Local Bulk Buying Club

Hi Neighbours,
I was thinking I would wait to start the buying club until strawberry
season but I'm having a hard time finding local vegetables for my family
so I thought we'd start now. Who'd like some cucumbers, lettuce and
tomatoes for the picnics and salads you're yearning to take and make?
I'll head out to the Elmira Produce Auction on Friday and can bring back
some tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers that the Old Order Mennonite Farmers
in the area are growing in their greenhouses. I ate their tomatoes last
week and they were surprisingly good. Not like an heirloom tomato straight
from the garden - but good. I also found organic asparagus and rhubarb
grown by Saloma and Paul Bowman who are just getting into organic farming.

Place your order for the following by 9PM Thursday (May15).
Pick it up at my house between 3:30 and 6PM Friday (we are down the long
lane behind 72 William). Remember to bring bags and boxes to haul the
goods home. We won't have plastic bags.
Prices will be firmed up on Friday.

Local Produce for the week of May 12:

Slicing Tomatoes
By the flat - $12-$14 (about 20 tomatoes in a flat)
or half-flat - $6-7 (about 10 tomatoes)

Grape Tomatoes
By the pint - about $2.50 each

Buttercrunch Lettuce
By the head - $1.25 each

English Cucumbers
By the half-dozen - $6

Asparagus
$4.50/lb transition organic (soon will be officially organic). Grown by
Saloma and Paul Bowman

Rhubarb
$2/lb transition organic (soon will be officially organic), Grown by
Saloma and Paul Bowman

Soon: STRAWBERRIES
Mmmm, fresh strawberries... I know it is only May but if you order your
strawberries from me now, I'll be better able to find enough farmers to
fill the orders. Freezing strawberries is very easy. Some wash, stem and
chop and throw a strawberry mush into the freezer (great for smoothies)
while others insist it is better to freeze them loose on a cookies sheet
and then put them into bags or containers after they are frozen. However
you do it, they are also good in crisps and cobblers when mixed with other
berries. How do you like to use your frozen strawberries?

Okay, so say the strawberry season is three weeks from the week of June 16
to June 30. If I'm offering three deliveries of strawberries, how many do
you want each week? Please specify if you want no-spray strawberries or
conventional strawberries. I'd suggest cutting and pasting the following
few lines into your reply to me.

June 20 - I'd like ____ quarts of strawberries (no-spray or conventional)

June 27 - I'd like____ quarts of strawberries (no-spray or conventional)

July 4 - I'd like____ quarts of strawberries (no-spray or conventional)

If you want to make a 100 Mile Sandwich, starting Friday you can find
all-local deli meat at Vincenzos. Bailey's Local Foods has developed and
supplied the all-local deli meat. You'll find Black Forest Ham that was
raised and slaughtered within 20 miles of here (near St. Jacobs), Smoked
Turkey Breast raised and slaughtered 70 some miles from here (here being
my house), and All Natural Roast Beef from about 70 miles from here. The
beef is hormone and steroid free, raised on pasture until 100 days before
slaughter when it is then fed an all-vegetarian corn diet (no animal
by-products). Vincenzo's also sells bread from Golden Hearth (near the
market in Kitchener) that offers a Spelt Bread (100% local), Whole Wheat
(90% local) and Rye (50%) local. Still no local mayo and mustard. I've
found the local canola oil and mustard so we're getting closer!

With respect,
Nina