Looking forward to 2024

The year 2024 will be our 15th year that we have decided to order seeds, start seeds and grow food.  This year will look very different than 2009 when we only sold vegetables May - October and the only product we had was a prepaid $500 account and everyone received the same bag every week!  We did this and a few farmers markets and small private events for about 10 years.

Our year begins very soon with an inventorying of the existing seeds and seed starting materials, placing orders for materials which will grow food for us for the entire year!  Most years we start some of our seeds sometime in early March and begin planting in our gardens in mid to late April.  We start seeds and plant them in our garden through September.

In years prior to 2023 we would start hiring people in April and usually lay them off around the holidays.  It was definitely the least favorite part of our job.  In 2024 we enter the season with 3 full time or nearly full-time workers, and they all worked with us in 2023!  What a huge win for our company and for our customers!  All of our workers are excited to do another year and continue to improve their crafts of farming and cheffing.

We are expanding our hours to include Thursday 5-8 dinner.  Thursday will become a mixture of karaoke nights and educational classes and speakers with a buffet spread for dinner, probably in the $20 - $25 range depending on what is being served for dinner and who is speaking.  This is a great chance for us to get people up to speed on large parts of the menu for a very reasonable price.

We are seeing more regular customers become market account members and we are very excited about that!  Market Accounts are pre-paid accounts that we keep track of at the register and essentially anything in the store and meals can be purchased on the account.  This is just an indication of the customer to us that they are in for some or all of it and would like for us to start planting for them in the fields.  When $500 is purchased on account we include $25 to the account to start with a 5% discount on everything.  When $1,000 is purchased on account we include $100 to start with a 10% discount on everything always.  This is how we plan to easily manage our co-operative through these very flexible accounts.  Also, the customers loosely agree to read their emails on occasion!  Haha

Where we have the most opportunities for growth in 2024 are dinners (Thursday - Saturday 5-8).  We are the only business (for now) in this entire old business district, so we are looking for more regular, intentional dinner customers looking for live music and a delicious meal.  Come on down once or twice a month, and while you are waiting for your dinner, take a look at the store.  We will make you feel like royalty!

Small changes we hope for in 2024 will include more classes with food included, we hope to help more people start gardens or sell more of our plants in the spring, we hope to find more musicians who will help us invite their friends to a beautiful night of music and fine dining, we hope to get an ice machine installed (soon), and we hope to do more private dinners and events.

God has watched over at every step of the way to put the right people in our lives at the right time.  If you made it to this point of the post, maybe you are one of those people?  We will keep growing chemical free produce and offering it to our friends and neighbors, and teaching other people how to do the same, Lord willing and for many many years to come!

Thank you for reading and have a blessed year!

PS - here is an artist rendition of if Jesus took a selfie with the disciples which we really enjoyed.  What an honor it would have been to even be a fly on the wall at this dinner!