Issue 1 

May / June 2004

Fresh Local Food Delivered to your door!

The Clearwater Collective of Eau Claire is proud to introduce our home delivery service featuring fresh local foods from the nearby countryside.

We will deliver your order to your door (or a cooler outside your home) each Friday. We have a tremendous lineup of local farmers who will be the stars of this show. We are starting with local organic milk in returnable glass bottles, cream, cheese, and butter from Crystal Ball Farms (this is the best milk we’ve ever tasted), fresh free-range eggs from a few local sources, fair trade coffee from a local non-profit roaster called Farmer-to-Farmer, chocolate truffles from River Chocolates, Eat My Fish trout products, locally bottled water and fresh salad fixin’s..

Almost all of our products are fresh and need to be kept in a cool environment for maximum shelf life. Our grandparents used to have special doors in their houses for the milkman to slide the fresh milk in, or they had a fancy box on the porch ready for delivery. We’re asking you to provide an appropriately sized cooler in a convenient location at your home. This can be placed outside on Friday morning with a few ice packs or a tray of ice cubes. There are some new coolers available called "five day coolers", these have extra insulation and would work well for this purpose if you don’t already have a cooler. Of course placing it in the shade would help too.

Our delivery will take place sometime between noon and 8pm. As the weeks roll on, we’ll have a more precise time to give you. If you happen to be home, we’re happy to bring your food right on in to your kitchen.

All of the organic milk from Crystal Ball Farms comes in thick glass returnable bottles. They are thouroughly cleaned and sanitized at the farm, but your help is needed in rinsing them out when you are finished. We’ve found that a few rinses with cold water works out very well. Place your clean empty returns (we don’t need the caps) out with your cooler and we will calculate the total accordingly. Bottle deposits are $1.50 each for all sizes, so your first order total will be a bit higher than the rest.

Milk

We’re proud to carry pasteurized milk from Crystal Ball Farms. On their flyer you’ll find information on why non-homogenized milk is better for you. Here we want to point out a few other interesting things about their milk.

As you’ll see, this milk naturally separates into a thick creamy top layer and a thinner milky layer below. The chocolate milk adds another thick brown layer at the bottom. Some of you may like to use this top cream layer for your coffee, or separate it yourself to make a custom blend. For instance, you could order whole milk and pour off most of the cream (saving it for coffee or baking) to make your own "reduced fat" milk.

Sometimes the top cream layer can be a bit stubborn. We always recommend keeping a finger or hand over the cap so you don’t accidentally spill.

Milk is sensitive to sunlight, so try to keep your milk out of direct light. Being so fresh and unprocessed, this milk is also sensitive to varying storage temperatures. You’d be surprised how much cold air is lost when you open the refrigerator door. For the longest storage times, store your milk at the back of the fridge where the temperatures are more stable.

Crystal Ball Farms has a herd of about 100 cows. They grow their own certified organic crops, so the cows eat 100% certified organic food. Don’t you wish we all could do that? Of course their cows are not shot up with rBGH or other artificial hormones. This is pure, REAL milk. You can taste the difference.

They also make their own cheddar cheese, cheese curds and butter. Ice cream and yogurt are on the way!

We’re new at this, and we sure do appreciate your interest and commitment in working with us so far. We truly value your input and will work hard to deliver the best quality local and fairly traded foods available. We know there will be changes in our service and that we’ll make mistakes as we start out. Please be patient and let us know if you have any ideas or sugestions for us, direct them to Crystal@justlocalfood.com or 579-0106.

Now Hiring!

We are a fledgling worker-owned cooperative, and we anticipate some pretty hefty growth in the next few months. If you are looking for an interesting job rooted in democracy and cooperation, look no further. Call any one of our collective members for details and a preliminary "chat session" (interview).

Downtown Farmers Market

We have been hired by Crystal Ball Farms to sell their dairy products at the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturdays starting May 15, and on Wednesdays starting mid-June. Come see us and all the other local farmers down by the post office!

A Note On Organic

All products we refer to as "organic" are in fact certified Organic according to the new Federal USDA Organic Standards. The costs associated with certification are high, and many farms don’t do enough volume to make certification worthwhile. Members of the Clearwater Colelctive have visited every farm and talked with every producer. We are confident that even though some products are not labeled "organic", they are of high quality and the producers are committed to sustainable agriculture. If you have any questions about our products, do not hesitate to contact Aaron, our food buyer at aaron@justlocalfood.com or 552-0849.

More News...

We intend to produce a JustLocalNews every few weeks. In it you will find news and information on our suppliers, product updates and other interesting items. We’ll also include features of other small local businesses that share our commitment to the local economy.

Interesting Fact:  Our delivery vehicles run on biodiesel, a renewable, clean burning farm-grown fuel.  Biodiesel works in ALL diesel engines.

Our Buying Club

A food buying club is an association of people who get together to purchase food. As a group, our purchasing power increases and allows us to access the wholesale marketplace. By buying through wholesale distributors and directly from farmers, our members save money. The Clearwater Collective works with Natural Farms, a natural foods distributor based in Madison. We chose Natural Farms as they are one of the only locally-owned and operated natural foods distributors left in the United States.

We currently receive an order through them every four weeks. Feel free to browse their product selection at naturalfarms.org, you'll find they have quite a selection (fresh pasta, yogurts and dairy products, frozen foods, fresh produce, toilet paper, fair trade chocolates...) We process and package your order and total your bill. Delivery is FREE to those of you on our home delivery route. Call Crystal to sign up today!

Questions?

There are only four of us running our cooperative business at this time. While we are all happy to answer any question you have, we do each have specialties and you are encouraged to call the appropriate person for the question you have. We have families and other jobs, so it may not always be able to take your call. If you leave your name, number and concern we will call you back as soon as we can. Please also let us know the best times for us to return your call. One of the best ways to have your questions answered is through email, so give that a try if your question isn’t urgent!