Hello Veg Box customers!

Did you expect 2022 to be less dramatic than the past few years? I did! And yet, here we are on the continuing roller coaster… There are some big things happening around the world and in our own backyard at the moment. I hope you are all doing well and were able to keep safe and dry over the past few weeks.

To say that the recent weather conditions have been a challenge at the farm would be a huge understatement. New garden beds got washed away and crops got waterlogged. Other than the ducks and the pigs, the animals were soggy and grouchy. Our amazing staff and volunteers put on their rain gear and a brave face, but it’s hard to keep that going day in and out in such conditions. We’ve all been excited by the break in the weather and an improvement in the working and growing conditions over the past couple of days!

In this Veg Box News email, you’ll hear about:

  • Our new Preferences list – an exciting new tool for your Veg Box tool belt!
  • The new date for Veg Box Customer Morning Tea – Sunday 27 March, 9:30-11:30am
  • A request for feedback
  • A bunch of useful reminders
  • And more! Scroll down for more info.

Thanks for being a part of this amazing community that is supporting a local, ethical and sustainable food system. It’s such a privilege to be a part of and it wouldn’t exist without so many wonderful people who are putting their money where their mouth and creating the change we want to see in this precious world. You’re awesome!

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if I can assist you with your veg box in any way ?
Lindsay

 

*NEW* Preferences List

We’ve offered customers an exclusions list for as long as we’ve been doing veg boxes. We’re now excited to offer a Preferences List for customers who would like to tell us what produce they would prefer to get in the place of their exclusions.

Here’s how the Preference List will work:

  • Customers can list up to 3 veggies or veg categories (e.g. leafy greens, root veg) in their preferences list.
  • If we are excluding anything from your veg box, our packing team will look at your preferences for info about what you’d like to get instead.
  • If we have any of those items available, in sufficient quantities, we’ll pack them for you!
  • Of course, we can’t guarantee that we will be able to pack your preferences. We generally harvest or source 3-4 extra veg to pack in place of exclusions so what we have available is limited.
  • Like exclusions, you can change your preferences as often as you like.

Here’s a Preference List example: If we list that we will pack ‘Bok choy or Silverbeet’ and you would rather prefer silverbeet, you could add bok choy to your exclusions list for the week and add silverbeet to your preferences. If you exclude potatoes, but enjoy sweet potatoes, you could add them to your preferences list. The possibilities are endless! Again, we can only pack what we have available, so thank you in advance for your understanding and flexibility if & when we can’t accommodate your preferences.

Many of you will know that I’m pretty keen to offer flexibility where we can to ensure your veg box best suits your needs. So if you’re looking for advice on how to customise your box more, don’t hesitate to reach out ?

 

NEW DATE ~ Veg Box Customers Morning Tea (Sunday 27th March, 9:30am)

Unfortunately, we made the difficult decision to postpone the morning tea originally scheduled for this weekend. We want to make sure you have a good time at the farm so we have decided to try again in a couple of weeks’ time. Hopefully this will allow the ground to dry out and firm up so that we’re able to venture further out to enjoy the space and feed some animals.

The new date for the Veg Box Customer Morning Tea will be SUNDAY 27 MARCH, from 9:30-11:30am. We’d love to see you and your family or household members there! CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

 

Feedback Please!

Have you received something in your box that you haven’t been happy with? We are actively exploring how we can increase the freshness and quality of what we pack in your box, including refining our harvesting and packing procedures and working with our organic supplier for items such as fruit, potatoes and others that supplement what we grow ourselves.

You can help us make changes and improvements by giving us feedback when you receive something in your box that is substandard or that doesn’t meet your expectations. Take a photos and send it via email to [email protected] or SMS to 0437 038 151. Thank you in advance!

 

Other Reminders:

  • Exclusions:
    • You can nominate up to 3 exclusion items and you can change these as often as you like.
    • If you don’t want as many potatoes or onions, we can set up a rotating exclusion for either or both of these for you, meaning that you would receive them in one box but not the next.
    • Check out the Fair Food Blog from Friday each week to find out what we’re planning to pack in veg boxes the following week.
    • Email [email protected] before the 12pm Monday change cut-off so we can apply your request for that week’s box.
  • Deadline for order changes & holds: All order changes need to be sent to [email protected], before 12pm on Monday in order to be applied to your box for the coming week. We have tight deadlines to get everything ready for harvesting and packing on Tuesday so any change requests that come after 12pm will be applied to the following week’s order. Thanks for your understanding with this!
  • Veg Box Add-ons: You can add extra fruit, honey or flowers to your veg box order regularly or as a one-off. Either go to the Add-ons section of our website to place an order or send an email to me at [email protected] and I can add them for you. We’re still not able to accept new egg customers due to low production, but are aiming to get new chooks this year when we’ve improved and expanded our hen house and run. If you’d like to get on the egg waitlist, please let me know.
  • Fair Food Facebook Group: If you’re keen to get more information about alternative recipes you can try, what’s coming up in your veg box, happenings at the Green Connect farm, and other fair food news, I encourage you to join the Green Connect Fair Food Facebook group! It’s a great group of people and open to anyone who wants to join. https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenconnectFF

 

In case you missed it…

A lot of care goes into the insert messages that we include in your veg boxes each week. If you get boxes fortnightly, or if your printed insert gets a bit soggy from time to time, you can see these on the fair food blog on our website. They are well worth a read and include stories of the faces, produce and methods of the Green Connect farm. Topics from the past month include:

And, of course, if you visit the blog from Friday each week, you can also find out what we’re planning to pack in your veg box the following week. Happy reading!

 

Thank you!

Thank you so much for ordering your produce through Green Connect and working with us to build a better food system, and ultimately a more sustainable and ethical community and planet.

 

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if there is anything I can help you with! Warmest regards from the whole Green Connect Farm team ?

Lindsay Burlton
Fair Food Coordinator
[email protected]