| For Your Freshest Food’s debut shipment of 2015 we decided to ship organic strawberries. They are a superfood that is sprayed with so many chemicals that when a person eats one of these “superberries,” the chemicals cause as much damage as the nutrition helps the body. Yet if you pick them fresh they are the most delicious fruit you can find this time of year. During this trip we were able to attend the Poteet Strawberry Festival where we met farmers that have been growing strawberries for decades, including Linda and Ronnie Wheeler of Wheeler farms where we get our strawberries. The Wheelers have been growing organic strawberries for almost three decades and have a 60+acre farm. They have won many awards for their berries, and they are a very sweet couple. Everybody knows that berries are perishable, and even more so when they are organic, and that you only have a few days to eat them once you buy them. What many people don’t realize is the logistical fiasco that a perishable fruit such as strawberries can cause. During transportation if kept at room temperature peaches will begin to go back after 48 hours, corn after a week or so, tomatoes about 5 days, and squash after about a week. Strawberries, on the other hand, I learned will go bad in less then 24hrs, and to get them to last longer they have to be transported below 50 degrees, preferably 35 degrees. My truck is outfitted for peaches, which have to be cooled to around 60 degrees (colder and they lose taste, warmer and they go bad), which could not come close to the desired 35 degrees. To be able to move more strawberries I came to the conclusion I had to build a new cooler for my truck before I did my next leg of the trip. I had 36 hours. I parked in front of a Lowe’s and didn’t rest until I built one. Once I had built the cooler I got an email from the owner of Pereira Dairy saying he supported what I was doing and referred Your Freshest Food to his large customer base in the Texas Panhandle. I was, and still am, honored to have so much trust placed in my business and that others see the need for good, wholesome produce. I had the privilege of receiving a brief tour of Pereira Dairy and I was amazed at the level of care that the owner, Albert, puts into it, and his well founded pride in it. Having a small education of the current state of CAFOs in the US, and seeing first hand many instances of industrial dairies hurting the environment that they rely on, and often tasting their milk which tastes less like milk with each passing decade I was delighted to see Pereira Dairy where the Jersey Cows have the opportunity to roam freely, are fed actual food, and milk that is as wholesome as I have ever found it. If you live near Amarillo, Lubbock, or Midland I strongly recommend these guys for your dairy needs. The debut trip of 2015 we moved over half a ton of organic strawberries to over 4 dozen families that can now enjoy berries that have the super qualities that superfoods are supposed to have. |   The above pictures are the last steps of construction the special strawberry cooler needed to transport the strawberries at 35 degrees. Below is a picture of a few flats of strawberries.   |
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 Although thousands of roads go from Urban America to Rural America the wall between the two couldn’t be larger. We speak the same language, but do we? We are all American, but what does that mean to the different Americas? We may shop at the same stores, but we don’t shop for the same things.
This wall is always apparent when I contact farmers asking them to become suppliers for Your Freshest Food. In Urban America you walk in with your money and tell them what you want, in Rural America your money means very little until you have developed a relationship. In Urban America business deals are as good as the contract they are written into, in Rural America there is very seldom anything written. I was raised in Urban America, and the disconnect always surprises me when I cross this wall into Rural America. I call several farmers, talk to my current suppliers, and talk to my customers to see who would be a good farmer for the in season crops. Everyone has their names, their connections and their neighbors, but still the relationship trumps the connection. Because of this I always have difficulty establishing the relationship with the farmers, I am usually an out-of-state person calling them randomly and asking about their farm; essentially one of their children. As an urban dweller I have had to change how I communicate, my patience level, and my mannerisms; it has been a very long, and ongoing process, a process I didn’t foresee when I went into business. Each year when I call farmers I always have to remind myself, these people are in their farms everyday. They know better than anyone you cannot speed mother nature, you can’t control anything about the weather. They know they are the victim, or the beneficiary. The only thing that tell them their fate is time, and all they can do is wait, and work. Most urbanites cannot comprehend this, nor could they live by it, but seeing this self-discipline always teaches me, and reminds me that urbanites have a lot to learn away from the internet. |
Joseph LanctotI'm the owner and founder of Your Freshest Food. Archives
July 2017
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