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Archives for November 2020

The Biggest Week

November 28, 2020 by monte

I have to begin this week by saying that I am so thrilled and proud of our team that we have. Let me lay this out for you…

Shelter in Place order. Grocery stores being shut down with too many COVID cases. On top of all that anxiety, Thanks-giving, the biggest food holiday of the year, intersects with that storm.

To further put this into perspective, the week before Thanks-giving, we had a 70% increase in one week. Follow that by Thanksgiving week being the largest sales week we have seen in 18 years. Oh and by the way, you only have 3 days to de-liver before the holiday. Last week was the most insane week of feeding New Mexico that I have ever seen. Lots of coffee, tons of breakfast burritos, a tiny bit of sleep, and we did it!

By 7 pm Wednesday evening, the last of the orders were hit-ting doorsteps. It was an incredible ballet of people and products throughout the week. And you just cannot pull something like that off without an amazing team. So I stuffed my pie hole on Thanksgiving with smoked turkey and Wild Turkey feeling truly grateful for all of the people who come together to make sure you get fed during easy weeks and difficult weeks. Cheers to our team, I could not be prouder of them.

As part of that crazy week, I was able to log some miles under my belt from Santa Fe to Las Cruces and all over ABQ. And driving with a truck full of Organic/Local food is a pretty good time for some self-reflection. No emails, just some quiet time to think about what we are doing well and what we need to improve. Over all of those miles, one common thread kept coming up in my head and that was Opportunities.

We are obviously in some of the most challenging times as an economy and as a society that our nation has ever seen. It is an anxious place to be. But here is the silver lining, there will be some amazing inventions that come out of this struggle. The world will be a different place when we emerge on the other side of Hurricane COVID.

With that, now is the time that we all need to be looking for opportunities within the storm. How can we take these challenges and make the world a better place?

Home Delivery. We began home deliveries 18 years ago be-cause I could not afford a store, but I could afford a delivery van. Sure it looked like a kidnapper van that you might see on Dateline, but it began the journey for us.

What started out as a financial proposition, turned out to be the future of direct to consumer food distribution. It takes the average shopper 20 minutes to drive round-trip to the grocery store. So effectively 3 deliveries per hour. Our seasoned chariot driver, John, can do up to 23 deliveries an hour. Home delivery is 8 times more environmentally friendly than driving to the store yourself. How awesome that you can feel like royalty and save the world at the same time.

My hope now is that we can work with more NM businesses to add their products to our website for you to support. Continue building a website market that will support food and non-food local businesses all while bringing more convenience to you. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg for opportunities to build home deliveries and offer you more local products.

Prepared Foods. Under Chef Jules’ leadership, our prepared food offering is showing signs that we may be a flagship model for prepared foods in the nation. Let me highlight a few things.

Uber Eats, DoorDash, and all of the other vultures are preying on small restaurants. They keep fees relatively low to the consumer, and then charge the restaurant 30% of the bill for delivery. So picture you are the restaurant and you have a $40 sale. You have to turn around and pay the delivery company $12. Leaving you with $28 income for a $40 order.

We are fortunately the delivery company for our restaurant. So that 30% stays with us and we can bring you more value.

Furthermore, all the national meal kit companies are not from NM. So you will never get green chile, fresh posole, or red chile pork carnitas tacos. Our food offerings are made For New Mexicans, By New Mexicans. This is really important as we look at improving our local food system.

Crapola, I ran out of space this week. Anyway, more to come.. Farmer Monte

Filed Under: Newsletter

Planning Ahead

November 7, 2020 by monte

Thanksgiving Schedule. We will NOT have any deliveries Thursday (Thanksgiving) or Friday. Our crew has been working so hard this year. I want all of them to relax and enjoy their holiday as much as possible. Plus you will be stuffing your pie hole with leftovers and will not need any more food those days. So Please adjust any standing orders away from those days.

Turkeys. We will have 200 birds available for you this year. Each bird weighs between 14-16 lbs. They are on the website now and you can have them delivered any delivery day up until Thanksgiving. Important note: If you order one now to be delivered closer to Thanksgiving, we will put it aside for you. You do not need to take them this week if you don’t have space.

The turkeys are a free-range, Non-GMO, antibiotic free bird.

Chef Jules Full Thanksgiving Meals. So one of the great things about having a chef on our team is that we can bring you incredible flavors to make your holiday memorable. Not that you will forget that Thanksgiving photo with everyone wearing a mask, but you know what I mean. This has been a very stressful and anxious year, so I want to make this holiday easy.

So we have planned a fantastic meal that will be fully cooked and ready for you to heat and eat. All you have to provide will be fermented grape juice. What does this menu look like?

Thanksgiving Meal Kit to serve 4

Entrees
Herb & Roasted Garlic Smoked Half Turkey (~9lbs)

Sides
Green Chile, Garlic & Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes
Pecan & Blue Cheese Smashed Sweet Potatoes
Chimayo Chile Cornbread & Croissant Stuffing
Winter Herb Pesto Roasted Vegetables
Char Roasted Shallot Turkey Gravy
Dinner Rolls

Dessert
Excelsior Orchards’ Cherry and Apple Cobbler with NM Pecan & Gingerbread Crust

Price: $124.95

I can promise that you will not find a better value for amazing local food anywhere. This has been a challenging year for all New Mexicans. We want you to be able to support local producers, have a yummy/easy feast, while being very affordable for all families. You have supported us so much this year and we want to support your family with an incredible meal.

If you do not need/want an entire meal, we will also have some great dishes that you can find a la carte as well. These will come on the website as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

But for now, Please please help us help you by reserving a Meal early. Knowing how many mouths we need to feed will help us immensely. The Thanksgiving meal is on the website now, feel free to add it your order for the week of Nov. 23rd.

Other than that, I know that folks are exhausted with all of the political drama that has been unfolding. My hope is that we can all remember that we love this country. No party or person gets to claim a monopoly on patriotism. We show our love in various ways, but in the end we all want the best for the United States. So let’s try and remember what connects us.

And that is what I love about food. Food is not a political statement. Red and Blue can come together over a bowl of Green (chile). Also, if you feel like a loser right about now, you will win again. Conversely, the sweet taste of victory will be salty tears of defeat someday. Nothing is permanent in life nor is it in politics. But at least for now, we can move on and get back to our lives and trying to dig out of a pandemic.

Have a thankful November, Farmer Monte

Filed Under: Newsletter

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