Fresh Organic Xpress

Tumultuous week

It’s been a difficult week. Nothing is quite done, but everything is close… Here’s a list of where I am today:

Septic – Needs dirt all around the mound… once power is here I can do a final inspection. My Backhoe operator is busy again, and I will likely take care of the rest myself… $7000 over budge

Power – Electrician comes Monday but he’s not planning on finishing the job… just the panel. I believe he is leaving me to do the final stuff on my own. $15000 over budget

Well – Pad, tank and pump are in place. Need to run the remainder of the piping to the home in the same trench as the power. $2000 over budget

Gas – I’m in line for a call to install a tank… I think

Permit – Still in process. Hoping they received my drainage plans… Also attempting to get a variance on my impact fees if I can prove I’m a farmworker on the land.

Most of that is good news, other than the budget being blown out of the water. However, I found out on Friday that my brand new $600 generator. Grew legs, unlocked itself from my home and walked away to who knows where. So if you see it, tell it I’m looking for it. On the plus side, the little thieves didn’t break a window, but found a less destructive way in to get what they wanted. When I found out it was stolen I remembered back to when my bike was stolen in College and I found this image:

I have similar sentiments now.

Aquaponics hobby keeps me happy

Another piece of good news. I passed my Aquaponics Course!

I took aquaponics from Murray Hallam and his course Aquaponics design course. It cost $1000 for the 8 week course But it was well worth every penny if you are planning a business or are doing a family farm in aquaponics… It is totally worth it! The internet is rife with information but not all of it is reputable. And this course also gives lots of helps on getting started. It will easily save you countless hours of figuring things out.

I was so impressed and happy I took this course. It may also come in handy with convincing the county that we will be farmworkers out there (potential $27k savings).

Fresh Organic Xpress announcement.

I’ll give a few more details on what I plan to build out there.

Zoey drew me a picture that I hope to use somewhere with this. It is a Fox train delivering produce. Fresh Organic Xpress (FOX) will deliver fresh produce to your car door. It likely will not give off strawberry smoke though 😊

It will be a high-tech farm stand.  Open sometime between 7AM-9AM and 2PM-4PM. Enabling service to clients who drop kids off at the local school across the street.

There will be subscription options and single purchase options available through this website (slightly modified) and a mobile app. Get your order in by a certain time and you can pick up your produce from the comfort of your car. The produce grown will come from an organic Aquaponics greenhouse. This ensures it is organic and available year-round.

Pick-up process

Fresh Organic Xpress will be different than all other farm stands in how it is delivered.

While visiting Oregon House, CA (for my current job) I found a local farm stand that did very close to what I’m planning. Filaki Farms Offered food grown right there on the land. Food was picked within a day.

At Fliaki Farms I had to get out of my car, walk in, and pick out produce. Then pay for it with cash only. Fresh Organic Xpress will be wholly different at this last step. It will be more like a drive-thru for local organic produce.

I do not want you to step out of your car to get your produce. Pull up your car in a lane and the app on your phone will alert me you are there. If you didn’t order ahead through the app/website, you can push a button, to talk to someone, or text your order in. It will be brought out to your car ASAP. It will be similar to Wal-mart grocery pickup, or Sonic Drive-in, but with Fresh Organic produce, instead of fast-food

I know how difficult it is to get children out of a car. And I know the clients will likely have small children if they are dropping them off at the elementary school.

As far as payment, those details are still up in the air. I will accept payment over the app, and cash of course. But if the app will accept more than bank accounts (via paypal or venmo) that I do not know. I do not know if I will accept credit cards or not.

When times get hard

This home project has gone on long and much over budget. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrell. When the generator was stolen, I lost my drive for a day to work… When these things happen, I need something to cheer me up and keep going. So I look / dream to the future. That and I know God’s got my back. The scripture comes to mind at times like these…

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Matt 6:26

Things are tight, but we’ll be taken care of.

Thanks for reading!