Thanks for the update!

There is a milkman here, but I've lucked out that my farm box service also carries the kind of milk/cream/butter I prefer and they've been delivering in the evening so I can bring them in right away. I get my share of imperfections from the farm, but that's to be expected--it's a crop, not a culled distribution. My sticking point is the ranch with the idealized meats. I'd love to support them but I just can't do the price, and I already pay up for pastured heirloom chickens and all. OTOH, the produce farm has other affiliates, and I ordered a duck!

So, if you like the new service so much better that you neglect the Imperfect, order donations from them for the hungry. Your share of the produce doesn't languish in landfills, and people get fed. My farm service has a few different programs for feeding people and I have an automatic subscription for a weekly box which is distributed locally.

I'm so very grateful to have this kind of problem! I worry that the different brand of sandwich sliced pickles are unnecessarily neon green and has chemical yellow, or that the reputable brand of enchilada sauce I just tried (a pantry staple for me (TJ's which is proper enchilada sauce), because I just don't want to make room in the freezer for homemade, and enchiladas are spur of the moment) has tomato as the first ingredient and tastes weird. We have plenty of good, quality, wholesome food, and so far all are well (touch wood and tell the fairies). Many are barely hanging on. Or worse.

Glad to hear you're well in Portland!

Is your local dairy going to deliver produce? locally grown? When I was a kid we had a dairy delivery man -- they'd leave (per your order) milk, chocolate milk, cottage cheese, heavy cream, and some kind of orange juice/drink they made... not sure what else. If you ran out of something, you just drove to their dairy and went straight into the coolers to take what you needed and left the money in a box on a table. lol!

We also had a potato chip delivery man when I was a kid! It was a local company and potato chips were the only thing they made. lol!

A potato chip delivery?? Now there's a concept I could support :-)) LOL!!

Horribly intense what Portland is going through right now.

Misfits is very similar to Imperfect. You can customize or switch to every other week, or suspend for a month or so due to travel. Both Misfits and my local farm share have a wait list to join, so I would not give it up just yet. I bet many are waiting to take your spot.

Our local farm/meat share is monthly with various plans but it is too much meat for us so we have kept our share but have a delivery every three months. (we just postpone when the e-mail is sent for customization). They don't mind at all being so backed up with new subscribers. They even asked us to delay in March if we had plenty meat in our freezer. Our next delivery date is September.

I had planned on postponing Misfits for the rest of the summer and enjoy my garden but I barely have blushing tomatoes. (just picked the first two). This past Wednesday the Misfits box was gorgeous. With customization I can choose what is not doing well in my garden or late August crops I can enjoy now.

For some reason I received three fennel bulbs but just one lemon cucumber. (we love fennel). My garden will give us maybe a dozen but not until September and all at once.

Avocados and watermelon are add-ons. Both the best we have ever had.

I think that small delivery companies will make a big comeback now. Small businesses and restaurants/bars are crashing. Even without the pandemic, nobody can afford to rent/own an actual storefront unless it's a lousy space, in a terrible location, and/or has no parking. Pop-up food trucks have been showing up more and more around here the past few years. I'm always puzzled by their locations and wonder if it's even legal for them to park where they do. Why don't they drive around neighborhoods like ice cream trucks and come to you? :)

What we really need now is a cocktail delivery truck driving around neighborhoods with music playing. Wouldn't it be nice for things like frozen margaritas and daiquiris? :O)

Some small businesses are up 600% by thinking outside the box.

Shifting to pick-ups but also deliveries. Rather than sitting complacent, they are providing what is needed right now. I'm impressed daily, reading articles about those making a difference by sourcing local.

We have always been a bit frugal but not extreme. Careful without a real food budget. Now that we have deliveries and an invoice box as well as on-line...a bit shocking how little we have spent on food the past 5 months.

Always generous hosting bbqs and dinner parties. Being bosses and taking hard working employees out for Friday lunches...ordering a dozen pizzas if working a weekend...(good ones, coal fired oven pizza)

An out of work restaurant employee brought home an expensive pasta machine and has been making pasta from home and selling on her Brooklyn stoop. In NYC, the 'authorities' , are not concerned and letting this go on without needing to enforce regulations.

Lots of examples just like that.

Good luck going back to work!

If you can have as much airflow as possible in indoor spaces, that will help.

HEPA air cleaners are the hot thing now for offices that can’t open windows.

I put HEPA filters over the HVAC registers in my office - that’s shared air, brrr - and am installing my own AC to be independent of the building AC.

Well, the local dairy’s offerings are not what I want. Imperfect Produce, I never left you.

John, are you saying Alpenrose is offering this service? I thought the land was going to be sold, which makes me sad because I grew up next to it.

I think the family sold the business/land (based on news reports from late 2019) but perhaps the new owners are offering this service.

That would be awesome. I assumed they would develop the land asap. Maybe they're waiting for better times.