Monday is our family’s annual pilgrimage to the Sonoma County Fair. Jackson has done the best job ever this year getting his two lambs ready for the fair. For the past 4 months he has spent at least an hour a day just in feeding and cleaning, and an additional 8-10 hours a week exercising, training and practicing with his lambs. This is on top of working in the Chop Shop, and running the Vets Hall Farmers Market every Saturday. Laura and I are really proud of his dedication to his project, as it is a lot for a normal 12 year old to take on. Starting Monday, he will be in the Sheep Barn as part of the Gold Ridge 4-H club group. Make sure and stop by the sheep barn if your at the fair and wish him luck!
I had a great meeting last night with a “Slow Money” group focused on investing in the local food system. These are everyday folks that have made a decision to take some portion of their invest-able dollars out of conventional investments and put it into businesses that affect the food system. If only I knew of a business like that… hmmm. Anyhow, I had the opportunity to tell our story, describe our growth over the past 2 years, and talk about the funding we need to achieve our growth plans. After some great discussion, I wanted to finish with a bang, so I threw in an offer to provide a monthly Custom Subscription to anyone that could get the ball rolling. I was taken aback by the excitement it created. The subsequent feedback was awesome and reinforced a few things for me: first, that there are no dumb ideas except the ones that don’t get said out loud. Second, that while I’m really proud of the business we have built as a sustainable and invest-able entity, the meat we provide to our customers, subscribers, investors and ultimately our community is what gets people excited. Every purchase you make means that we are that much closer to our growth goals. By achieving these goals, opening both the Petaluma Cut & Wrap facility and the Community Market Counter, our meats will be much more accessible to you, our valued customers. I need to do a better job of letting more people know what we need to grow and how they might be able to participate. If your are interested in more specifics, please don’t hesitate to call me directly at 707-332-4605.
Our Subscription Boxes are the best tool we have for making our meat accessible to more people because of the savings and variety. To that end, I am extending the end of the Big Bonus Promotion (see below) through next weekend, ending August 4th. We are going to be working hard on some new subscription options, and are really excited to present them to you the first part of August. Stay tuned!