Archives for April 2018

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Let’s look at a few quick things here this week. Strawberries. We will finally start to see more berries hitting the scene. I always look forward to the berry season, but at the same time I hate being the first one at the party. The start of strawberry season usually is filled with colorful fruit but lacking in flavor. Growers fight so hard to extend their berry seasons, but flavor is usually sacrificed. So we sit back in the dugout and wait for our time. And this week begins “our time.” Look for berries to be around into June.

Along with the berries, late April is when we start to see Spring produce ramp up. From now until mid-June, we get some great growing weather. For those of you keep score at home, great growing weather means warm days and cool nights and hopefully to see the winds slow down a bit over the next few weeks. So the next 2 months really constitute the heart of the Spring harvest. Enjoy the season!

Meats. I have to tell you that trying to get a grip on the demand for meats has been like hanging on to a bucking bronco. For example, we added lamb chops to the web site over the weekend and sold out in one hour. I have never seen anything like it. But it leads me to a bigger discussion that I will start in the next paragraph after I take a sip of coffee.

OK I’m back, you still with me? So the bigger topic is really the shortage of sustainably produced meats. Ranchers have been under attack because of their over use of antibiotics and of how concentrated feed lot operations are hurting the environment. And you know what, they are. Large feed operations are terrible for the employees, the environment, the consumers, and most of all, the animals. But just as no two snowflakes are the same, ranchers are not the same. Therefore painting all animal operations with the same brush isn’t fair to consumers or the ranchers (and animals).

This is where I jump in and try and help the neighborhood kid kick the bully in the shins. You see my favorite part of this job is talking with some of the most incredible farmers, ranchers, and food producers you’ll ever meet. Their love of the food and of the land is apparent in every single person we work with. So when you see a baby calf standing under a tree nursing from his momma, you would be really hard-pressed to look at the rancher and think she is destroying the environment. Watching animals roam free on pasture is hard to imagine they are responsible for resistant super bugs.

The reason why it’s hard to picture these things is because these ranchers are truly the exception to the norm. Raising animals with reverence and respect should be the way everyone operates, but they do not. So when we find ranchers who believe like we do, I want them on our team. And we are fortunate to have a handful of really devoted ranchers with us.

With this gratitude of our producers and seeing the incredible demand from our membership, I am trying to build out a better sustainably-raised meat offering for you. This takes time to get the ranchers up to speed with your wants/needs. Our offering will continue to expand, but we will not be cutting any corners on with our ranchers or animals. So I ask for your patience as we expand these options for you.

Lastly this fine spring morning, a reminder about our Large Order Incentive. As I have written about in the past, it costs us about the same to stop our delivery van for a small order as it does for a larger order. Our driver still has to slam on the brakes and sprint to your door no matter what size the order. Therefore, a larger order is more profitable for us. And because of that, for larger orders we have room to give some of the savings back to you.

So for all orders $100 or more, we will automatically take 10% off your bill for the week. You do not need to sign up for a membership or know a special handshake or input a code. Just add items to your order and when you hit that lucky $100 mark, the web site will shave 10% from your tab. Simple as that.

 

So graze away amigos, Farmer Monte

 

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And with the snap of your fingers, April is here. Just standing on the doorstep of some warm weather, sunshine, and of course, windy afternoons. So let’s look at what this spring has in store for us and at a few new partners we added in March.

With the addition of greater Denver to our home delivery map, our list of partners has gotten a whole lot more interesting I have to say. You see, I like to think about our food region like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico are each in their own right a great growing region…But, none of them has a year-round answer to the local food movement. AZ/NM get too hot in the summer and CO too cold in the winter. Together though, these three states offer just an amazing amount of sustainably produced goodies on a year-round basis.

I keep hammering the notion of year-round production because you Have to have this box checked if you are to truly have a sustainable food model. The one huge issue that the “Buy Local” food movement forgot to address was what the heck do you do when your Local area cannot produce something because it is either too hot or too cold (like Goldilocks)? So the challenge for all of us at Skarsgard Farms over the last 15 years has always been how do we celebrate the local flavors while being realistic in our limitations? And if we can answer this challenge with authenticity, then we will build an incredible and sustainable food model.

I think along this journey for a better food industry, the break-through moment came not in realizing our strengths, but in conceding our weaknesses. Very few environments throughout the world offer a year-round “Buy Local” food option. So if that option is not feasible for us in the Southwest we have to push out the radius a bit and ask the question is a “Buy Regional” food movement possible for a 52-week a year food program? The more we asked this question, the more we met inspirational producers and the answer became clear that Yes it is possible to have your Organic cake and eat it too.

Wow, what a feeling to know that we are on the right path, but we just need to find pilgrims who are on our same journey.

We already have so many great partners on our team, but as I have written about in the past, we are always looking for more. So let me introduce you to 4 new suppliers who will be helping make this vision for a better food system a reality.

Boulder Meats. There are not a lot of options for regionally produced healthy chicken options. Poultry is one of the hardest items to source locally. So we worked with a provider out of California while we continued our search for something closer to home. And then we found Boulder Meats. We will be expanding out our chicken offerings as we work with them on packaging and various cuts that they produce. Check our Butcher Shop for new items as they come available.

Tonali’s Meats. An incredible family-run butcher shop in the Denver area who we have worked with over the years and recently asked to become a larger provider for our customers’ needs. Again, you will see these offerings grow and become more diverse as we work closely with them to offer you the best value for regionally sourced healthy meats.

Grower’s Organic. Brian and his team at G.O. have a really similar model to ours at SKRS in that we are stronger as a team of producers than we are by ourselves. So as the weather gets too warm throughout AZ and NM this summer, we will be sourcing a lot more of our cool season needs (greens, roots, herbs) from Colorado and Brian’s network. This will be a great new partner for us in the Colorado produce world.

Last, but not least, the Sage Bakehouse in Santa Fe. They bake up some of the most memorable artisan loaves that you can find anywhere. Their sourdough and whole wheat farm bread will blow your mind. They are/will be an awesome addition to our already superb line-up of baked goods.

Well amigos, that is what our April is looking like in a nutshell. So many great flavors all coming together under one roof…well, maybe under one web site. Our roots have always been (and will continue to be) in the tasty regional produce that we offer. But with that said, our meats, dairy, baked goods and fresh pastas are making for an absolutely incredible culinary experience coming your way.

Enjoy, Farmer Monte