Good Food from Healthy Farms
Dan
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WOW: Washington Organic Week
Sep 9th
Washington Organic Week! aka WOW! is a week long, statewide, celebration of Washington organic agriculture organized by Tilth Producers of Washington. The goal of WOW! is to connect consumers to Washington organic growers and products. WOW! provides the public with opportunities to learn more about the healthiest, freshest and most environmentally friendly food available.
Tilth Producers plans and executes the WOW! campaign in an effort to increase the public’s understanding about the value of organic agriculture to their health, to the economy and to the vitality of their community.
Last week we highlighted the work of the PCC Farmland Trust and this week we want to tell you about the important work that Tilth Producers of Washington does to advance organic agriculture in this state.
Their flagship program is an annual grower’s conference which attracts businesses, educators, non-profits and farmers from across the state and beyond to gather and share the latest in organic farming techniques, trends and tales. For some in the industry, it is the event of the year – an opportunity to relax and reflect after a long, hard growing season and to connect with friends and take new ideas back to the farm.
In addition, Tilth Producers publishes a quarterly journal, again with the goal of expanding the knowledge-base and teaching new techniques of the trade. They have a placement service that works to connect new, aspiring farmers with established farms across the state. And they develop policy, create marketing and promotional campaigns and host farm tours, in conjunction with WSU, as a way to further propagate the technical and practical know-how of farmers around the state.
We thank them for the work they do on our behalf. If you’re inclined to support their work we will be including brochures in next week’s boxes and you, too, can be come a ‘friend of the farmer!’
Here are some of the highlights and specials for the upcoming week:
- WA-grown melons of all shapes and sizes – a juicy and sweet classic summer treat!
- First of the season NW-grown pears – choose from Bartlett or Tosca varieties
- More delicious WA-grown yellow peaches – Sweet Dream variety this week!
- Mediterranean delights – Eggplant, Basil, Peppers, Figs
- Sungold and Sweet Million Cherry Tomatoes – enjoy the local tomato season while it lasts!
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email notifying you when the web store has been opened for your delivery day.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment Click Here to Login to Your Account
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Healthy Eating and Active Living (Heal) Project
Aug 29th
Over the past few years, a lot of people have pushed to get local, fresh produce into meals at public schools. Far less attention has been focused on kids in childcare programs. That effort is finally underway.
The Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) Project, funded by a federal grant awarded to Seattle Human Services Department by way of Public Health, increases the availability of healthy foods and children’s physical activity in child care, after-school programs, and Early Childhood Education and Assistance (ECEAP) Programs.
HEAL has implemented the “Farm to Table Child Care Pilot Project” which links farmers and early learning and after-school providers to increase healthy meals and snacks in their programs. Terra Organics was chosen to participate and we are pleased to be entering week 4 out of 8 delivering to daycares in underserved areas in South Seattle. We have been working closely with Karen Mauden from the Puget Sound Food Network who is facilitating the partnership and who is responsible for bringing Terra Organics to the attention of the project administrator Natalie Thomson, of the Seattle Human Services Department.
This past week, we were pleased to learn that the pilot project had made the radar of Dr. Ursula Bauer, Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) Director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. On Tuesday, Dr. Bauer visited a King County family child care provider participating in the eight week pilot program so she could see the delivery and reception of fresh produce from Terra Organics firsthand.
Healthy eating is a key factor in disease prevention, and Natalie Thomson hopes that while the grant money won’t supplement food budgets, it will at least spark some conversations about healthy habits.
“The hope is that this will ignite people’s passion and people will see that perhaps this is something I can do,” she says. “We know it’s important to make the healthy choice the easy choice. So, as a disease prevention strategy it’s crucial that we do this.”
We are offering a new organic coffee this week as whole bean as well as ground for those of us who don’t like the sound of a coffee grinder first thing in the morning after we stumble into the kitchen. It’s a Brazilian bean cultivated in the mountains near Araponga, Brazil by Carlos Sérgio Sanglard, a committed conservationist and who believes that in preserving nature by growing organically he can also preserve the health of his co-workers and the people who drink his coffee.
From Carlos’ Coffee plantation, Fazenda Serra do Boné, we are receiving a highly pedigree’d former Cup of Excellence winner tasting of rich, creamy cocoa, dark raspberry and truffle. Expansive depth and pleasant light acidity make for a fantastic single-origin espresso, among other things. When you look for this item in the webstore under ‘more stuff’, be sure to note that there are two coffee items- one for whole bean, one for ground.
Wish you could pick up your Terra Organics box in downtown Tacoma? We’ve added Smooth and Juicey as a community pick-up point on Mondays between 1:00 pm and 5:45 pm for folks who want their deliveries at the beginning of the week. Receive 10% off your order when you pick up your box at this location, and have an excuse to drink one of their delicious smoothies. You can switch to this location from within your Terra Organics account, or reply to this email and we will make the switch for you.
Here are some of the highlights and specials for the upcoming week:
- Joanna Sweet Peaches from Goosetail Orchards (WA)
- Tahoma Cherry, Slicer, and Green Tomatoes
- First of the season Black Mission Figs
- Black, Red, and Green Grapes now available in 2 lb bags
- Tahoma Farms Celery, Cucumbers, Radishes, Leaf Lettuce - ’tis the season for salads!
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email notifying you when the web store has been opened for your delivery day.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment Click Here to Login to Your Account
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Spring Is Fair
Apr 21st
We wouldn’t be from the Northwest if we didn’t obsess about the weather. It leads the nightly newscast and dominates conversation around the water cooler and, for the most part, our recreating revolves around it. Sun and warmth are a valuable commodity around these parts. And for good reason.
In the world of fruits and veggies, we know that the longer days mean we’re closer to the local season and snap peas, then carrots, then beans and then corn and tomatoes — all bursting with flavor and color and FRESH!
The concern of those who garden – whether in the backyard or for the farmers markets or for the Terra Organics boxes – is that it has been just too darn cold for anything to grow. Out at Tahoma Farms, our lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, salad mix, radishes — everything — is growing at a snail’s pace. And the onions, potatoes, beets, carrots and everything else that should have been planted last week needs the ground to dry out first. So mostly we’re playing the waiting game, and doing what we can during the sun breaks, hoping that things will turn any day now and the growing season will begin!
It’s not too late to sign-up for the 2nd Annual Community Garden Summit, this Saturday from 10am to 2pm, at Manitou Community Center (4806 South 66th St) in Tacoma.
There will be speakers, hands-on workshops about “square-food” gardening, composting, edible flowers and more, and lots of free plant starts and seeds for everyone.
It doesn’t matter if you garden in a Community Garden or in your backyard – this is a time to celebrate that we are all gardening together in community! The event is sponsored by Multicare and Regence, with in-kind contributions from us, Valhalla Coffee, Mad Hat Tea, L’Arche Farms, City of Tacoma – TAGRO, Edible Yard Company, Sustainable Tacoma Pierce and the Pierce County Gleaning Project.
A fabulous lunch and childcare will be provided (potty-trained only please).
Please RSVP here so that the coordinators are able to provide enough food and childcare.
Some of the great fruits and vegetables available for your Terra Organics order next week:
- Local Radishes at $2.25 per bunch
- Raspberries at $4.99 per clamshell
- Local, first of the season, Rhubarb at $4.75 per pound
- Local Cauliflower at $2.50 per head
We will also have all Bluebird Grains products discounted by $1.00 per package this upcoming week only! Now is a great time to try some of the pancake mix, pilaf, or breakfast blend.
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store is open.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment Click Here to Login to Your Account
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Terra Organics 2011 Survey Report
Apr 14th
We want to thank the more than 500 people who responded to our most recent Terra Organics survey. Your feedback allows us to review how we have been doing as of late and to give us direction for how to improve our operations to ensure that you are getting the best of good food from healthy farms.
Most of you who responded are current Terra Organics customers; a few of you are not, but are still getting our newsletters. We hope the information in the survey enticed a few people to come back to the Terra Organics fold! Of those who took the time to respond, more than 40% have been with us for a year or more. We are glad to see this longevity and are honored that so many of you find our service worthy of your continued commitment even in these tougher economic times. And yet, despite the current economic challenges – or maybe because of them – many of you listed ‘support of local/organic farms’ as the primary reason you choose to receive Terra Organics. We think that’s great. Thank you.
A majority of those who selected ‘other’ listed the freshness and quality of our produce as a reason to receive Terra Organics. Other recurring reasons listed include the fact that we deliver a CSA box to homes and accept EBT cards (food stamps) as a form of payment. And here are a few quotes we liked:
“…not having to take fruit crazed children through the produce aisles”.
“…getting different varieties of produce which you might not think to buy at the store.”
“…If the vegetables are at my house, I will eat them.”
“…Detest going to the grocery store 
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Word of mouth continues to be our most effective form of advertising with 47% of respondents saying they first heard of our services from someone they knew. The second most popular place people hear (see) about us is online while searching for CSA’s, organic produce, and organic produce home delivery. Our run with groupon last year has also resulted in some customer retention with 15% of respondents reporting to be customers who continued our service after redeeming their groupon.
It is nice to know that word of mouth is still the most effective form of advertising, and these results have inspired us to develop a stronger referral program that provides higher incentives to our customers who share their Terra Organics experiences with others. Stay tuned for more information!
Competition!
Only 30% of our respondents said that they had subscribed to a CSA or produce home delivery company before coming to Terra Organics. Of these, two-thirds said they like us better than services they had used before.
Of those that had tried another service, the majority had previously used Full Circle. Of those, 84% think that our service is comparable or better. One big difference that may influence these opinions is our $25.00 minimum for home delivery versus their $37.00 minimum, with many telling us that the value is the #1 reason they decided to switch and, ultimately, stay with us.
What else makes us different?
When we asked customers what, in their opinion, sets Terra Organics apart from others, 119 people responded. Of these, here are most common reasons they provided:
- We are a local business and farm.
- Our quality is higher than other services they have tried.
- Our customer service is responsive, professional and kind.
- We have a local box option.
- We do home delivery.
Here are some quotes we gathered from the responses to this question:
“The biggest difference is that you deliver directly to our house, whereas we had to go to a drop-off site on a specific date/time with Full Circle. Now that you’ve updated your ordering system, we couldn’t be happier. We have lots of control over what items we get in our box AND it’s delivered to our front door. We are also looking forward to trying the CSA from Tahoma Farms for the first time this summer!!”
“I like the connection to Tahoma Farms, and being able to up the items from local places by looking at the food mileage distance.”
“Your caring and support and responsive customer service are excellent and unusual! Also, I can always depend on the high quality of your food and the variety has almost made going to a market unnecessary!!”
Terra Organics web-store
Even though a lot of you said it took a couple of visits until the new interface became easy to navigate, the fact that only 4% said it was confusing is a great sign. Our new interface, designed and supported by Farmigo, is proving to be everything we hoped it would be, especially in terms of providing you with the ability to easily modify and manage your orders. There are definitely some areas that are still a work in progress. One key area that is vital to our vision is the producer/origin information attached to each item in the webstore. Our objective is to give you as much information as possible about where each produce item comes from so that you can spend your dollars exactly as you wish. Updating these links is an ongoing process and we are doing our best to keep this up to date, and as comprehensive as possible.
Although most of you responded that you felt you had enough time each week to access the webstore, 1 in 5 of you would like more time. There are a number of factors that determine how soon we can open the webstore each week. These include the time it takes to not only find and choose the items for the boxes and webstore on a week to week basis, but also to set pricing, find vendors, and confirm availability (so that we don’t oversell items). Having stated this, we agree that more time to access the webstore is needed, and we are determined to find way to make this happen. And soon!
For those of you who are accessing the webstore consistently, it shows. As of this week 60% of our customers are customizing their orders!
On a side note-several of you asked about the deletions list. In our old system, a list was provided on the website from which you could check all the types of produce to be left out of your deliveries. Each day, we manually compared those lists to our standard box contents. If deletions were necessary, we manually chose substitutions for you and figured out the value. This was kind of fun for us, but it took A LOT of time. Besides wanting to spend more time improving other areas of the business, one of our greatest reasons for moving to the new interface was to have a webstore where everything is itemized and transparent. Our hope and vision is for you to easily manage your box contents by taking a moment to log into your Terra Organics account before each delivery. Some benefits of taking the tme include that fact that you gain access to our whole inventory, you order only those items you want, and it helps make your meal planning that much more efficient.
For those who are accessing the webstore, here’s some data on how different elements of our webstore affect their decisions:
BOX CONTENTS
We want you to be completely satisfied with freshness and quality 100% of the time. You already know that we deal with a highly perishable product, and certain items like berries and local peaches and other soft fruits are going to be more susceptible to spoilage than anything else. We believe that this high standard is worth our constant and continued effort. A top daily priority is therefore prevention: by maintaining the cold chain, we extend the life of the fruits and vegetables after they are harvested. Since we presell all of our produce each week, we don’t have to stock any store shelves for projected demand. We reduce the time that elapses between when a product is harvested and when it is delivered to you by coordinating directly with growers to ensure the freshness of the product they are sending to us.
Currently, two out of four of our vehicles are refrigerated and in all of them we use thermal blankets to insulate the boxes in transport. These measures, as well as streamlining processes in our warehouse so that produce is out of the cooler for as little time as possible, are all part of a constantly evolving equation that we are going to continue to maintain and improve.
One likely improvement will be the option of insulated coolers. With over 200 of respondents stating they would be interested in making a deposit of $20, we are moving forward with this idea and researching our options. With all this being said, we are grateful to hear that 87% of you report being completely satisfied with the quality and freshness of your box more than 90% of the time.
Your satisfaction with accuracy was also good to hear. As many of you know, making the transition from packing mostly standard boxes, to customizing 60% of our orders has been no small feat, but it looks like we are moving in the right direction.
Almost 90% of respondents think that our variety is excellent, with a few comments that point out the lack of variety and sometimes freshness specifically in the winter months. Although the clear preference among you is local over variety (over 50%), local is limited in the winter and not always of the highest quality due to time spent in storage and other seasonal/regional factors. To be able to offer variety we buy from CA and beyond knowing that those products have been out of the ground longer than local products would be during the local season. Once again, maintaining the cold chain, communicating with growers and better inventory management are some of the areas that require our constant attention to achieve our goal to provide you with 100% freshness and quality 100% of the time.
To achieve this goal, your feedback is also critical which means that anytime you have an issue with quality we need to know about it. Why? So we can make sure you are not paying for something you cannot eat, and so we know where to take direct and immediate action.
CSA
How many of you are not familiar with the term CSA (community supported agriculture)? We clarified the philosophy and practice in our last newsletter, and how it applies and does not apply to Terra Organics and Tahoma Farms. If you missed it you can read about it here on our blog.
Interest in our CSA was expressed by a quarter of our respondents who indicated a willingness to support the farm by making a prepayment this spring. So far, only half of you that said you were going to sign up have actually made that commitment. We know we’ve talked about it a lot lately, and this will be the last time we will put it out there, but if you are still interested, click here. For those who have signed up, thank you! We look forward to sharing our first harvest with you!
Customer service
All in all, it looks like most of you are happy with the level of customer service we provide. One worrisome result is that only 44% of respondents say that they always report their issues to us. This number is far too low. It is important that you contact us if you have a quality issue because, as we stated earlier, this gives us the opportunity to make sure you are not paying for an item you cannot use, and it also lets us know where we need to make real time adjustments.
Our quality control depends on your feedback. We understand that it may be inconvenient to let us know that you received a pear you had to throw out. But it just takes a moment to pick up the phone and leave us a message, or send us a quick email. Your sentences don’t even have to be complete. Here’s our contact information again: 253-627-1581; info@terra-organics.com.
Delivery
And finally, your responses confirm what we already know about our delivery drivers: they complete the final step in getting you your order in a safe, courteous and professional manner. As in all areas of our service, your feedback on our delivery is also critical. Keep us informed of any special delivery instructions you’d like our drivers to know about!
Winner announced!
We are happy to announce that Steven Q. won this year’s survey credit of $100. Thanks Steve, and everyone who spent a few of their valuable moments to give us your helpful feedback.
One last thing:
In your survey text responses, many of you offered us great ideas for changes or improvements, or posed questions or concerns relating to your service. We are just about finished responding to those who requested a personal response from us. If you have not heard from us, and have a question or issue that requires our attention, please get in touch with us right away. Thanks again!
The CSA Model Explained – Tahoma Farms Sign Ups
Apr 9th
In going over the responses to our recent survey, we found that many of our customers are unaware of what CSA stands for, the philosophy behind it, its benefits, and how it will work with our webstore.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Socially and economically, the model of the CSA seeks to connect people to a local source of food, grown by farmers they know, and where the inherent risk of farming is shared between the farm business and the CSA members. A relationship between farmer and member is established through member deposits in the spring which secure a share of produce from the farm while supplementing the farmer’s operating costs for such things as seed purchases, spring planting, and preparation of the land for the growing season. The CSA model deepens the connection between a community and its food source because each growing season has its unique challenges and uncertainties which can translate into crop shortages or abundant harvests for farmer and member alike. This model helps to ensure that family farms will remain a viable and important part of our community.
A produce delivery service like Terra Organics bears little resemblance to the original CSA model. We have removed the element of shared risk and we don’t require a financial commitment ahead of time. We operate year-round, supplementing what can be grown locally and on our farm in Orting with produce from California and beyond. Early on we made the business decision to build convenience and flexibility into our model in favor of income throughout the year and greater stability. We still strive to enhance the connection between our communities and our local farms that strengthens our understanding of where our food comes from, the region in which we live, and ultimately our health.
Since our purchase of 40 acres of farmland in Orting in 2009, and the establishment of Tahoma Farms, we have offered our members the option to support a single farm for the duration of the local growing season, and the risks and rewards that entails. For a minimum $100 contribution to the farm in the spring, CSA members this summer will have priority on crops as they become available or that are only planted in limited quantities. The risk might be getting a lot of radishes and spinach early on in the season if the darned sun doesn’t come out soon.
Those that select the Tahoma Farms CSA box for the summer (22 weeks beginning in June) will still have the flexibility of being able to customize each order through our web store. And even if you don’t want to receive the Tahoma Farms box, you still have the option of supporting the farm during this crucial time of planting and preparation for the summer’s bounty. We are most grateful for all pre-payments that you can make this time of year and we are offering a credit of 5% on payments of $200 to $999, and an account credit of 10% on payments of $1000 and up.
Please click here to sign up for the CSA or to make a pre-payment on your Terra Organics account and Thank You!
Nutrition standards and guidelines for national school lunches and meals are undergoing long awaited revisions by the USDA. The new standards and guidelines will include an increase in fruit and vegetables at breakfast and lunch; milk that is only low-fat or fat-free; a requirement that half of all grains be ‘whole-grain rich’; a reduction in sodium; and establishing calorie maximums per meal. These changes will support the health and nutrition of 32 million children across the nation. The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) and the National Farm to School Network (NFSN), of which Terra Organics is a part, support revisions to the current standards that will include fresh and healthy ingredients. Since national farm to school initiatives have proven to increase the quality and freshness of food offered in the schools, we want to encourage the USDA to underscore the necessity of local and seasonal produce in their final draft.
The USDA is currently accepting comments on the proposed rule until April 13, 2011, and they want to hear from you. Help the USDA finalize strong standards and help schools begin to serve more healthful breakfasts and lunches. Click here to submit your own comments.
THANK YOU!
Some of the great fruits and vegetables for next week:
- Local Kale Raab at $2.00 per bunch
- Asparagus Tips at $3.75 per 3/4 pound bunch
- Local French Breakfast Radishes at $2.50 per bunch
- Local Baby Spinach at $4.25 per 1/2 pound bag
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store is open.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment
Click Here to Login to Your Account
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Thanks, Food Co-Op, Garden Summit
Apr 1st
Thank you!
Over five hundred Terra Organics subscribers took the time to share their feedback by taking our New Year survey. The lucky winner will be announced and contacted next week. We are deeply grateful for the enormous response to our survey and will now begin to analyze the results which we will publish for you all to see as soon as possible. For those of you who very thoughtfully offered us great ideas to improve the business, or had questions that require a personal answer from us, hang tight- we will be contacting you shortly.
Finally!
We are excited to help spread the word that the Tacoma Food Co-op board has reached a deal for the Neighborhood Market location on 6th Ave. A transition period from now until July 31st will allow the current owner to sell his remaining inventory while the co-op begins to build theirs and hire the necessary staff to begin full operations by early August.
The Tacoma Food Co-Op is also looking to hire an experienced Food Co-op General Manager very soon. Interested candidates can send their inquiries and resumes to krm403@gmail.com. And, if you are able to volunteer your time to help with fundraising, event tabling, marketing, or administrative duties contact tacomafoodcoop@gmail.com.
Save the date!
Whether you garden in your back yard or in a community garden, come to the 2nd Annual Community Garden Summit on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 from 10-2 at the Manitou Community Center. Organized by Tacoma’s Community Garden Facilitator Kristen McIvor of the Cascade Land Conservancy, the Community Garden Summit will have inspirational speakers, gardening workshops, great food and the chance to meet with other garden enthusiasts. Mayor Strickland will be there to kick off the event and to announce Tacoma’s newest community gardens and the “plant a row for the hungry campaign”! Terra Organics will be there too! So come join us, and pick up free plant starts for your garden!
A few of the great fruits and vegetables for next week:
- Honey Spice Apples from WA
- Locally-grown Green Kale and Spinach from Albany, OR
- Murcott Mandarin Oranges
- Baby Broccolini
- More Be Wise (CA) Strawberries
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store has been opened.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment, please
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Happy Spring
Mar 27th
Happy Spring to all our Terra Organics subscribers, and best wishes to all our fellow gardeners for this planting season. If you have any gardening tips or anecdotes to share, send them our way for possible publication in our newsletter or website!
We want to thank all of you who have taken the time to answer our survey. Your feedback and responses are truly valuable to us. The survey is available through the 31st of March. Click here to take the survey if you haven’t already!
Are you interested in hosting a Terra Organics pick-up site?
In the interest of promoting community relations, and servicing areas on the periphery of our established delivery area, Terra Organics is looking for people who would be interested in hosting a CSA pick-up site at their home or place of business. Discounts up to 50% off the 22 week season are available for hosts, and can be applied to all Terra Organics subscriptions. Follow this link if you’d like more information, and if you would like us to send you brochures you can use to garner interest.
Farm to School!
Are you interested in seeing more local fruits and veggies delivered to your child’s school? If you are a parent or member of a community group interested in starting or supporting a farm to school program in your area, the WA Sustainable Food & Farming Network can make presentations and provide educational materials about organizing farm to school programs, and suggest resources on agriculture/nutrition curricula.
All inquiries need to be made by April 1, 2011 and directed to Rita Ordonez, the coordinator for WSDA’s Fresh Food in Schools project for Western Washington. She can be reached at 1-360-336-0932 or rordonez@wsffn.org. Her position has been especially created to provide assistance for the public in how to create and utilize the farm to school program funded by WSDA.
Twenty school districts across the state will be chosen to participate so hurry to utilize this free resource!
Terra Organics is proud to be entering its third year partnering with WSDA’s Farm to School project by providing fruits and vegetables to the Seattle and Auburn School Districts.
A few of the great fruits and vegetables for next week:
- Local Kale Raab from Siri & Son Farms in Clackamas, OR
- Ataulfo Mangoes at $1.50 each
- Sugar Snap Peas from Something Good, CA
- CA-grown Jewel Yams
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store has been opened.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment, please
Sincerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Thundering Hooves Go Silent
Mar 18th
In December of last year, Terra Organics implemented significant changes to our ordering system by creating a webstore that allows our customers to easily manage their orders and delivery schedules. We are still in the process of adapting our packing and ordering systems, and adjusting our daily operating procedures to accommodate the enormous increase in customized orders that come in each week.
We would be honored and grateful if you would share your opinions regarding your Terra Organics experience, and how our new system is working for you by taking our New Year Evaluation Survey. The survey will take no more than 10 minutes of your time, and will be available for you to complete through March 31, 2011. By taking the survey you will be eligible to win a $100 credit to your Terra Organics account. We thank you in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts and opinions with us.
Click here to take the survey!
News of the demise of Thundering Hooves, an organic, grass-fed beef ranch in Walla Walla, was received with equal parts sadness and disbelief. Joel Huseby was a model spokesman for the organic movement and his family’s cattle-raising/beef-processing/self-distribution model was the real deal. And when Joel unveiled his abbatoir (a 53 foot semi-truck trailer converted into a meat processing unit) in May of 2007, there was no reason to doubt that he would successfully build lots of them and ship them around the country as he intended to do. The consolidation in the meat industry had left small to mid-size farmers without a network of USDA certified processing facilities and Joel had a great solution that was being replicated across the country, including right here in Pierce County.
When times were good it seemed that everywhere I turned there was another story about Joel or another restaurant featuring his steaks or burgers. And why not? They had great beef, they had a great story, and they were pioneers in all aspects of the good food movement.
I know Joel from our time spent on the Tilth Producers of Washington Board together. He was an early mentor and, though I haven’t talked to him in a couple of years, he was a good businessman and an eternal optimist. Only those close to him know the details of the closure of the business, but I have my thoughts about it and, the truth is, it hits too close to home.
It’s been said that a contributing factor to them going out of business was too rapid expansion. It wasn’t the growth of the business that happened too quickly, in my opinion, but the contraction they experienced over the last three years amidst the recession. Expensive, organic meat is surely one of the first things a household is going to eliminate when cutting back on spending.
But an organic farmer can’t switch to non-organic grass to feed his cows when the rest of the marketplace adjusts. Sure, every business has to adapt to a weaker economy. But it just doesn’t seem fair when you are talking about a small, organic meat business, already up against powerful, entrenched interests, suffering a fatal blow because of a short-term demand problem.
The point is, the good food movement couldn’t afford to lose Thundering Hooves and, as much as we’d like to think that the producers we love are here to stay, it’s a lot more uncertain than that. This is why it’s extremely gratifying for us to receive your continued support, week in and week out. Because without it, it would be a very uncertain future indeed.
We sincerely thank you.
A few of the great fruits and vegetables for next week:
- Local Kale Raab from Springhill Farms in Albany, OR
- Ataulfo Mangoes at $1.50 each
- Nantes Carrots from T & D Willey, CA
- CA-grown Asparagus at $3.75 per 1/2 lb
- 8-oz Strawberries at $3.00 per clamshell
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store has been opened.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment, please
SIncerely,
The Terra Organics Team
Tacoma Food Co-op Lives!
Feb 17th
I was part of a small group of Tacoma residents that met in 2006 with a shared vision of starting a cooperatively owned grocery store. The organization now has 323 member-owners and has launched a membership and fundraising effort to secure the Neighborhood Market on 6th and Junett by the end of the month. The grocery store will be member-owned and will only stock local, organic, or natural products.
The Co-op is midway through a membership drive and the goal is to bring membership to 400 by the end of February. Board members are hosting 3 more coffee talks this month to share information about Co-op membership. Meetings include:
- Saturday Feb, 19: 12-1pm: Bella Latte (6450 Tacoma Mall Blvd)
- Thursday Feb, 24: 7-8pm Webinar (link located on the co-op’s website)
- Monday Feb, 28: 6-7pm Greener Bean (1039 Regents Blvd, Fircrest)
Members are the owners of the store, and each “share” is a $100 investment that can be paid in full or in 4 payments. You can mail a check or pay online via PayPal. Please see www.TacomaFoodCoop.com for more information on becoming a member, viewing and signing up for newsletters, or offering to help.
A food co-op would be a great asset to our community in Tacoma and would increase access to healthy foods for all. Please consider becoming a member-owner and in joining the effort to establish the store. Thanks for listening.
A few special items next week:
- Rains in California have slowed Strawberry production, so next week we will have 1# containers at $5.50
- Wonderfully juicy, sweet and large Honeygold Grapefruit at $1.50 each
- Beautiful Rapini at $2.50 per bunch
Below is a preview of the standard box contents for next week.
If you have an order scheduled for this upcoming week, you will receive an email Saturday morning at 2am notifying you that the web store has been opened.
If you need to make any changes to your subscription, schedule a vacation or make a payment, please click here.
SIncerely,
Dan and The Terra Organics Team
Oh, we were so close. (Payment System Update)
Dec 17th
The data migration was smooth and the web store was being populated with all of our standard add-ons and more for the holidays. We had the transition letter drafted, and inserted into this space with the email scheduled to go out at 3pm. And then, at the moment of the last configuration piece, a hiccup!
So, we will be back next week with the debut of the new system. In the meantime:
- Access to your account has been disabled, so if there are changes you need to make to an order, you will need to email us instead. The best email address is orders@terra-organics.com.
- We have setup a form that can be used to submit add-on orders for your holiday meals. Please click here to order. Please note: all add-on orders must be received by 10am Monday morning, regardless of your delivery day.
Sincerely,
Dan
PS. Still Looking for that perfect gift? Order a Terra Organics gift certificate today and share the joy! We can email the gift certificate to you or mail it directly to the recipient.
