What a crazy week last week was for deliveries. Sure, we did not get it as badly as other folks around the country, but that really challenged our delivery limits. Good thing our drivers carry snowshoes. Really proud of all our chariot drivers who got all of the deliveries out and brought themselves (and our rigs) back in one piece. Nice to have professionals on your team!

Couple of quick housekeeping pointers as I do a brain-dump here. Prices. If we need to adjust prices up or down, we do that on Friday mornings. Our offerings change weekly, and with that, we need the flexibility to change prices accordingly once a week.

So if you are ordering broccoli today for delivery 3 weeks from now (that our system allows you to do), I cannot promise it will be at the same price. Produce is a volatile market and we do our best to bring you all of the value that we can.

Also along the lines of pricing…I know two things to be true at this point; 1. Families are struggling financially to make ends meet, and 2. New Mexico has supported our business throughout the pandemic in ways that I never imagined possible. I am grateful for that. So as you might have noticed, we are passing huge savings to all of our customers in this challenging time.

There is no magic in business. The more customers that we feed, the more efficiently our business runs. With that, we can offer better pricing to you. And I am 100% committed to making our food as price competitive as we can. I know that fresh healthy foods can get kicked out of the shopping cart when we have to tighten our belts. I don’t want that to happen to our customers.

As one of the new things that you will see on the site is our Farmers’ Abundance Box. What I have done was repurpose the Scratch n Dent Box. Our incredible kitchen crew is finding homes for all of our Scratched produce. So instead, we have created a Harvest Box filled with the best value produce of the week in one box. This week for example is 10 items for only $20! That is a ridiculous value to still be eating healthy, regionally, and Organically.

Spring Cleaning. This week we are going to begin a process to redesign the way we pack your orders. Here are some of the highlights we are aiming to accomplish.

Seafood. We have a new connection who works at the Boston Fish Market. They take fish directly from the boats, cut that seafood into 1 lb packages, and then freeze them. We will then fly that seafood into the ABQ Sunport and have it ready for your orders. But to make this happen, we need to pack frozen items into your orders literally as the drivers are heading out. This will ensure you get access to the best seafood in the state.

More items on the website. With seafood, more prepared food options, more meal kits, and expanding items overall, our Pack Line just needs more space. So we will be extending this line to serpentine throughout the warehouse and give us the needed space to bring you more. It will be bringing together Refrigerated items, Dry good items, and Frozen items in a way that we have never done before. But it needs to happen.

Patience. Change is difficult. There maybe some minor bumps in this transition. I ask for patience and also remind you that if something is ever Not Right in your order, just let us know and we’ll make it right.

Green pastures to come amigos, Farmer Monte

Here is a little love letter I wrote to the first month of the year.

Dear January,

You fill me with so much optimism every year. I get to finally hit the reset button on all the bad decisions I have made and all the tasty biscochitos I have eaten. It is time for resolutions and planning on how to live the best life I can.     Love, Farmer M.  

I usually hate the weather in January, but love all of the potential that it brings to the calendar. The year is so fresh and pliable in January. I am also a realist though and know that resolutions without reflections are a wasted effort. So I like to use this time for some serious and honest self-assessment. I do this exercise personally as I criticize my hairy love handles. But I also think about where we are as a business; what we are doing well, what needs work. So here is my morning brain dump.

The Good. We scaled up (quickly) to help feed more New Mexicans. I am a Yes guy, not really a fan of the telling people No. So when thousands of new faces showed up at our table, we pulled up more seats and welcomed them.

On the back side, we were freaking out. Buying new trucks/vans, hired triple the crew we had before, and asked our vendor partners to kick their butts in gear and help feed more people than any of us had ever done before. Late nights blurred into early mornings. Sore bodies and tired eyes stayed focused on keeping food on your tables. And throughout it all, we have been surrounded by the most positive team that I have ever seen. Truly incredible and so proud of our crew.

More Good…our Partners. Just as we pushed ourselves to the limits, our partners were as well. Expanding food offerings, working overtime, keeping a healthy local economy moving. We have more partners right now than we have ever had in the past. Working together we have created a local food network that is as sustainable and vibrant as anywhere that I have seen in the country. All of these partners flourishing in the sunshine of your support. I cannot thank you enough and I think you will be happy and impressed with more great things to come.

Prepared Foods/Meal Kits…we finally have a prepared food program that we have been fine-tuning for years. We have thrown so much spaghetti against the wall over the years trying to find a system that makes sense. And when we finally brought my ole amigo, Chef Jules, on board, our mission started to stick. I could not be more thrilled with the direction/energy that we are seeing with these offerings.

It is difficult to have a vision for where you want to go, but some hurdle stands in your way. I knew/know that locally prepared farm-to-table prepared foods do Not have to be expensive. We work directly with the producers, there should be no hindrances on supply. Our issue was not having a conductor, an orchestrator to bring all the vendors together to supply our prepared meal program. We have that now. So look out because things are about to get very interesting.

But in the sea of so many good things, there is a one thing that keeps me up at night. It is my Bogeyman. My El Guapo. And that is items that do not make it into your order. Or as we call them around here, “Outs.”

I will let you in on a little industry secret and that is Outs will make or break the home delivery industry. Your grandparents shopped at a store. Your parents shopped at a store. For most of your life (until you found us of course), you have shopped at a store. Home delivery of food is the polar opposite of how humans have shopped ever since we stopped eating Woolly Mammoths. It does not feel natural to have someone shop for you.

But I don’t want our service to feel “natural,” I want it to feel like Royalty. Stop spending your life pushing a cart around and standing in line. Shop from your couch, with a huge glass of wine, in your underwear, for the most incredible food you can find anywhere. That is my goal. And that goal cannot be realized if we have chronic missing items. So my vow to you this January is to try to eradicate Outs as much as we can. Attack them. This is a huge challenge for our whole team, but we are committed to bringing you the best lifestyle we can. And that starts by not wasting time at the store. Happy New Year!

Farmer Monte

www.SkarsgardFarms.com

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

So we have a saying around here that “Numbers don’t lie.” Numbers don’t get hunches, have feelings, get political, or get emotional. Numbers tell a story whether you like it or not. And right now, COVID numbers in our enchanted state aren’t good.

And I cannot look at the numbers in New Mexico without thinking about our 40 employees and thousands of families who depend on us for healthy food and a healthy work environment. So I want to lay out a few things here as we prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I will be the first person to tell you that we were not ready for the first wave of the Corona virus in March. We did not have the vendors, vehicles, employees, refrigerated infrastructure, website functionality, etc etc to handle such an increase in demand for our food. I am not sure any company was ready for it, but we duct taped stuff as fast as we could. Fortunately, we learned a lot and tooled up since those early days in April.

Now I do not have a crystal ball and have no idea as to what will be coming around the bend, but we are prepared and I want to let you in on a few things to give you peace of mind.

Invest in loyalty. Looking back at this year, I realize that we should have capped our growth. Instead of capping growth, we cut programs like our Meal Kits, Juice Bar, and limited offerings. Moving forward I do not want to do that. We will be focusing on our current/loyal customers before we get too far over our skis. I promise to take care of the people who have taken care of us over the years. What will this look like?

Expanded Delivery Day Options. I want to have more delivery days available to you every week. Personally, I miss my cut-off deadline often. I am sure that I am not alone in that oversight. So instead of having to wait a week, I want you to have another option to fill your tummies. Look for more delivery days being added to your account coming up. Choose the day that works best for you or get 2 deliveries. Up to you.

Household Needs. The pandemic has made me realize that we need to offer more than just food, we need household staples too. Look at the website for items from face masks to soaps. I do not want small things like dish soap to force you to the store.

Local Meats. During the first wave, my brother texted me and wrote “Bro, your Butcher Shop only has beef jerky and mustard, is that right?” Uh (tail between my legs), Yes. Our local ranchers were not prepared for the demand that we saw after the national supply chain left shelves empty. We have added ranchers to our team and now are very well supplied with the best local meats that you’ll find anywhere. We got you covered.

Coolers. Folks, I just do not see us returning to the use of reusable coolers. I ask (ok, beg) that you just hang onto and use any cooler that you may have. Those coolers are $35 at the store and your deposit was about half of that. So I hope you can look at the coolers like you got a really good deal on a sexy cooler. The other way that you can look at is you have a vintage piece of memorabilia. A badge of honor that you were with SKRS Farms when we had coolers.

We have so many coolers left around here that I have already picked one out that I will use as my urn. So if you ever see a lime green Coleman cooler floating down the Rio Grande, don’t open it; I may be stuffed inside!

The Warehouse. I want you to have complete trust in the cleanliness of our warehouse facility. We never let the public into our warehouse. Only employees are let into the warehouse so that we prevent anything from coming into the warehouse that we do not want. Employees wear masks and never work if they are feeling sick. We even encourage mental health time off if folks are feeling tired or anxious with everything going on in our world now. Without a healthy team, we have nothing.

Delivery Vehicles. Our delivery trucks/vans are Not someone’s car. These are dedicated delivery vehicles that have steel cargo areas that are cleaned and sanitized. It kind of boggles me a bit when folks order meal delivery and it comes in the back of some dude’s car. I can’t help but picture some Golden Retriever sitting (possibly farting) on the same seat where my Nacho Bell Grande is riding. My mind goes to dark places, what can I say?

Let us help keep you and your family safe. If you need/want something that we do not have, please let us know. We are like Morgan Freeman in Shawshank…we can find you things.

Keep smiling under those masks! Farmer Monte

Over the last 17 years, we have seen a pretty wild roller-coaster in the business. And let me say that I know that we are not unique. Every small business is on a bucking bronco of a ride. It is not for everyone, but I can honestly say that I have not had a boring day in the last 2 decades.

We grew through the “Buy Local” bumper sticker days of the early 2000s. Buckled up and had loyal support through the Great Recession of 2008. Weathered the storm of huge start-up companies getting into the home delivery game. And of course most recently, fed tens of thousands New Mexicans during the worst health pandemic our world has seen. It has been a turbulent adventure and one that I enjoy engaging in every day.

I strongly believe that there is no Winning the game of business, being able to continue playing the game Is winning in my book. And every year that we are able to keep food coming to you is another year I am grateful for. It is easy to lose sight of how important financial support is for small local businesses, but even small amounts keep our local economy turning. So I know that I speak for all local businesses when I say Thank You for supporting local Mom n Pop businesses during this time and all of the time. Your support is the fuel for our state.

I bring this up because over the last couple of weeks, I have felt a sense accomplishment for our little business. This is not in some arbitrary sales goal, but rather seeing the fruits of our labor finally starting to take shape.

In business, and in life, there are times when we work hard for our goals. For our mission, vision, or whatever you want to call them. But lofty goals do not come to fruition over-night. You must stay focused and work towards an end that you cannot even see at the moment. Chase the mirage in hopes that something amazing will materialize out of a New Mexican dust devil. We have been on this journey for quite a while. At least it feels like it when I look at myself in the mirror.

With all of that, we have some really cool and tasty things at our fingertips now and I want to make sure that you know about them. So here is a quick breakdown on what the fall will be looking and tasting like around here.

Produce. A pretty phenomenal year from all of our local growers. Heirloom tomatoes, garlic, and all of the fresh tree fruits from our buddy Paul at Excelsior Orchards.

Local Meats. We have put a lot of energy this year into building out the best local grass-fed meat program in the state. I can tell you with confidence that you will not find a higher quality meat offering anywhere. The care for the animals and the earth are second to none. On top of that, be-cause we are connecting you to the ranchers directly, you get huge savings and the ranchers get paid top dollar. A true Win-Win.

Bakery. Again, we have added many great partners to our bakery category and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have brought Bob (owner of Wolfe’s Bagels) in to bake the highest quality Local bagels that you can find. Myra, from Authentic Cookie in Santa Fe has been having huge success with her pastries and pies. Andre from Wild Leaven in Taos has added his fermented breads made from Locally grown grains. Pastian’s from ABQ has joined the team with their hoagies and yummy macaroons. They all join up with Sage Bakehouse from Santa Fe and Swiss Alps in ABQ to offer you the best bakehouse options throughout the state.

Juice Bar. If you are like me you love fresh juices, but hate the trouble and mess of making them. This was the driving force behind our Fresh, Cold-Pressed, Unpasteurized Juice Bar. Don’t be a typical juice bar, be better and different. You see our juice bar is not a business, it is an avenue for our growers to sell more Organic produce. And since we are working directly with the growers, you save money while supporting our farms. I never want you to say “I really want that juice, but it is too expensive.” So I can promise that you will find a better value juice option anywhere in the state. Cut costs, not quality.

Prepared Foods. The only thing that I can say about our prepared food line is Wow! Convenient, great fun flavors, incredible value, and supporting local producers. What is not to love about that combo? Eat like a local celebrity and pay the same that you would for mass-produced fast food. We are and will be pouring tons of energy into this new category for you. Please check out all that flavors that Chef Jules has for you.

Stay healthy and happy amigos, Farmer Monte

Take me to the website

Excelsior Orchards has begun the apple harvest. Apples have become so ubiquitous that not many people get all that excited about an apple harvest. Well I am that food nerd who loves when our Colorado apples begin. We will start the sea-son with Galas. Again, most Galas are a rather pedestrian piece of fruit. But not from Excelsior.

Paul’s fruit is grown in some of the best orchard land that we have in our entire country. Couple that with the fact that Paul is meticulous about details. And you will taste some of the most amazing flavors you can find. I find myself saying, “Oh crap, that is what Gala is supposed to taste like??” So do yourself a favor and load up on some of his fruit. You will be so proud of yourself that you did. Might even pat yourself on the back.

Quick note about his Apples and Pears:
Pears are real troopers. They will stay in your fridge for many weeks. When you are ready to eat them, take them out, give them a day or 2 on your counter, wait for the yellow tint, and dive in. If you like pears to have a crunch, eat them while they are green. There is no wrong or right way to eat them.

One thing that you will notice though as they start to tint up in your kitchen is the floral aroma that pears develop. This is actually why I like Pear Cider more than Apples. Apples are great, don’t get me wrong, but pear cider has floral notes that hit your nose as you drink it and it really adds a complexity that I love to the nectar. So additionally, I really recommend that you try some of our fresh cold-pressed pear cider.

Apple storage. Galas have more sugars in them than the up-coming Fujis. What this means is that they are obviously sweeter than Fujis, but they do not store as long. Galas are good for about a month once they come off the trees. Fujis have more “legs” and can last 8-10 weeks off the tree without losing quality or crisp. Honestly though, the apples are so good that they get munched quickly. But if you are interested in storing some, go for 1 month max on Galas, 2-3 months on Fujis.

We also have a new addition to the Excelsior family of fruit and that is the Grape. First harvest for grapes this year. Like all of the other fruit we get, these grapes are phenomenal. Enjoy.

We have been receiving many emails and calls wondering what is happening with The Stand. So here is a quick update.

We are wrapping up an insane month of demo in the space. The transformation from a pharmacy to an industrial feeling produce market kicked up a lot of dust and dumpsters.

A very fun project though. As we started to peel back the layers of the onion, we began to see the history of the building. Originally it was a mechanic shop, pizza joint, pharmacy, café, etc. Incredible journey that is marked by some really funky use of walls, colors and spaces. Our goal is to keep that character present in the building’s future. So there will be steel beams that seem out of place, wood ceilings that don’t match (because they were built in different decades), and concrete floors that were stained green. I love real things. I love things that have a bit more grit to them rather than polish. Besides, grit is more fun.

And let me touch on the roll out for a moment. The main goal of the Stand is to provide more unique and prepared foods to our entire distribution network. We needed a commercial kitchen to help get the home delivery model to where I want it to go. Only when we fulfill all the demand for our home delivery customers will we open the doors up to the public. So know that the brick n mortar store will not detract from your experience as a customer. It will only be enhanced by the kitchen.

And this is why I think the Stand will be so successful and unique; we do not need this space to operate like a typical restaurant. I can promise you that it will be different than any restaurant that you have ever been to. The theme of the restaurant is Our Favorite Flavors of NM. Period. It is not Italian, Asian, Mexican, or any other theme. Menus will be designed based on what we have access to currently. And menus will probably change more than some of us change our undies.

Fresh, Local, Yummy, Fun. This will be the mantra of the food we produce from the Stand. And rest assured that all of the flavors that Chef Jules is cranking out of the kitchen will be available to all of our customers, not just walk-in customers. Our home delivery model has never had a kitchen, now we do!

Have a great weekend. Stay safe and happy, Farmer Monte