HELLO! MEMBERS AND YET-TO-BES…

Hello our dearest community,

Newsletter time came round so quick!

I think that’s because there’s so much going on, behind the scenes in our Co-op (read more below) but also in the produce, oh my! The cooling weather is bringing us sweet small new season beans, perfectly sized stubby celery and quinces that make our fridge smell like starburst chews.

We’ve already had consent flowing in for our move to the Food Connect Shed. Ange & Billy (at least) will be at the Shed from 5pm - 6pm tomorrow (Friday), if you want to participate in a live ‘consent’ event to make it official, and have a nosey-poke around.

ORDERING IS OPEN FOR: 14th or 16th May

**HERE’S THIS MONTH’S LIST**

Coffee closes Sunday 10th May 11am.

Everything else closes Tuesday 12th May 11am.

MEMBER NUMBERS

I (Ange) have better defined ‘trialling household’ to be a household that has not yet contributed their inventory bank, and I have labelled these households ‘trialling’ in their columns. With this now defined, I can now say our count of members is: 35 households + 6 trialling households. We dropped 1 household membership this month.

That said, there are a couple households that have been dormant for a few months and haven’t told me why. If you think this might be you, do you want to talk about it? Is something getting in the way of you ordering? Send us an email and let us know. We’d love to hear from you. You never know - you could be holding the feedback we need to make our Co-op stronger.

OUR STOCK & INVENTORY BANK

We have over 1200 products currently active in our list. We have approximately $27k of stock. $23k of this is covered by our inventory bank. Our cashflow is bridging the other $4k (mostly your credits). I’ve got some ideas starting here about how we might deal with inventory bank in our new membership agreements, if you’d like to weigh in.

INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR CO-OP?

We’re open to new members and it’s simpler than ever to join.

Reply to this Newsletter if you’re interested in trying us out. We can even get you set up by next week if you’re super eager.

We’ve had a heartwarming response to our need for more weekly help. A lot of it won’t kick in until (if) we move to Food Connect Shed, but knowing that we have the labour coverage to make it viable is truly encouraging. Shout outs to all those who’ve already found a way they can help out more.

And to all those who haven’t but would like to - let us know if you want to get stuck into a weekly task. Particularly, we’d like to hear from any Saturday Meetup workers who we haven’t spoken to yet. We’re expecting that we may not need quite as much assistance as we do now to make Saturdays run smoothly at the Shed.

Your weekly contribution might be as small as an hour. It might be the same time every week, or something you do whenever you have a moment. It might be at home, or in the car picking up from a supplier, or with a kid tangling up your feet while you try to get things done at the Shed. What will make all the difference to your Co-op and its future is that this contribution will be yours to own.

NEW more of the tinned fish range from La Narval. A little more expensive than the Stock Merchant range (but see below) but jeez they are good. Deli-style mustard, baechu kim chi and shichimi togarashi, chilli crisp giardiniera and cauliflower sweet & sour pickles from Acide Pickles - a crew from Melbourne, focussed on traditional fermenting techniques, experimentation and zero waste. Maffra Cheese Co Cheeses - their red leicester (how does it compare to the London 1856?) and White Wensleydale (a young fresh cheddar)! We can get even more from Maffra, so let us know if you like them. Finally (and finally!) a new set of single origin Almanac coffees.

GONE FOR A WHILE Some of the Stock Merchant’s Tinned Fish offerings. The list shows what we have in stock. The supplier hasn’t received expected stock due to the war.

SEASONAL SHIFTS Persimmon, quince and pomegranate won’t be with us for too much longer. Newbies! pineapple, corella pears (2nds good price) & tangelo. Veg which won’t be with us much longer: large eggplants, sweet corn, zucchini. And some new veg with their wintery vibes: celery, white daikon, radicchio.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS STRATEGY? We’ve added some ‘packaged by producer’ headings to the cheese section in our list, so you can easily tell what we cut and what comes to us already cut. The cheeses we cut are bulk and so cheaper, but, we’d like to not keep them in stock for very long (or have to freeze them to keep them), so we’re asking you to buy a larger quantity at once. If you want smaller cuts, you can buy the ‘packaged by producer’ cheeses from the same brands. What do you think of this strategy? This is one of those conversations we’d love to have in Slack - but we need you there to have them so join up and weigh in!

ENOUGH FROM US, TIME TO SHOP

Hope to see you Saturday 16th May at our Meetup, or the Thursday before for a quick box pickup. Up to you!

**HERE’S THIS MONTH’S LIST AGAIN**

Members: please alert us to whether you’re picking up Thursday or Saturday by choosing the option in the Produce List.

Non-members: Reply to this email and we’ll prioritise you for a trial (next week even).

xx your Co-op crew.