Better late than Never

PREORDERS
Laura C: 1 cream
Camille: 2 creams
Karen: 1 fage,
Naomi: 1 fage, 6 butter, 2 tenderloins
Beth: 2 fage, 10 tenderloins
Marci: 1 cream
Kathy: 1 cream, 1 fage
Laura Lan: 1 fage, 1 cream, 6 butter
Ashley: 3 cream
Brenda: 3 cream
Jen: 2 tenderloins
Talia: 6 tenderloins

Hamburger patties will arrive 8/7 (Laura C 10, Karen 1, Naomi 2, Jen 1, Beth 10, Tonya 3, Kathy 2, Brenda 1)
Pork loins will arrive 8/14 (Laura C 1, Naomi 2, Beth 3, Kathy 2, Brenda 4)
Beth and Naomi, one case of butter is coming in this week, one the following week, so you're getting half a case each week.

BUTTER
A few of us have been ordering Organic Valley pastured cultured butter by the case. It's $39 a case, which comes to 6.50 a pound. That's 3.25 per package. It's usually 4.25/package at Ward's and Publix (though right now both Mother Earth and Publix have it on sale for 3.59. That'd be 3.24 per package at Mother Earth if you use the 10% off coupon on their web site. That sale ends Sunday.)

The bulk butter is 5.50/lb. I'm going to order that bulk butter soon, when more people are back from summer activities (probably the August 29th delivery), but know that the organic valley foil-wrapped is always available if you want it. It's a little more convenient. You'll have to email me and I'll order it for you.

WATER KEFIR
My kefir has been great, and I think I've perfected it, but I can hardly keep Solomon supplied (my lord, he drinks so much of it). I finally invested in another jar and split my grains so I can try to make extras for buying club. Not sure if I'll have any for this Monday, but water kefir is coming back. And I'm soaking the beer labels off the bottles, so our kids aren't drinking out of Sam Adams bottles! Some bottles even have my own kefir labels! ("Wells Village" was the name of Houston's family's pharmacy in Mississippi, so that's why it's "Wells Village Kefir".)

NOTE: I believe that kefir grains and kombucha scobys should be given freely. If you ever want water kefir grains, or a kombucha scoby, and help getting started on making your own, I almost always have some available to give, for free. I would give away the finished product, too, if I didn't have to buy caps and juice and wash/store the bottles.

DETAILS ABOUT STUFF ON THE GRID

What's the deal with potatoes? Nearly $7 a bag.

Someone requested nectarines. The price was really high (like, $1 PER nectarine) so I didn't put them on. I think you could do better at Ward's.

Same with apples. Still really high prices, and I've seen the organic pink ladies at Ward's for 1.49/lb.

Red peppers: I never know how many peppers you'll get with a share, and I can seldom measure out EXACTLY 2.5 lbs. But $3/lb a great price on organic red peppers (at the top of the dirty dozen, and usually more like $6/lb). So know that I'm not sure how many peppers this will give you, and I may have to adjust the final price depending on the actual weight of your share, but it'll still be $3/lb. Worth putting some in the freezer.

Crave Brothers mozzarella cheese: It's listed as conventional, but the cheese is made at the dairy, and HERE is info on their methods/diet. You can see a photo of the "log" HERE (plus she says she paid $8/lb.) Look around their web site and see if there's any other types of their cheese you'd like to try. The "rope" looks cool. Oh, it won't arrive THIS Monday. It's a preorder.

LOCAL MEAT!!
I have info on some beef that was raised near Lake Butler (by someone for whom ranching is a hobby, he has LOTS of cows). It's pasture raised, no antibiotics or steroids. But the guy is big on how the finished product tastes (that's part of the hobby-ness of it for him), so he does grain-finish the cows for 4-5 weeks before slaughter, as many people prefer that taste over grass-finished. It's hung/aged for two weeks. It's processed at Nettles. My neighbor, (the one who gave me this contact) says it's some of the best beef he's ever had. It'll be $5 a pound. 30 pound shares, $150. I've put it on the form. The meat is already hanging, so I'm almost certain it will be available at our next pickup, August 1. You don't have to commit RIGHT now, but if you don't put it on the form, email me by Tuesday morning, because that's when I tell the guy how much beef to wrap up for us.

FUTURE BUYS
Once school starts (August 22nd), I'll have more attention to give to buying other things in bulk for us. Think about things you'd like to have the group buy together.

A PRODUCT I LIKE

I just wanted to share this. It's not a special deal or anything. I found a pastured gelatin! My kids like jello that I make from juice and knox plain gelatin. I knew the knox stuff came from factory animals, but I figured there wasn't an alternative. Then I stumbled across pastured, all-beef (and kosher) gelatin! It works great, and when I make it with a puree from the vitamix instead of store bought juice I feel rather self-righteous. If you have Amazon Mom (if you don't you should - it's free amazon prime), this product will get you another month of membership.


OOPS, Forgot the link! HERE is the ORDER FORM!!!!!!!!