Flow – Part Four

Ordering

Tamara, Marion and I all have a hand in keeping the FDC stocked with good food. 

Tamara likes to keep products in stock that are favorites – hers and members’. She reaches out to Just Soap, Bee Boys Honey, Bee Balm and a bunch of others fairly regularly to be sure we don’t run short on product. 

Marion designs the cheese and bread shares. We still purchase from some of the dairies we worked with from almost the inception of the cheese share. The planning of the cheese share starts at the beginning of the season – sending emails to find out the status of the herd, any price increases or learn of new products. The share attempts to strike a balance between lower-cost every-day cheeses and more complex-flavored higher-cost cheeses. Ideally the dairies and the schedule are set in advance, but unforeseen factors can lead to last minute changes. #neverdull

How far in advance do we plan the season? Some of the food we receive is planned for years, as mentioned last week – King, Brooksby Farm’s manager, and I talked about honeydew melons several years ago. Often we are reaching out seasonally. In early June we ask about cherries, in late June we ask about blueberries, and so on. Today I asked about Asian pears.

How far in advance do we place orders? As above, it depends on the item. We placed our order for a dried herb for the December share a month ago, but the idea was mentioned last December. Sometimes we are texting a grower the morning of to help us make up another farm’s shortage. We have been saved many mornings by growers who happen to be able to harvest and/or pack up what we need on the fly. 

On a weekly basis, we call around on a Friday to have an idea about the share the coming week. We open stores that night. We place orders Tuesday nightand Wednesday morning.

Our orders are either:

• harvested, washed and packed Wednesday (most veggie crops)
• packed from the cooler on Wednesday (things like watermelon or cabbage where the farm may do a giant harvest and sell the crop the following few weeks)
• packed from the packing house Wednesday or Thursday morning (like tomatoes that are the same as above, but not in a cooler)
• picked and packed Thursday morning – berries, corn, sometimes tomatoes.

We are fortunate to work with great farm partners. We help each other out to bring good food to the people!

Julie