The power of Community

Francis Bacon - "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

Some of you may know that I have a small organic garden (less than an acre). This year my gardening partner Willy and I decided we wanted to try to find 1 buyer for our produce instead of going to farmer's markets, restaurants, stores, etc. And so I contacted a local summer camp in March, telling the director what we were thinking of doing. He was very enthusiatic about it, wanted to know if we could grow EVERYTHING for their camp. Well, no, we couldn't, but we limited to greens, onions, tomatoes, and a few other misc. things.

But the director also said they were getting 2 new cooks this year and wanted me to talk directly with them too. And they wouldn't be there for another 3 weeks.

Silly me, I didn't get a written contract or down payment.

Willy and I did what any grower would do -- bought seeds and fertilizer, tilled the soil, added compost, and planted early crops like spinach, peas, and onions.
Everything was brilliant! All the veggies looked and tasted amazing (of course we were sampling them!).

When I finally did talk with the cooks they were also enthusiatic. They said they would take everything we grow. I asked, 'how many people and what dates are you looking at?' and only got vagueness.

So when the first week came around I emailed a list of what we had, and the quantities that were ready. The only message I got was the cook would pick it up on a Sunday. Willy took what we had picked, less than what we said we would have because they didn't give us any idea of quantity and we didn't want our good produce to go to waste.

The response from the cook was favorable. In fact, he said he wanted 2x more of everything for the next pick up. He and Willy came up with 'tentative' dates for pickup.

The next pick up day came. We picked, cleaned, and processed double the amount of the week before. I called, I emailed, I did everything I could to connect with the camp -- no response. Finally I went to the pick up site, and sat for 1/2 hr waiting. After getting frustrated by no response from the cook, I asked Willy to come sit at the pick up spot to wait for them (I had to be somewhere else). 1/2 later the cook drives by, Willy recognizes his truck and calls him right them, asking what's going on. Well, the cook says, we didn't need anything this week, but if you wait until after I have lunch with my friends I'll see what I can do.

An hour later the cook and Willy finally get together. And, of all the nerve, the cook tries to negotiate -- he's wants us to come down on the price of lettuce because Earthfare is selling it for $2 a head (ours was $2.50 a pound, a better price). Then he didn't want the radishes, onions, or several others things we brought for him. And he didn't have any money with him -- kind Willy told him to take everything and they could send up a check.

The cook said the next big pick up day would be Sunday, June 21st. Wise Willy said we wouldn't pick anything until they called us with an order. We called, emailed, etc. etc., and still haven't heard anything.

What does this have to do with community, you ask? Well, as soon as this happened I started selling whatever we had. People from a local co-op I belong to bought most of my extra lettuce from last week. I sent a mass email out to all my friends and 7 and counting are willing to buy directly from us. One of the stores I do chair massage with told me I could put a flyer up about the veggies, and 3 employees also want produce. And the manager of the store told me about a once a week Farmer's Market that's just down the street. The coordinator for the market decided to let us set up FOR FREE.

So, in the long run, we're making more money now for a longer period of time than we would have just working with the camp.

And I still haven't gotten a check from the camp for last weeks veggies!