New Developments

Joe Graber of Graber Farms is offering an all organic produce CSA for the 2009 growing season. For more information including prices, please contact the Coordinator, Addie Bhuiya at aebhuiya@yahoo.com.

There are also two food buying clubs which serve families in Auburn and Fort Wayne. These clubs allow families to purchase beef, chicken, turkey and eggs from Hopeful Farms in Ligonier. For more information on all these local food sources, check out the Fort Wayne Local Food group on Facebook.

The more I learn, the less I understand...

I thought as I spoke with more people about how to organize the buying club, the clearer things would become. In fact, it has gone the complete opposite way. I have spoken with a local farmer who coordinates his own buying clubs in the Indianapolis area and the former coordinator of the Ohio buying club that I was involved in. I don't want to say that I felt discouraged after those conversations, but I did pour myself a stiff drink. :)

So, let's talk about where we are.

1. I have contacted the man who created the web-based ordering system for the buying club in Ohio and he is willing to let us use his system in order to further the cause of availability of real milk/herd shares to consumers. (Thank you, Don!) This will involve an initial setup fee of a domain name and website, plus a recurring hosting fee. These costs should be minimal.

2. I have spoken with some of the farms from the database. Some are very interested. Others are smaller family farms who are consuming all that they produce at this time. There was a recurring theme in these conversations. I had to have a bit of a paradigm shift. Most of these farmers planned six or more months ago for the food they are producing today. The rate of growth of the buying club could easily surpass the rate that each individual farm is able to grow within a season. This doesn't mean we can't grow the buying club. It just means that we may have to be a little patient with supply issues until the farms are able to catch up with this new interest.

3. As I said, I spoke with the coordinator of the buying club in Ohio. She basically said that coordinating a buying club like this is a 40-50 hour a week job for which you do not get paid. She said that she definitely felt as though her family suffered due to the commitment. She didn't discourage me from doing it, so to speak, but she encouraged me to find a way to compensate whoever ends up coordinating (not just me, but other coordinators of other pickup locations) to help prevent burnout. I know this is not a popular concept, but it's something that I need to give some thought to at the beginning of this project because once it grows to 50 or 75 families and requires 40 hours a week to coordinate, it's too late to look at it and think, "wow, I should have worked out a way to compensate those of us who are coordinating this."

4. Since we're talking about what no one wants to talk about (money), it looks like there will be a one-time membership fee to belong to the buying club. This will not be a large amount of money, probably about $20. Again, it costs money to breathe. Truly. Between the cost of the web site for ordering, paper, envelopes and postage to mail the orders and the checks to the farmers (especially the Amish)... I think that it's also important to have some kind of buy-in to show a level of commitment to the buying club. Initially, the size of this club will be limited. It will be important to buy-in to show your interest.

5. I met a guy with connections to chefs in our local restaurants on Sunday. He was full of incredible ideas to get local foods into our local restaurants, so that on those days when you are much too busy to prepare your own local food, you can have a wonderful place to order from or go to eat deliciously prepared food grown in our area. The mind swims with the possibilities...

Hope you don't mind the stream-of-consciousness style of this post, but I wanted to update you on where I am. I have had some help thus far (thanks, Caroline, Paul, Jillian, Val, Craig, Danna, and Jen :). As I get the ideas formulated more, there will be opportunities to help more. I completely appreciate all the offers of help.

Food, huh. What is it good for?

So, we'll soon have food. Good food. Local food. Food you can feel good about. Now we must prepare said food.

I've had the suggestion that perhaps sharing of ideas, meal plans and recipes could be helpful. I think this is a great idea, especially for people who may be new to grassfed and pastured meats. There may be a bit of an adjustment if you are not familiar with cooking very lean meat, especially beef.

I have also heard a wonderful suggestion of having ongoing meetings for people who are interested in discussing local food: getting it, preparing it, serving it. I want to do what feeds the community - both literally and figuratively. This idea of a local food community and buying club/co-operative is big. Jot down your ideas for how it can best serve you. Bring your ideas to the meeting in early July. Let's talk turkey.

Working fast and furiously...

I wanted to make sure I put a post up this week. I have had so many people email or call and tell me that they are interested in the local food buying club. It is both exciting and a little terrifying to see the amount of interest in this way to get real food for our families. I want to answer a few questions here as I continue to finalize the details and get them ready for the masses.

1. My priority is that the food available through this buying club is the highest quality possible. Priority will be given to producers/farmers who use little to no chemicals on plants and who raise their animals in the pasture, grazing freely. I will do my best to provide as much information as I have about the farming/raising methods used so that you can make informed choices.

2. My hope is that purchasing food this way will be less expensive than purchasing organic and high quality food from the local groceries and health food stores. If you are currently purchasing all "conventional" food and really utilizing sales and coupons, you may find that the local food is a bit more expensive. If, however, you are looking for a way to eat less expensively and more simply and food quality is your #1 priority - the buying club is for you. In addition, as fuel prices continue to rise (increasing cost of food travel, petroleum based farming chemicals and animal feed), I can't guarantee our local food will be protected from any cost increases, but I can tell you for sure that the prices of food at the grocery store will continue to increase at a much faster rate.

3. When the details of the buying club are finalized, hopefully by the end of June, I will plan a meeting to connect interested local consumers with interested local providers. I want you to know the people who produce your food. We will have the opportunity to ask the questions that inquiring minds want to know. More importantly, you can create a relationship with the people who help you feed your family. I love the feeling of connectedness that this creates!

4. My vision includes more than just what the local farmers can provide. Be thinking about what you can offer to the buying club, not just what you can receive. Do you bake bread, make homemade jam, cultured vegetables, butter, yogurt, kefir? If you're looking for a way to help with your food costs, perhaps you could use some of the local food you get from the co-op and make products to offer through the club. As we all know, it's not much more difficult to make multiple loaves of bread when you're making one. Perhaps you planted WAY too much zucchini this year. You could offer the zucchini through the buying club - or take fresh flour, eggs and butter from local farmers and make zucchini bread and sell through the buying club.

I want to thank everyone who has contacted me with their wonderful comments about how this could really benefit their families. Your messages continue to inspire me as I work to coordinate this project and try to anticipate every detail! Stay tuned... it's about to get good.

It's not pretty, but it works!

Blogger doesn't want me to upload the files. I'm not holding a grudge, I'm just saying. So, here's my solution. Here's the link to my .Mac public folder. You should be able to download them easily from here. All but one are .pdf files. The database of local farms and resources is an Excel file. Let me know if you are not able to download this. My goal down the road would be to have this information accessible live on a webpage, rather than having to download it.

Please feel free to leave me feedback as to whether this works for you.

Kat's .Mac Public Folder

Technical support?

I'm having a little difficulty getting the pdf and word documents to upload so that you can download them. If you are technically inclined and can help me with this project, please drop me a quick email. Otherwise, keep checking back and I should be able to get it up today...

Great meeting!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the Holistic Moms Network meeting today. I am so grateful for everyone's contributions and questions. I think we can sometimes underestimate the great local community here because the general population feels rather mainstream. We have a GREAT community!

I will be working on uploading the handouts from today's talk and other resources throughout the afternoon, taking breaks to enjoy my children and the gorgeous sunshine. I plan to have everything up by tomorrow morning at the latest. Feel free to post comments and questions here. I enjoy the feedback!