The Box Scheme - in 50 words or more!
The box scheme is the most efficient way of getting the best quality organic food from the farmer to your kitchen, with a minimum of cost to you and to the environment. There are hundreds of similar schemes operating around the world - this style of shopping is on the up because it is honest, and provides a shortcut to the extended food supply chain. It is popular because it is convenient, economical and super fresh (we can buy a load of fresh food and arrange to have it arrive just before you pick it up- that's harder to achieve in a traditional retail situation)
Source is building stronger relationships with local organic farmers - we can guarantee a market for them, and they can conveniently drop off their week's produce and get back to farming! There will be opportunities for further connection between you and the farms - so you can see where your food comes from and get involved in the satisfying business of growing food.
Due to Tasmania's proximity to Antarctica we will source some of our goods from interstate as our growing season slows down.
For this initial trial WE WILL ONLY BE OFFERING 25 BOXES PER WEEK, so the first 25 people to email us will get a box order in.
This is how it will work.
You commit to 4 weeks worth of boxes at a time, and pay in advance when you make the order'
When you sign up, we ask that you sign up to volunteer a few hours of your time - just 2 hours every two months. Those hours (Tuesday evening from 6-8) will be spent packing everyone's boxes-a strategy which will keep the costs down, share the load between volunteers and get you more involved with your co-op. These hours do not count toward ‘active member’ hours and the associated discount at the shop.
The type of produce included in each box is dictated by availability and seasonality. You can elect whether you want a $20 box or a $40 box. The $20 box will include roughly 7 kinds of vegetables and fruit, the $40 box will have more of the same, plus some more variety. You can opt to add on organic Elgaar Dairy Milk, or Summer Kitchen bread. Does that mean - with fruit, veg, milk and bread that you could avoid going to supermarkets at all some weeks? Of course on Wednesdays when you pick up the goodies you can stock up on the other essentials as well.
The box scheme is the most efficient way of getting the best quality organic food from the farmer to your kitchen, with a minimum of cost to you and to the environment. There are hundreds of similar schemes operating around the world - this style of shopping is on the up because it is honest, and provides a shortcut to the extended food supply chain. It is popular because it is convenient, economical and super fresh (we can buy a load of fresh food and arrange to have it arrive just before you pick it up- that's harder to achieve in a traditional retail situation)
Source is building stronger relationships with local organic farmers - we can guarantee a market for them, and they can conveniently drop off their week's produce and get back to farming! There will be opportunities for further connection between you and the farms - so you can see where your food comes from and get involved in the satisfying business of growing food.
Due to Tasmania's proximity to Antarctica we will source some of our goods from interstate as our growing season slows down.
For this initial trial WE WILL ONLY BE OFFERING 25 BOXES PER WEEK, so the first 25 people to email us will get a box order in.
This is how it will work.
You commit to 4 weeks worth of boxes at a time, and pay in advance when you make the order'
When you sign up, we ask that you sign up to volunteer a few hours of your time - just 2 hours every two months. Those hours (Tuesday evening from 6-8) will be spent packing everyone's boxes-a strategy which will keep the costs down, share the load between volunteers and get you more involved with your co-op. These hours do not count toward ‘active member’ hours and the associated discount at the shop.
The type of produce included in each box is dictated by availability and seasonality. You can elect whether you want a $20 box or a $40 box. The $20 box will include roughly 7 kinds of vegetables and fruit, the $40 box will have more of the same, plus some more variety. You can opt to add on organic Elgaar Dairy Milk, or Summer Kitchen bread. Does that mean - with fruit, veg, milk and bread that you could avoid going to supermarkets at all some weeks? Of course on Wednesdays when you pick up the goodies you can stock up on the other essentials as well.
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Here it is! An indication what will appear in a $20 box every week. in the photo- (I will have to work on my food arranging skills) there are 3 apples, half a kilo of toms, 1 kg of carrot, 2 onions, half pumpkin, 2 zucchinis, 500gm potato, 2 bulbs garlic, 3 big beetroot. This was just an experiment to see what $20 worth looks like at the lower mark up we are using for box prices. | I |
You can't choose what goes in your box, but we will have a 'swap box' at the shop- so on Wednesdays when you pick up your weekly box and find that it has more beans/beetroot/spinach than you think you can handle-you can happily swap it at the door with the cabbage/asparagus/tomato that someone else is allergic to. If you can't make it on Wednesday, we will hold on to it until Thursday afternoon when it will go onto the shelves in the shop.
You will bring the previous week's box (the actual box- a recycled apple crate) so we can fill it up for the next week. There will be an initial box cost when you make your first order -$4. That won’t necessarily cover the cost of buying a new box if you lose/break yours, so look after it!
we can all communicate here on the blog site - you can post and see recipes, photos, stories, and news about events and the like. (you can also access this as a non box receiver-stay in the loop) We will endeavor to keep a hard copy of the important stuff in the shop- so you don't need to be glued to the internet to stay involved.
summing up
-4 week commitment, pay up front (No credit, must be current)
-volunteer once every 2 months for 2 hours on a Tuesday evening
-choose a $20/40 box of fresh seasonal organic fruit and vegetables
-pick it up on Wednesdays and bring back the last week's box
Feel free to bombard us with feedback about this trial - We are trying to keep it simple to begin with. We may consider more box sizes, meat options, different timing in packing and pick up and various other options in the future. Depends what YOU want!! Remember that it is your co-op - you paid to be member (or maybe you havn't renewed? We included you anyway because we assume that if you signed up last year you have an interest in what is going on in Sourceland!) So get involved!
the Source shop team
