A group of Waterworks households has been buying each week from the All Organic Farm – they deliver free for orders of $40 or more.
Product lists come out each weekend via email, we then email Glenda (at 136) what we want by late Tuesday, she submits the combined order Tuesday evening and it’s delivered every Thursday.
Group members then call in to Glenda’s with shopping bags and money that day and our purchases are weighed, or otherwise divided up.
We find the quality is generally good and it’s much more convenient to make the short walk to a neighbour’s place than to go to the market or trawl the likely shops.
Cheaper, and good for the environment too.
We usually buy some items in bulk (eg potatoes, onions, canned goods) and others at higher (but still reasonable) per item/kilo prices.
Such things as canned chopped tomatoes, pasta sauces, nuts, flours, milks, dried fruit and snackfood are available as well, mostly in bulk, all organic.
The purpose of this article is to find how many other Waterworks Valley people are interested in buying from the All Organic Farm, and to encourage those who are to set up one or more additional purchasing groups.
But why not just buy in one big group all the time? Well, the more households involved, the more space taken up and the more work for the person who collates and places the order, has it delivered and then weighs it, divvying it up and collecting the money.
Around 5 households seems to be a manageable chat-and-a-cuppa size.
Having more Waterworks groups would help Glenda’s group, because all the groups involved could combine to buy perishables.
As an example, corn and broccoli have been really good recently but the minimum bulk lots are 28 cobs of corn and 8kg of broccoli.
No one household is likely to be able to consume that amount before it gets too old and even a single group might not be able to handle the bulk amount – preferences vary, some people don’t like broccoli! Collective ordering of perishables could be done by putting a notice on the website on a Monday or sending round an email to see if we can get up to the minimum amount for a bag of carrots or whatever.
To spread the extra work and share the extra walking, these orders could be dropped at a different group node each time.
Alternatively, they could be collected from Glenda’s.
Please comment below (so that we all know who’s interested) if you’d like to join a buying group and how to go about i
t.
Trish at 131
7 comments ↓
Yes, we would be interested, although we would like to have some idea of prices. We could also act as a drop off point if required.
we also would be very interested in joining, and would like some idea of prices as well…it would be great to be able to avoid the supermarket. A drop-off point at 169 would be fantastic for us (thanks Michelle!) and we will try and get 3 or so others from this end of the street to join in.
we would be interested. Mainly fresh stuff like carrots, apples, potatoes, broccoli as we eat them a lot…carrots last a long time, if you dig them in a box with moist (not wet) sand. At our shack we kept carrots for three weeks that way and they were still crisp and tasty.
we’re keen, although probably not on a weekly basis. i’ll speak to immediate neighbours to see if there’s more interest at this end
I am also interested, and could act as a drop off point, for up this way, but only from late July.
Debra
PROGRESS REPORT: As yet there isn’t a second group node but some new people are buying through Glenda’s group: we’ll post more information once we know where we’re going!
I am very happy to be the contact point for a new group please let me know what i need to do and who to contact otherwise i am very interested in purchasing so please contact me – cheers
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