Orders open for 20th September Meetup

Author

Angela Hirst
September 12, 2025

COOKS CO~OP

HELLO! MEMBERS AND… EVERYONE ELSE ❤️ 

Since our first newsletter last month, we’ve grown to over 90 subscribers, with only about 38 of you being current members to our Co-op. So, welcome one and all! It’s heartwarming to have your interest.

For the moment, we’ll be sharing the one big newsletter with everyone, members and non-members alike.

Not (yet) members - just note that not all links in this newsletter are accessible to you until you have joined as a member. Interested in next steps? There’s a special invite for you below, so read on...

ORDERING IS OPEN: September 20th Meetup

Deadlines:

Coffee, fresh produce & fresh pasta close Saturday 13th September 8pm.

Everything else closes Monday 15th September 8pm

The Report

HOW’S THE CO-OP DOING?

Here’s a report out on some of our Co-op numbers. We’ll add more relevant data as we think to, but also based on what you’d particularly like to see. Let us know your thoughts in our Systems Channel in Slack.

MEMBERSHIP

We’ve increased from 13 member households in March, to 28 member households in September. That’s up 4 households from last month. 20 Working Members & 8 General Members.

We’re aiming to grow to around 80 members by sometime next year (yep, bold, we know). That’s the number we currently think of as financially sustainable. This number shifts as we learn more about our operational costs, and these change as we grow, too.

If you’d like to help us better understand our scaling and targets, we’d love to hear from you.

MEMBERSHIP BANK

We had over $21k in stock in August, and it will be higher this month. Members are supporting $5k of this with their $200 contributions. The remainder is being supported in two ways: 1. by a tight crew of investors who will happily pull their money out when the membership grows enough to distribute this risk more evenly. 2. by an extra $5000 credit Ange has put into her account that will take months for her to draw down. If anyone else would like to add extra credit to their accounts to help sustain our inventory, we’d definitely be very grateful.

CORE MEMBER REIMBURSEMENT

The core team accumulatively did over 180 hours of work in last month, and decided to take a break from recording their hours this month (it’s extra work, and we know basically what they are). They split a total credit of $600 for this contribution (plus their 0% at the til).

PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

We are ready for more members, so please don’t hold back in telling your communities. Feel free to share this newsletter with them as a quick way to spread the word. Keep your referrals coming and we’ll call mercy if we need to.

NON-MEMBERS!

INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR CO-OP?

POP ALONG TO OUR SATURDAY MEETUP

September 20th, 3pm - 4:40pm. Soak up the vibe, we’ll show you the ropes and you can do a bit of shopping, too.

RSVP BY REPLYING TO THIS EMAIL

This Month’s Producer

DESERT FRUIT COMPANY

Desert Fruit Company has been cooperatively owned and worker run since 2014. The farm is managed by members of the Co-operative, workers receive an hourly wage, and profits are reinvested in the farm. They hope to be an exemplar of sustainable and regenerative agriculture, as well as an egalitarian and stimulating workplace.

Our admiration of this farming collective has only grown in recent weeks, as they demonstrate just how awesomely you can receive feedback. It started with Olga doing a terrific job of delivering our feedback on some dates we received from them this season. It’s nerve wracking work to deliver candid feedback and then the wait to hear back...

Hi Olga, thank you for writing the gentlest complaint letter I have come across. We have not done a great job this year of communicating to customers what to expect in a mixed box. We grow about twelve varieties of dates at our farm with a range of textures, flavours and colours. Each season is different and some varieties perform better than others depending on conditions, the mixed boxes therefore are never quite the same each year.

I’m at a loss to explain the hardness of the dates you received except to say that for some varieties that is their natural state (eg thoory and deglet noor). The hard dates are not my ‘cup of tea’ but many people prefer them to the soft and sweet medjool or barhee dates. You would be surprised how many people have a favourite date that goes beyond the parameters of the standard medjool that we know so well in Australia, particularly people of North African or Middle Eastern descent.

Having said all of that, the last thing we want is to disappoint our customers and it’s clear that the boxes you received did not meet your expectations. I will gladly put together two boxes of barhee from our reserve stock and send them to you at our cost. Maybe you could use the remaining mixed dates as free samples and a point of comparison for the barhee?

Kind regards,

Nathan King

We’ll do just that, thanks Nathan.

Members (and visitors) - expect a taste test at the September Meetup. We have been snacking on the barhee already and they are AMAZING.

The List

WHAT’S NEW IN THE LIST

Oh my, so much! Below is a snippet…

MEATS & SEAFOODS

We have a small amount of butchered chicken parts from 9 Dorf (they’re still waiting for spring to warm up growth, so no whole chickens or fish from them currently) but heaps from Grassland Poultry, including some very tasty meatloaf and meatballs.

We’re exploring the full range of Wild South Seafoods to see what everyone likes - flathead, whiting, red snapper, green prawn meat & baby octopus are all now on the list.

And we have a little venison from Shukaku! Neck and dice. More to come in the future. Plus we have lamb back in stock.

IN THE PANTRY

As always, we’re obsessed with our spice rack (and Herbies) and jumped to it on your latest suggestions so: za’atar, dried oregano, black limes, kokum, green & red curry mixes, laksa…

Also based on members’ requests, we’ve added Pure Harvest soy and oat milks to our range, along with some powdered vegetable & chicken stocks from San Elk. In the snacking department, we’re continuing to expand, with white corn totopos, two other variety of Proper Crisps (Garden Medley & Onion and Green Chive) along with some yummy new rice crackers. Oh yeah, and to satisfy our diverse chocolate cravings: some Bennetto’s dark chocolate bars, a Pana peanut caramel snack bar that tastes like a snickers (according to Billy), and Hunted & Gathered insanely rich drinking chocolate.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Yes. We have added Dona Cholita’s a family sized pkt of tortillas, and we’re trying out Pasta’bah’s ready made sauces (we’ve heard they’re really good) along with one very tasty Pastor Cooking Sauce from La Fundidora. More mustards, more peanut butter, more dried pastas! And finally, building out our cleaning range (both human and house) with some Saba products.

I don’t even think that’s everything! Maybe just grab a cup of tea and go through the list again, top to bottom - cast your appetite across what’s now… 931 items?!?! I’m baffled that we keep finding the room...

Inspiration

CONSENT DECISION MAKING

Alice holding our Purple Station at a Saturday Meetup

Good ideas can come from anywhere, and having many viewpoints makes decisions robust. We want to move the Co-op from just a few of us making most of the decisions to us sharing this responsibility more diffusely. Without a hierarchy of decision making, we’ll need clear and consistent processes, to avoid chaos and harness all the extra energy we’re inviting in.

Consent decision making is one such clarifying force. It involves proposal making. Anyone can make a proposal, and any proposal is approved by the whole if no one has a valid objection to it. Having a better idea, feeling like its not a priority, or just not liking the proposal, are not valid objections.

The beauty of consent decision making is multifold: It ends procrastination and swirl around problems. It priorities progress, creativity and experimentation over ‘getting it right’. Unique ideas get to see the light without being watered down by compromises, and the person with the energy to move something forward gets to unleash their energy on a challenge without roadblocks.

Consent decision making can be used for small fixes in a spreadsheet to trying out a new event format, to renovating a financial structure. Consent decision making is the bomb and we can’t wait to see the world using it more. Are you ready to give it a go?!

Upcoming Member and non Member Event

CONSENT DECISION MAKING WORKSHOP

This workshop is open to members & non-members

One of the best ways to learn consent decision making is through a face to face process. So, we’re organising one! with anyone who’s interested invited to form part of the process. We plan to show you how consent works by trying it out on some simple proposals. Let’s set aside two hours for the workshop, preferrably on a Saturday in between Meetups, but we’re open to doing it on other days as well. Let’s see where the interest lies.

INTERESTED? REPLY TO THIS EMAIL & WE’LL LINE UP OUR DUCKS 🦆 🦆 🦆 

THAT’S IT

Hope to see you on Saturday 20th September

Members: please tell us if you can’t make it

Non-members: we’d love to meet you - reply to this email and we’ll send you details.

xx Ange