2018 is a new year, and new things are happening at Terra Firma.  We have a new staff member, Alicia Baddorf, who is going to take over most of the correspondence and communication with our CSA subscribers.  Alicia started two weeks ago, and some of you may have already emailed with her.
Twenty five years ago we built a small structure so we could wash produce out of the sun and the rain.  We outgrew that facility many years ago, but this year we are finally moving into a “new” facility — an 80 year old barn nearly four times as big.  The barn is at our newest ranch, which is where we’ve been holding our fall Farm Day for the last two years.  Right now we are installing plumbing, electricity, and drainage at the same time that we are trying to wash all the muddy winter produce.
Another item on the “To-do” list this year was to a makeover of this newsletter as well as the TFF website.  I was hoping for a repeat of last winter’s weather so that I could dedicate some time to working on it, but Mother Nature is not cooperating so that may not happen any time soon.
One change I am going to make however, starting today, is to post the weekly recipe directly to the website.  This email newsletter will just have a link to the recipe.
There are a few good reasons to go this route, but the most important is this:  We need our customers to visit our website more often.  In the 21st century, website visits are the new “referrals”, and our business — like most others — depends on them.
Yes, it is one more click that you will have to do on your keyboard or tap on your phone.  But the formatting on the website is actually nicer and more user friendly than it is in this email newsletter.  And I promise that the link will take you directly to the recipe — not to the home page.
Along the same lines, I very much appreciate it when any of you email to let me know you enjoyed one of the newsletters and/or shared it with friends — it means a lot to know that people are reading.  That said, if you do share the content with a friend, co-worker or to social media, please please please pull the link from the website and send it rather than forwarding the email.  To make this easier, from now on I will include the link at the bottom of the newsletter article each week.  As I mentioned above, we need to be generating more traffic to the website, and the newsletter content (including the recipe) is the only dynamic part of www.terrafirmafarm.com.
We have had several requests over the years to put the weekly Box Contents List up on the website prior to delivering the boxes.  The biggest problem with doing this is that we often make changes in that list at the last minute, mostly when we run short of an item or two.  For this reason we think the best way for subscribers to see what is coming in their boxes is to check the newsletter when it arrives in your email.
Thanks,
Pablito