Winter Week 1: Chicken Dinner for first week of Winter Season

-- Winter Share Week #1 --

ATTENTION: Check the Pickup Times Below.

Winter Stops have different times than Summer.

Good Afternoon

Thank you for joining us for Winter Season. This week is Week 1 of 15.

There are a few administration things to cover for winter season:

Winter Season is Weekly for the first 3 weeks, then starts going every other week. You will receive your regular Tuesday newsletter on pickup weeks as a reminder. List of pick-up dates can be found HERE.
The pickup times are different than summer. Please see the chart below.
Carnivore Share -- can only be picked up at your primary location you set up at the time of signup. If you are registered for the carnivore share, you should received a separate email.

Sincerely,

Trevor Clatterbuck and the Fresh Fork team

The Pickup Schedule

Weekly Promotions

Steak Burger and Dogs - $16.50

It's winter season, but the sun's out for a few more days. Fire up the grill one last time.

1 package steak burgers (4 pack, 1.25#)

1 package grassfed beef and pork hot dogs (6 pack, 1#)

Place a Special Order Here

Trevor's Op-Ed. A Food System State of the Union...

Below is a tid-bit I actually wrote last year this time. But it is still timely. It sparked my interest because I was talking with another farmer recently about next year's turkey harvest. Crazy, right? I had to order my turkey chicks already for next year!

Diane owns the hatchery that hatches our broilers and Thanksgiving turkeys. This year, she gave me priority and made sure I got all of my birds.

But across the board, most of her other customers' orders were shorted 20%. Why? Because she didn't have the eggs to hatch. The breeder flocks - those that lay the eggs for hatcheries to set - had less eggs. The bird flu last year had reduced the breeding flocks and decreased the national inventory of turkey eggs.

I asked her if she thought there was going to be a shortage on turkey this year. "Oh yeah, has to be. Everyone's harvests are going to be down." I prompted her too - maybe just short of putting words in her mouth. 'Well with all other proteins being up, do you think turkey will finally come up to a fair price?'

I was referring to the price of turkey in the grocery store. The promotional prices are so low - surely below cost - that it makes it difficult for anyone to sell a turkey at a reasonable price.

Turkey is an expensive bird to raise. They eat more and lay fewer eggs than a chicken. As a result, the chick costs more. Then feeding them out requires more protein and a more expensive feed. Transportation, slaughter, and packaging are all more expensive per lb than chicken. I figure it's about $3 per lb to raise a turkey - cost. How can grocery stores sell them at $0.79 or so?

Hopefully, this year they can't. But Diane and I went down a rabbit hole, so to speak. I suggested that compared to beef, turkey is still a bargain. I think that the big players will realize this and feel comfortable lifting prices, making local and pasture raised look like less of a premium price. We will see...

An Excerpt from Last Year's Newsletter

I was reading an article last night titled "Food Makers Pitch Specials Again," in the Wall Street Journal. The summary was that for the first time since the pandemic, sales of food on promotion pricing has reached and exceeded a pre-pandemic level. According to the survey quoted, total units of grocery purchases are down this year vs last year by 2%, while the number of items bought on promotion is up 6%.

Reading between the lines, there are several factors driving this.

1) Prices on grocery are up 33% since 2019.

2) Consumers are trying to stay on budget and get more bang for their buck.

The article talked a bit about restaurants, too. That the average fast food restaurant prices are up 40% and consumers are starting to eat out less. The article pointed out that corporate restaurants are trying to keep the seats full by offering value items.

The price of food is a hot topic with the small farmers. I'm kind of an outcast in that I'm looking to keep prices low. When someone hears "local" or "organic" the first association is often "expensive." This isn't true. As you saw with the summer share, many of you probably struggled to eat everything each week.

As small producers and marketers, we have to be concerned that the customer is going to look at their food budget and trade us in for cheap, commodity food. My argument to other growers is that we should look at this as a this time to build market share, and to only raise prices as needed to cover additional costs. It is more economical to eat whole foods, so if we can get them to the dinner table at a reasonable price, the market of folks eating this lifestyle should grow.

I also get the macro level questions, like "Where are food prices going?" I think the answer to that is up to each of us. If we can keep the government out of it and let the markets correct, we'll see a few options. 1) Consumers may settle for higher prices, or 2) They will find alternatives, such as scratch cooking, buying from the local farmer, or growing their own.

I share all this to say Thank You for Choosing the Alternative - Good Food. And, thank you for riding the roller coaster that is the local growing season.