This log covers both Tuesday (26) and Thursday (28).
Tuesday, Alyse and I first packaged some more marinated olives and sealed jars of honey. After we were done with those two things, we went to Seaman’s to inventory our products, which was good since I hadn’t done that before and so I learned more of where our things are in Seaman’s. We back back to ACEnet and got everything ready to go to stock Seaman’s. We couldn’t yet take stuff because Constantine was not yet at ACEnet and we needed the inventory book which he has in his truck. While we waited, I worked on my HM stuff (whole and goal) while Alyse also did some things on her computer. Once he got there, he sliced some more aged cheese for us to take with us to Seaman’s and then the two of us went there. We then stocked Seaman’s with our newer products to replace the ones that they had sold. I hadn’t yet ever done that before and so that, both the inventorying and the stocking, were fun and learning experiences.
Thursday, we didn’t package anything but we mainly first inventoried the AO cage at ACEnet and replaced cheese boxes milk crates or other boxes because the cheese boxes aren’t holding up under the increasing weight on them. We also placed a few orders to places like Snowville Creamery and we also prepared deliveries to places like 9 Tables and Jackie-O’s. Once we were done with that, the three of us went to the conference there at ACEnet and we did a little resilience chart exercise, using the initial cattle that we get the beef for everything from. Stating at the farm level, we looked at everyone involved in the processes of the AO beef and we got something like this: Farm, (Redbird Ranch) processing, (Dick’s meat processing) ACEnet, (value added, one of which is some aging) retail, (packaged, Seaman’s, Hill’s Market in Columbus) retail, (cooked/served, Farmers Market, 9 Tables) and finally ending in compost which he gets from some of the business which will then circle back to the beginning of the cycle. There were of course other steps and other businesses involved, but I can’t remember them all. Constantine also said on Saturday that a good way to view the products (the meat sticks for one) is to look at them like they are Legos and to look at them like they are a new kind of building blocks and that the building is in fact the community. When you look at how many people/businesses are involved in just one product, I think that analogy of them being Legos is quite right.