The snow is gone. The sunshine has returned. And spring is starting to show her face. With all this warmth, the fields will begin to fill up quickly at the farm. This week already saw over 5,000 tomato plants hit the protective confines of our greenhouses. We always try and hit a 4th of July first distribution date for tomatoes and hopefully this year will be no exception. Stay tuned for more stuff from the farm.
On a housekeeping note: Recurring Orders. Most of our members know and use this great functionality of setting up recurring orders on their accounts. Personally, I go through a gallon of milk a week and a pound of dark roast coffee every two weeks. Both of these things I have set up on recurring orders along with a weekly medium Harvest Box. I bring this up because “I’m not only the hair club president, but I’m also a client.” So I know firsthand that the recurring options help me a lot in my meal planning, but it also helps the farm in our planning.
If you have been around for longer than a month, you know that we strive to (and have succeeded) in cutting down the time from order to delivery. This has been no easy feat for us. For you to order by 10 a.m. and then have your order by the next day takes some real systems management as you can imagine. We are only able to make that happen because of the use of recurring orders. It lets us know in advance what the rough orders will look like and prepare for those orders. Still, even with the recurring orders that we have in place, our weekly orders can fluctuate up to 250 from the start of the week to the end.
So here is my plea to help us help you. The more we can plan, the better quality you will get and the fewer shortages you will receive. And with your help of planning ahead, we will see this aspect of the deliveries continue to get better. Our fill rate right now for orders is better than 99% and we (you) would obviously love to get that to 100%. So try out the recurring order functionality if you have not done so, I think you will really like.
A quick product note: beef. As I have been highlighting recently in the newsletter, we have added a pretty comprehensive local beef program to the already awesome produce boxes. This week, one of our cows was being processed and the USDA inspector who was overseeing the operation commented that it was the finest looking animal that he had seen in his entire career. When I hear that from someone who really knows animals, I have to smile and feel that we are doing the right thing for our members.
It also is a reminder for me that our model is really working. And the strength of our model is rooted in diversity and the passion of our network. Let me explain.
There seems to be this undertone of the local food movement that a farmer has to do everything. Be everything for everyone. Harvest the carrots, make the bread, and milk the cows. That specialization is somehow bad for agriculture. Now I agree that we do not want to turn our farms into the monocrop landscape that has taken over the Great Plains, but we have to realize that specialization is at the root of passion.
Before we ever look at prices, before we ever examine quality, we look at the passion of our potential partners. And so the first question we ask possible partners is “do you love what you do as much as we love what we do?” If the answer is yes, then we have a foundation for a partnership.
When you talk with Paul from Excelsior Orchards about his trees, there is reverence. Ask Mike or Scott about milk, and you find out that milk is what ties generations of their respective families together. Talk to the Perez father and son team about beef, and they mention cows in the same way you would talk about family members…the ones you like! Putting all of that together, you end up saying, these are the people I want on my farm team. You have the A-Team on your side, well maybe minus Mr. T.
So rest easy this season knowing that no one is going to be eating better, fresher or closer to the source than you will.
Farmer Monte