There are about 10 items a year that are turning into “cult classic’s”. RAMP’s are quickly becoming a contender for TOP 5.
If we are lucky, they are around each spring for about a month. Also, they are WILD...meaning, if we get them from anyone, they are foraged and not grown. Couple that with having over 1000 members at a time when we normally have about 350, and I was not sure we were going to be able to get EVERYONE ramps this year.
What is this Friday Five, and why do you keep sending it to me?
Great question all you newbs...
Answer: It's a simple way that I can get what's in my head out on something tangible. It started as a goofy way to connect to our Yellowbird customers in a different way than food. It's morphed into something that is good for me, and might even give you a couple Friday 5's.
We had a MAJOR influx of product this week to meet the new demands that our community is ordering. Every single time you place an order it’s like you are showing up at the polls and casting a vote for the way you want this state to handle it’s agricultural, local economies, and health care…(let food be thy medicine...someone smart said that once). We are hitting the time of year where there are a LOT of green things coming your way.
Sorry this is so late to launch this week...literally haven't had time to do anything but pack and deliver food.
Because we are all completely swamped with voices, opinions, advice, and graphs during this season, I am having trouble deciding what is worth our time vs. what is just me voicing my own opinion because my ego wants to be heard.
With that in mind, this week will just be one story.
I have a LOT of ground to cover so instead of waxing poetic about why I love you so, I am just going to bullet point the crap out of this newsletter
Our home deliveries are BLOWING UP! So, when you sign up just know that you will get a delivery on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday for Columbus area folks. We will let you know at the beginning of each week what day your delivery will be on (all accounts will say Wednesday when you log in- ignore that). Mount Vernon area, Findlay, Delphos, Marion Home Deliveries will continue to be on Friday.
Where to start? The only logical place anyone can actually start from is right where they currently are. So how are you? I know this sounds corny, but if you don't have someone that you are connecting with right now and you need a friend, a conversation, or even in some cases some help...please do not hesitate to reach out.
Let me just take a second to give a solid “THANK YOU” from all of our growers and producers. I have talked to MANY of the men and women that are a part of our LOCAL food network, and everyone is anxious (as we all are) about what the future holds. I have no more answers than anyone else, but what I do assure them is that we have a customer base that is BACKING THEM 100% OF THE WAY.
At this point, we all have some anxiety about COVID - some are concerned while others are in a full blown panic. The good news is that a majority of people do recover - I won’t quote statistics because those are changing by the minute. The really good news is that you can take comfort in the fact that you are empowered to change the course of your illnesses. With the right knowledge and some effort, it’s possible to prevent and/or improve symptoms.
Let’s get back to talking about the good in this world shall we? Any of the citrus that you are seeing from us this winter is from our new friends down in Florida at Thorpe’s Family Farm...again, it’s the first time we have gone outside of Ohio for anything but we are sure glad we did. Those vitamins are much needed right now and I know that I have been crushing that OJ that was in the boxes last week.
NEW PROCEDURES STARING APRIL 2ND!
Hey folks! We are implementing some changes! In order to stay ahead of any more “surprises”, we are going to be switching our “public drop-offs” to “parking lot pickups”.**This will ONLY affect Columbus Area Public Pick-up locations**This will NOT affect any Home Deliveries**This will NOT affect Mount Vernon, Mansfield, Marion, or Findlay pick-ups**This will NOT affect those who are already picking up at Swainway, you will continue to do that on Saturday!
From A Brother During Covid - 19 My Songbird- You sing so sweetly announcing life and warmth and growth and hope. Hope that the cold is dwindling and brighter days are ahead.
Well isn’t this fun? There is a lot happening here at YB that we want to prepare you for. We have seen a tremendous increase in sales in 2 places...store orders and home deliveries. To try and keep up with demand, and stay ahead of all the quarantine and social distancing rules, we will be implementing some new processes. In order to stay ahead of any more “surprises”, we are going to be switching our “public drop-offs” to “parking lot pickups”. **This will only affect Columbus Pickups What this will mean is that we will have 6-8 Spots around the city that we are driving to, parking, handing your orders out to you, and then moving on.
The elusive Sarah Ballmer sits down with me to discuss our family dynamics and the relationships between siblings.
She is from a family of 6 kids and I was an only child until I was 13 when my brother was born.
We talk about who gets the last piece of pizza, if our kids punch each other in the face, and why she is wearing a plastic glove at the time of the recording.
I love hearing her talk but she is a self-proclaimed "bottler" so it is not always easy to get her to open up...maybe this can be a continuing segment where even I get to learn some things I have never known about my partner.
Hello Beloved.
Please take the next 5 minutes to unplug your mind from the matrix of thoughts that you have to think about throughout your day. This is not time to solve the world's problems, this is time to laugh at fart jokes and cat videos.
At the bottom I am going to tell you about Yellowbird Foodshed. If you do not already know, we are a FOOD COMPANY that is DELIVERING FOOD...at this point do the details matter?
Let’s all take a collective breath together...in…out…
There are many things that I could talk about but let me just say this...this group of people has been preparing for this moment long before the crisis arrived.
We’ve known a long time that the food system as it existed was not sustainable. All this has done is affirm what we already saw...that our growers right here need to know that we will buy their food 365 days a year, with or without a crisis.
For now we will continue to do what we have always done and build a system that can endure for the “long haul”.
Zach Myers sat down with me to talk denim and ended up waxing about society, family, work ethic, food, and his new book “Kids First”.
“The only outcome I will accept is success”, is a mantra that he has held since he started working as a young kid trying to find his way in the world.
We also talk about how he has grown his selvage denim company “ZACE” to encompass all the things he holds to be true in his life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy...Here’s One For Ya!
What a week it's been huh?
I've heard so many facts and opinions this week that I don't even really have anything to say on any of it.
I'm going to throw the "best of the week" at you in case you need a giggle, a little info, a little musical escape, or a little bite to eat.
As promised it’s pi day box, and the ingredients necessary to make a “pizza pie”
Pizza was first called pie when Italian immigrants arrived in the United States in the late 1800s. Pizza had similarities to a pie – with a crust, sliced triangle portions and its circular shape. Italian-Americans sold and popularized the pizzas, and the exotic dish picked up the English name “tomato pie”. Sometime thereafter the languages met in the middle to give us the term “pizza pie”.
https://www.crustkingdom.com/why-is-pizza-called-pie/
In 2013 Jacob and Elizabeth Coleman moved from Pennsylvania to a 140-acre dairy farm in Fredericktown, OH to cut their teeth at building their own grass-based dairy farm.
Jacob sat down with me to talk about…
● “Carbon Cycles” as it relates to the food choices we are making
● How in our conventional dairy system the retired cow gets turned into McDonald’s hamburger
● Herd Share’s
● “Organic” vs. Pasture-Raised
● Real-life stories of customers health improvement
A random story:
When I was in my early 20's, I was visiting a friend in Indianapolis and we were driving past what was then referred to as the "Hoosier Dome". (Many of you probably remember this)
There was a music festival going on that day/night and I wanted to check it out so we parked and walked up to the door to try and purchase a bracelet that would gain us entry to the festival. They told us they were sold out and that we should have reserved our tickets long beforehand.
