Farmer Monte's Journal

The Scoop from the Farm

Archives for October 2017

Spooky Good

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Alright you Trick or Treaters. Get those pillow cases ready because we have some awesome stuff coming your way.  Last week’s newsletter covered some really important stuff, so I need to run it one more time for our every-other week customers to get their eyeballs on it.

One other slight change up for the week is the day we do billing. I hate to do this, but we need to start billing for deliveries before we send them out. This has never been a problem for us in 14 years, but recently we have been having way too many unpaid invoices. We are losing too much money a week and need to change that up. It is unfortunate some bad apples can spoil the bushel.

So please make sure that your credit card info is up to date on your account. Also, if you have an additional cooler charge, that will hit your account the day after your delivery. And if you have a cooler credit, you will see that reflected in your next order.

We have thought through a bunch of different solutions and this is the one that seems the best/easiest.

Heads up that we just got some amazing beef brought in. As always, Locally raised, grass-fed, Locally processed. Truly a difference that you can taste. Steaks, roasts, and ground all available.

We have seriously cool news coming your way next week. So stay tuned.

 

I’m Hungry, Take Me To the Web Site

 

We have some truly amazing members. After last week’s newsletter examining the idea of support for our local food network, I got flooded with emails. The root of all the emails was basically the same; how can we better help local suppliers? So I want to lay out an opportunity for you to chew on and about two changes that we are implementing.

But to begin the festivities this week, I want to look at our Cooler Deposits. We get a lot of complaints and frustrations around the cooler deposits. People don’t want a bunch of money sitting around in deposits. I get it. And we hear from people, “Dude, Farmer M., I am home when the order gets delivered, why the hairball do I need a cooler??” Again, all good suggestions and I get it. So no worries, I have a plan.

All orders will continue to Default into Coolers with the associated deposit. If you do Do Not want your order that week packed in a cooler and would rather have a cardboard box, simply add the “Cardboard Box” product to your order. This will alert our pack team to use cardboard. Again, All orders will Default to Coolers, so you will have to add the cardboard box to your order weekly or set it as a Recurring item. We’ll leave how you want your order delivered to you!

Next up, a financial opportunity for you. As I look at various grassroots community support models for small businesses, I realized that we have already offered a similar strategy in the past, the Prepayment Incentive. The idea is really simple. For any amount of money over $500 that you prepay onto your Skarsgard Farms account, we will add a 10% bonus to your prepayment. So prepay $500, get an extra $50 added to your account. Easy. Check the web site for more details.

We will run this throughout the fall as a win-win for you and for us. In the past, I have seen folks use this 10% bonus that we add to try new items out and actually increase their order size which helps all of our producers. And looking at order sizes is a good transition into my next point that I need to bring up, which is a change in our delivery structure.

As you know, we have not changed the delivery structure of our home delivery model in a long time. Well, actually since January of 2015 to be precise. And with all of the changing tides in the food market right now, I have been dissecting our model to see where we are winning and where we are losing. As part of this self-audit, we came up with a very important number, $9.25. Now you are asking “What the heck is that?”

$9.25 is the average cost that it takes us to buy a truck, insurance, gas, hire a crew to prep/pack and deliver your order. So leaving out any fixed costs (rent etc.), it takes us $9.25 to stop the truck and bring an order to your door. And I might add that we are extremely efficient at our deliveries and so there is not a lot of fat in that $9.25 to cut.

So then I started looking at our delivery cost incurred compared to our order size and something jumped out that made me get a little queasy. Our delivery cost is 37% of our minimum free delivery order. And that is before there is even any food cost associated with the delivery. Way too much.

The conclusion that we easily reached looking at all of these numbers is that we currently lose money on orders under $30 and make a tiny bit of money on orders $30-36. And I have to tell you that we receive No subsidies, No grants, and No gifts. We are socially-conscious, environmentally-friendly, for-profit business. But…we cannot afford to run a philanthropy. Each of our deliveries has to help support the greater good.

So effective immediately we will be adding a $5 delivery (sustainability) fee to any orders under $36. We will keep minimum orders at $25 but we can no longer offer free delivery with our smaller orders. Let me say this though, I would rather feed you than charge you a delivery fee. Enjoy more local items that we have to offer and the delivery fee will be a moot point and then everyone is happy and fed!

Thanks for your understanding on this issue. And if you still need reassurance that we bring amazing value for your money, please check out Instacart’s delivery policy– $10 fee for orders less than $35 and a $6 fee for all orders over $35. Even with a small delivery fee, we still offer the best value.

Thank you for your support, Farmer Monte

Local Support: the Follow-Up

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Don’t worry, I am not quitting my day job to start a Fruit Art Gallery, but I did just stuff my pie hole with the other half of this melon and wanted to share it with you. These came in today from Las Cruces. Holy Moly for some serious flavor. You’re gonna love them.

What else?? Ah yes, we will be highlighting Nocco’s Green Chile Fettuccine in the Harvest Boxes this week. Amazing with some yellow summer squash and olive oil.

Another huge treat, Paul brought us some Pear cider from some of his blemished fruit at Excelsior. Limited and so I am only going to offer it through the Harvest Boxes this week.

I’m Hungry, Take Me To the Web Site

 

We have some truly amazing members. After last week’s newsletter examining the idea of support for our local food network, I got flooded with emails. The root of all the emails was basically the same; how can we better help local suppliers? So I want to lay out an opportunity for you to chew on and about two changes that we are implementing.

But to begin the festivities this week, I want to look at our Cooler Deposits. We get a lot of complaints and frustrations around the cooler deposits. People don’t want a bunch of money sitting around in deposits. I get it. And we hear from people, “Dude, Farmer M., I am home when the order gets delivered, why the hairball do I need a cooler??” Again, all good suggestions and I get it. So no worries, I have a plan.

All orders will continue to Default into Coolers with the associated deposit. If you do Do Not want your order that week packed in a cooler and would rather have a cardboard box, simply add the “Cardboard Box” product to your order. This will alert our pack team to use cardboard. Again, All orders will Default to Coolers, so you will have to add the cardboard box to your order weekly or set it as a Recurring item. We’ll leave how you want your order delivered to you!

Next up, a financial opportunity for you. As I look at various grassroots community support models for small businesses, I realized that we have already offered a similar strategy in the past, the Prepayment Incentive. The idea is really simple. For any amount of money over $500 that you prepay onto your Skarsgard Farms account, we will add a 10% bonus to your prepayment. So prepay $500, get an extra $50 added to your account. Easy. Check the web site for more details.

We will run this throughout the fall as a win-win for you and for us. In the past, I have seen folks use this 10% bonus that we add to try new items out and actually increase their order size which helps all of our producers. And looking at order sizes is a good transition into my next point that I need to bring up, which is a change in our delivery structure.

As you know, we have not changed the delivery structure of our home delivery model in a long time. Well, actually since January of 2015 to be precise. And with all of the changing tides in the food market right now, I have been dissecting our model to see where we are winning and where we are losing. As part of this self-audit, we came up with a very important number, $9.25. Now you are asking “What the heck is that?”

$9.25 is the average cost that it takes us to buy a truck, insurance, gas, hire a crew to prep/pack and deliver your order. So leaving out any fixed costs (rent etc.), it takes us $9.25 to stop the truck and bring an order to your door. And I might add that we are extremely efficient at our deliveries and so there is not a lot of fat in that $9.25 to cut.

So then I started looking at our delivery cost incurred compared to our order size and something jumped out that made me get a little queasy. Our delivery cost is 37% of our minimum free delivery order. And that is before there is even any food cost associated with the delivery. Way too much.

The conclusion that we easily reached looking at all of these numbers is that we currently lose money on orders under $30 and make a tiny bit of money on orders $30-36. And I have to tell you that we receive No subsidies, No grants, and No gifts. We are socially-conscious, environmentally-friendly, for-profit business. But…we cannot afford to run a philanthropy. Each of our deliveries has to help support the greater good.

So effective immediately we will be adding a $5 delivery (sustainability) fee to any orders under $36. We will keep minimum orders at $25 but we can no longer offer free delivery with our smaller orders. Let me say this though, I would rather feed you than charge you a delivery fee. Enjoy more local items that we have to offer and the delivery fee will be a moot point and then everyone is happy and fed!

Thanks for your understanding on this issue. And if you still need reassurance that we bring amazing value for your money, please check out Instacart’s delivery policy– $10 fee for orders less than $35 and a $6 fee for all orders over $35. Even with a small delivery fee, we still offer the best value.

Thank you for your support, Farmer Monte

New Mexico Needs You!

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I’m Hungry, Take Me To the Web Site

Amigos, Foodies, New Mexicans, lend me your eyeballs. I need your undivided attention as we jump into the deep-end and look at a very important issue facing our local food system now. So grab your orange floaties and let’s do this.

         Grandpa Skarsgard in North Dakota

Competition. I have to tell you that I love competition. I love playing sports, watching hot dog eating contests, and have been known to bark when my little Scottie Monopoly piece is about to win the game. Competition gets my blood flowing.

So that is my preface to this week’s journal and to let you know the competition in the food world right now is intense. Some seasoned grocery folks say it is the most challenging the industry has been in 40-50 years. Access to food has not been this easy since the cavemen found a suicidal Woolly mammoth. I don’t think they had psychiatric vets back then.

My point is that we (as consumers) are living through an extraordinary time of food right now. We are surrounded by food choices and low prices. Our grandparents were used to paying 20% of their income on food. Now, folks still find room to complain when, as a society, we pay less than 7% of our income on food. The lowest percentage seen in history.

So how do food prices and competition play into a pressing issue for our local food system?

Well right now throughout our entire state, CSAs, Co-Ops, Farmers’ Markets, and Mom n Pop food providers are in a battle to find space in your kitchen as the large box stores rage their price wars with one another. You would be very hard-pressed to find a Local food provider/supplier who is doing better now than they were 3 years ago. SKRS Farms is no exception. The competition is that intense and widespread.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods, my initial reaction was that this is a huge opportunity for the local food suppliers to step up and fill a void for our community. But then it hit me… We already have an amazing local food network. Local dairy partners, all the local pork and beef that we need. Thousands of pounds of local produce weekly. Honey, cheese, baked goods, roasted coffee, kombucha, teas, fermented foods, fresh pastas, and tortillas. I mean the list of what we have to enjoy from this great Land of Entrapment is huge.

So I have realized that it is not a matter of the local producers stepping up to serve the community, but will the community step up and support our local producers?

Our local food system is in a Sink or Swim situation right now. I am not going to sugarcoat it for you. We saw the very same erosion of support happen in Arizona. First, sales at Farmers’ Markets cooled off. Then a CSA closed. Then the landslide hit. We saw 8 CSAs and home delivery models close down in the span of 16 months. Box stores winning the fight. Right now, NM is showing the same cracks in the ship.

Fortunately, New Mexico is not as far down the rabbit hole as Arizona was at the time. But without community support, we are going to see a very different local food landscape 2 years from now. But honestly, it comes down to you.

I have written this so many times and I will write it again; the businesses that call our communities home are a direct reflection of the values of the people. Realize that. Businesses are not around by accident. They exist from the support of the community. Economic democracy where $$ are votes.

Whenever I would read that old bumper sticker “Think Globally, Act Locally” something never seemed right about it. For me, thinking globally is the easiest way to lull yourself into a state of paralysis. We can become so worried about events in Las Vegas or hurricanes along the coast, that we become desensitized to the impact that we can actually create in this world. The wording of that bumper sticker should have read, “Think Locally, Act Locally” We need to focus our energies on what we can create at home. What we can build?

So here we are in our most transparent attire. I need your support. All of our local suppliers need your support. Our community needs your support. You hold the key to shaping our local economic landscape. How is it going to look?

Farmer Monte

Citrus and Fingerling Potatoes

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Just as I wrote this newsletter last week, we had some great luck getting some tangerines and oranges in our paws. So we will be offering these dudes out this week for you to add to your orders. I do have one white flag that I am going to wave though amigos and that is the field run fruit. I have tried for years (literally) for our members to be able to eat with your mouth and not with your eyes. This week’s tangerines were the most perfect example of that. Slightly blemished but bursting with flavors. We got way too many phone calls and emails from folks asking for credit because their tangerines “looked” rotten.

So here is what I am going to do…when we get amazing fruit that is blemished, I am going to start packing those as “Juice” fruits. I will tell you now that they will be perfectly yummy and high quality fruit, but they will not be expected to be “supermarket” looking fruit. These fruit bags will be a way better value for your peso than the premium looking fruit. If you are happy with tasty fruit with a few blemishes, grab the Juice fruit. If you need blemish-free fruit, choose those offerings.

I do not want to disappoint our customers, but I also want to bring you the best flavor profile for your money. My feeling is that comes with “field run fruit,” but I am not going to force feed people who do not want it. That has never been in my job description )

I’m Hungry, Take Me To the Web Site

Recipe Ideas Using Items from This Week’s Harvest Boxes

Carrot & Ginger Soup

Green Chile Cheese Burgers

The Ripple Effect from Hurricane Irma. Nothing in life (and especially in the produce world) happens within a vacuum. A frost in California affects the produce markets in New York and a hurricane in Florida will shock the citrus availability throughout the country. The unfortunate part of all of this is that it may not be a short term speed-bump but rather a long term rebuilding process from the roots up. I’ll explain.

The hurricane obviously hammered the citrus groves during the storm. But the aftermath might be more devastating. The rains flooded the groves throughout Florida. Citrus trees are very sensitive trees and cannot stay flooded for more than about 10 days or you will begin to see the trees die from a lack of oxygen in the soil. So the trees need to have huge pumps brought in to get the water off of the trees. The issue is that the pumps throughout the state are being used to pump water out of residential areas and not the farms. Therefore we could see some huge loss of trees following this hurricane.

To date, I have seen the price of oranges go up 40% since the hurricane. And it looks like the prices have not even stabilized yet. So all of the citrus needs coming out of Florida has now turned to California. I read a report this week that California is in jeopardy of “running out” of oranges. This is not that the state will not produce them, but rather that every piece of fruit that is grown has already been bought by large produce buyers. And we are not one of those large buyers.

So what does that mean for us? Well, we have to get creative. When they Zig, we Zag. Or something like that. Here is a brief snapshot of what creativity might look like coming up. If demand is high on items like oranges, then we focus our attention on tangerines and other fun citrus choices.

We actually just got a delivery of the tangerines about 30 minutes ago and I got to dive into those. Wow! Some of the most intense tangerine flavor that I think I have ever put a tooth into. Again, not the prettiest of fruit to look at, but the flavor is so good that it will make your eyes tear up like you’re watching Dirty Dancing for the first time. “Nobody puts Tangerines in the corner.”

Additionally, we will rely on help from our friends. We have amazing partners in the citrus world. With the support that we give them weekly throughout the year, at times like these they give us some help even if they have to sell the fruit to us at lower than they could get on the market.

Lastly, Arizona citrus season is about 6 weeks away. At that point, we have relationships that we have built over the last 7 years there that will ensure our CSA members (aka You!) get all the citrus your little fingers can plow through. So if you see some articles on how crazy the citrus market is getting, have no fear, we have got you covered.

Apples. We have had a little bumpy start to the apple season, but I am happy to announce that I think it has smoothed out finally. Quality, price, and availability should be looking up.

Pears. Sorry to say that this will be the very last week for Paul’s Excelsior pears this season. Truly an exceptional fruit from a pretty exceptional orchard. I am always sad to see the end of his harvest. I do not think that anyone can match his quality and commitment to growing for flavor. We are fortunate he is on our team and will look forward to seeing his cherry harvest next June.

Green Chile. The incredible chile harvest continues to roll and roast on here. We are getting closer to that first frost date (usually mid October) and that will kill the chile harvest. What a dilemma for the poor chile…do you want to die a freezing or fiery death?? Tough decision. I’ll take the fire please! Anyhow, stock up those freezers for your winter needs now. As that famous Buddhist monk once said, “Ain’t no time like the present amigos.”

Very last item on my mental brain dump for the week, beef. We just received a new harvest from our local grass-fed rancher. Huge selection of some of the best meats that you will find anywhere. Insane quality of meat along with impeccable and compassionate animal husbandry. Doesn’t get any better than that. That is why I am happy to bring it to you.

Farmer Monte