We have a few new products to tell you about this week. You’ll notice we are starting to carry some seasonal items.  These items are generally subject to availability, but we will only list items that farmers have committed a certain amount to us for. We appreciate your patience, and your willingness to support new farms that we bring into our service.

Kale, Toscano and Winterbor varieties, certified organic from Sunbow Farm. Available by the bunch, about 12 ounces each. $3.25  Kale is virtually loaded with calcium, potassium, indoles (cancer-fighting substances), beta-carotenes, and other antioxidants. I like simple steamed kale with some butter, nutritional yeast and salt. A versatile cooking green.

  Chives, fresh green, certified organic from Coon Creek Family Farm. By the bunch, $3.00. Order these fresh chives and get your kitchen scissors out (clean fiskars ok too). Fresh chives add a little spunk and color – salads, soups, garnish.  I had some in my popcorn last night. 

 Order these two fresh items along with the regular selections in our product catalog. We will care for these items to your door – if they are to be left out, some ice in a cooler will help them stay fresher longer (if they last past your Friday night meal, that is!).

 We’re in final logistical plans with several other new vendors – lot’s of cheese and bread coming soon!

We have a unique relationship with our insurance agent, Mark Wise.  He made sure we were covered for everything in our truck and warehouse – that’s pretty normal. But a few months ago, he also sold us his car to be used as our next delivery vehicle – an ol’ Ford Escort diesel that he converted to run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants.  We have now driven that car for almost two months of deliveries, and all of the fuel has been provided by Mr. Wise. It’s a great feeling knowing our car runs on a local, renewable resource. Even better that it’s free!  I want to thank Mark for providing us with the car and fuel, and for his help in keeping our coop business on the road to success.

 Shake it up

Pricing

We sometimes get comments that our prices are too high. And well, yeah, I guess if you are comparing a half gallon of commercial milk at a megastore with a half gallon of fresh milk from a local farm, the price on the bottle is higher. There’s all sorts of clichés that can be used – you get what you pay for, the best things aren’t cheap, you are what you eat…  We’re not that interested in clichés though.  We want the farmers we work with to be in business a few years from now, working in a sustainable operation that feeds  their families as well as our customers. And we want our customers to be around a few years from now – which in part means keeping our food fresh, wholesome, nutritious and life-giving. No preservatives or chemicals that lead to premature health problems.

 I know it’s hard to justify spending more money on food that is similar.  I try hard not to spend too much time in these newsletters telling you about the dark side of the food industry, even though it’s tempting.  I’ve been to factories where cows are lined up, the huge industrial facilities where millions (yes millions) of chickens are kept before their untimely deaths. While these methods produce “food” that is edible and available at the supermarket, there are costs that don’t ring up at the register. The long term effects of eating food from animal (and vegetable) factories is clear – health problems, environmental cleanup and runoff issues, and family farms going out of business are a few of them.