Order for May 24th (THIS MONDAY!!)

Welcome. I have an account with Albert's Organics, a national organics distribution company. Same company that supplies Ward's, Mother Earth, and buying clubs like Annie's. My plan is to have a true buying club with no markup (I may round up sometimes in my favor, but this ain't a moneymaking thing for me or even a free produce thing - I pay what you pay, so I may ask for lots of help sometimes). I know this is short notice, but if you get this on Saturday the 22nd, take a look at the order form, fill it out, and you'll be picking up on Monday the 24th. Fast, I know.

This is a private blog at the moment. Not meant to be exclusive, but while I'm learning, I'd rather control the size and composition of the group. This is kinda hard and I want to go slow for now. Feel free to ask if so-and-so can order (or just order for someone and y'all split it up later - Lordy, that'd be easier for me!)

So. I get a price list every Friday morning. Those prices are only good for the Monday that's 3 days later. Not a lot of time to get our shit together. So as soon as I get that price list I'll update prices on the order spreadsheet (link will be given below), and you'll get an email notice that it's ready for ordering. You'll have Friday evening and all day Saturday to order. I have to call in the final order on Sunday by 2.

Like the price list that I got yesterday, Friday the 21st, we have to call that order in on Sunday morning the 23rd, and it will be delivered on Monday the 24th. So, that's kinda fast. And that's the way it will always be. If anyone has weekend plans, you miss out, and plus I don't have much time to update the price list online. And if I have weekend plans, there simply won't be an order that week.

That's for the NON preorder items. There are certain items that are "preorder": eggs, yogurt, many but not all meats, cream, butter, that they have to have two weeks for. So if we order those items this week along with our produce, the produce will arrive the immediate Monday, and preorder items would arrive a week later.

AND. We need to meet the minimum PER DELIVERY. So if our order tomorrow came up to $275, but had both preorder and non preorder items, we didn't actually meet the minimum for THIS week. We have to get up to $275 on this produce/non preorder order, and then next week they'd add our preorder items to any NEW produce/non preorder items. Does that make any sense? Kinda complicates things but I think we can handle it.


Okay, a few random thoughts about THIS week.
I gotta get the order in tomorrow, so I just don't know if it'll happen. But I will be ordering some preorder items for the following Monday (31st) so we'll be mostly up to minimum on that and we'll just have to add a few things when the new price list comes out on Friday. A memorial day delivery is practically certain, as just our preorder items hit the minimum.

The cut n clean greens caught my eye. Looks pretty neat. Check out their site. They have "assorted garden greens" available as well as "rainbow kale", which is 4 types of kale cleaned and cut. None of the others on their site are listed on Albert's. 8 oz is a fairly large clamshell (the huge ones at sam's for baby spinach are 16oz) Probably cheaper to just buy bunches of kale, but this looked interesting. Basically it's kale all cut and washed and ready for cooking or green smoothies.

The applegate farms dogs that are on sale ($6 off per case) are not the same as we got last time. These are "great organic" dogs in a 16 oz package. You got 12 oz packages last time. I guess they're more like stadium dogs.

About Heartland Meadow. It's on special this week, so I have them listed. It's listed as conventional, unlike the Grateful Harvest line that's organic and grassfed. Here's more on it HERE so you can make a decision on that.

The spreadsheet:
The numbers on the left are for me, for when I order.
The "Y" next to the number means we can split a case, so if we don't get enough people interested to get a whole case we still might be able to get a half case.
An asterisk before the number means that it's on "special" that week and probably a pretty good price.
There's a gas charge added by Albert's to each order. Each person has a $2 share of that already written in to cover that.
Assume organic unless, like the heartland meadow stuff, I tell you otherwise. I'll always let you know if it's not organic.
The spreadsheet is overwhelming at first, but just look at the item and "price per unit". That's how much it costs per each or per pound, depending on how it's listed.
Fill in how many of that item you want in the column under your name. If your name isn't there, you can add it, just keep the two column pattern going (your name in one column, subtotal in the next)
Then fill in how much you'll be paying in the next column. Like, if a bag of apples costs $3 and you listed that you want 4 bags, you'll put "$12.00" in the "subtotal" column to the right of your name. (Then you can easily add up what your total will be)
Try to get everything in by midnight tonight, Saturday the 22nd. If it looks like we'll make the minimum, I'll go ahead and order Sunday morning and then get back with you.
Pay at pickup. Amounts change, things are packaged unexpectedly or things don't arrive or they're out of stock, or whatever, so our total is likely to change slightly. We have to come up with an actual final amount after delivery. No paypal right now, just checks.
The truck arrives around 10am on Mondays, and I'd like an hour to do initial sorting and peacefully make changes to totals without having the house full of people, then I may have people come help. We'll see how that works out. But likely pickup will be around 11 on Mondays.

The price list is massive, and I'm just not going to be able to list everything. If there's something you want, just ask, I bet they have it, and I can add it on. Just about anything made by Applegate Farms, Grateful Harvest, Organic Valley, Stonyfield, Fage... All sorts of chicken, duck, ostrich, beef...

Okay, here's the link to the spreadsheet. ORDER! (I kinda doubt this order will happen, since it's all last minute, but let's try anyway) Plus it gives you an idea of what the prices are like if you feel like you want to wait til next week. Comment here if you have questions or requests.