

Speaking of the new web site. I was having a mild brainstorm of things that we could add to the new web site and thought of a menu idea that I want to run past you and get some feedback. I am willing to bet that I am not alone when I stand in the kitchen after a long day and ask myself what the heck is for dinner. Maybe you give up and go out to eat or maybe you slap on that Blue Bird apron and get down to business. The fact of the matter is that menu planning after a long day stinks. Your brain is hitting the snooze button and you just don’t feel like thinking all that much.

So the menu idea is called 5/20 Meals. Which is my street slang for meal planning using 5 (or less) ingredients and taking about 20 minutes to make. So last night I gave myself a challenge to write down as many menu ideas as I could come up with in 10 minutes. And since my kitchen timer was broken I had to use the trusted Norwegian kitchen timer that you may know as half a beer.

It was insane. I got like 15 recipe ideas down on paper in 10 minutes. Turns out there are 1,000s of recipes that can fall into this sandbox of 5 ingredients and 20 minutes. So feeling pretty proud of myself, my little gerbil had the follow-up thought– what if all of our members shared their best 5/20 recipe ideas using the food from our web site and we began to compile them on the web site to help families and folks out?

Oh man. The possibilities are endless. So here is what I am asking from you; help us design this meal planning to fit your needs, but within the framework of a handful of ingredients and quick prep times. This is an idea and concept that will work for our members. I honestly think that the over-saturated recipe kit to your door boom is about to fall on its face. So let’s design a 2.0 model of that idea that makes sense and actually brings a service to our households. If you have some ideas, please email me at

Farmer Monte

Filed Under: Newsletter

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