An insane abundance of local foods right now. For being the first week of March, I am actually in disbelief. 7 items from the Land of Entrapment for our NM members and 12 items from the Valley of the Sun for our AZ eaters. Truly incredible. Enjoy.
You ever notice that as people get older they usually start to hate birthdays? Well let me tell you amigos, I am not one of those people. I love birthdays. Shoot, I’ll even crash a party if I see a clown heading into a house. And because of that, I always love to celebrate the first week of March. It is the beginning of that spring bug, but it is also the farm’s birthday.
14 years ago this week, I was fortunate enough to break ground on my dream and some land on the Los Poblanos Ranch. I sold my truck for a tractor and bought some seeds on a credit card. And just like that, the farm was off and running.
There were only 45 CSA members in the entire city of Albuquerque at that time (thank you Erda Gardens) and this was before the first “Buy Local” button or bumper sticker had even been printed. I had a farmer who was closing his farm and moving to Colorado laugh in my face when I told him about my idea to run a CSA farm in ABQ. I also had someone say it’s a “Lemonade Stand” after looking at the CSA pick-up.
This was not some romantic vision of what most people think when they wonder about small farms. There was no afternoon tea breaks. No poetry time in the morning. No stopping to whistle with the birds or sing to my plants.
This was the harsh face of reality for farming. Up at 5. 100 degree sauna days. Bugs trying to kill my plants and coyotes trying to kill my chickens/turkeys. No government grants to keep the farm afloat. And no tax deductible non-profit gifts.
I believed (and still do) in the sustainable agriculture model, so it had/has to be self-sustaining. With that, where do you find support? Honestly, it is right in front of our faces, the CSA. Community Supported Agriculture. The only support that mattered to the farm was that of the community. If we grew it, would people come? Could we find homes for all of the food. What an exciting yet vulnerable position you find yourself in to turn to your community and say “This is my dream, support it please. I need you.” Not an easy place to be.
But you know what? Our community has been there for me and this farm every step of the way. Through the bubble, through the recession, and through whatever the heck historians will call this time in our lives. When our farm has needed folks’ support the most, it has been given to us. There is absolutely no sugar-coating it; we are around for one reason only, because you want us here. Our members love our food as much as we love our food. And that’s a recipe for longevity.
So I celebrate the farm’s birthday with a very grateful heart for everything that so many people have done to keep this farm and dream going. I also realize that we have so much work left to do. We have seen great strides in the availability of healthy, local foods in our community, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Much more fun and greener pastures ahead.
Lastly this week, I want to share with you another pretty cool milestone that I am proud to see. This week our Friends of the Farm membership orders saved over $1,000 for the first time since we launched it.
For those of you who are still watching Season 1 on Netflix, the Friends of the Farm is a membership level that we started to encourage and incentivize larger orders. What we realized looking at the numbers (and common sense tells us) that it costs us almost the same amount to deliver a $25 order as it does a $125 order. So instead of penalizing the $25 order, why not incentivize the larger orders? So we did.
For this membership, folks who order $75 get 10% taken off their bill. $100 orders will shed 20%. And $125 orders will make 25% vanish from their bill! I have to tell you too that taking 25% off your order is basically like buying wholesale. Local, Organic, Incredible foods for wholesale prices.
I have grown tired (after 14 years) of people saying how expensive it is to eat locally. Well, we have done something about it and I am proud to say that our Friends of the Farm members saved over $1,000 this week. All while making our delivery service more efficient. That is what I call a win-win!
Thank you for the support and Happy Birthday! Farmer Monte