New Sproutpeople
Before I (Gil) start rambling, allow me to share that as we make this transition, orders may at first ship a few days later than usual.
THE FUTURE IS NOW
As I have been telling you over our previous 4 newsletters, us Sproutpeople are no longer just me and Lori, and our kids Sam and Alice. Our younger partners have now taken over the physical labor that Lori and I have shouldered (with the help of some Great employees - - Thank You Kate, Luisa, Molly, Tracey, et al!) for 32½ years.
Sproutpeople is again Certified Organic. Almost all of our seeds are now coming directly from small organic family farmers. Our facility packs our seeds so there is no cross-contamination - so everyone can enjoy the widest & wildest selection of sprouting seeds on this planet, even if you have food allergies. We’re shipping internationally again and everything is (or will be Very Soon) back in-stock! It’s a Golden Age for Sprouts and Microgreens =:-)
As if the future isn’t bright enough - we’ll soon be adding a wholesale portal - so market gardeners, food co-ops, and natural food stores will (at some time in the not too distant future) be able to buy our famous sprout mixes in bulk. We absolutely love the idea of folks selling our most popular mixes - French Garden, Long Life, San Francisco Mix, etc. at their farmers market stand. We are the only people who have ever done so - and we stopped doing that over 20 years ago, so it’s about time =;-)
Our history has been - like every one of us human beings - unique. The two of us have given what we could to the world - and look forward to giving much more. I remember my philosophy professor, freshman year at an art college (MCAD) relaying something like this - which I’ve used to guide myself for 50 years now; “We are all responsible for ourselves and to humankind.” So, we do the best we can. That’s our job.
We have enjoyed offering the ultimate customer service. We’ve always been thorough in responding to emails - and that will continue - and we’ll come up with ways to use technology so we can connect further. Some things however will change. Until now our customer service has included things like picking Almonds out of our Dr. Bird Mix (you’re welcome Linda T =;-) - which we made in the first place because many Bird parents asked us for an allergen free mix. We made a custom mix for a customer’s wedding, and I made Mother’s Mix at the request of a customer who was pregnant for the first time. Thanks again Crystal! Many mothers have benefited from our joint effort.
That all sounds like too much patting ourselves on the back. I loathe virtue signaling. Please excuse my excitement - - - we are about to semi-retire (so I know some of you totally understand)! The point is - we’re all supposed to be responsible. We’ve just been doing our part - and now that our partners will do the heavy lifting - Lori and I will have time to do all our other work better. Don’t get me wrong - this time we will all of a sudden have will give us the opportunity to garden more, spend more time with our 4-leggers, travel a bit, and hopefully lead us back to our original quest - self sufficiency.
In any case - we’ll be here for you - and we are So Excited for our future!
THINGS TO KNOW
The main impact that being certified organic again will have on you is that we’ll be packing our seeds ahead of time. This will allow us to fill orders faster, so the time between placing an order and it departing our facility will be shorter - once we’re settled in, as explained at the top of this communique.
To start - we will package all of our seeds and mixes in one size unit (¼ lb, ½ lb, 1 lb - depending on the crop you’re purchasing seeds for) - so if you order multiple units - you will get that many bags. Our partners are much better with technology than we are - so it won’t be long before we have bigger bags of seed too. The other difference you’ll notice is that we’ll be shipping from Massachusetts.
We started in Wisconsin and spent our first 10 years there. Sproutpeople then spent 17 months in Washington state, and has been in San Francisco since June of 2005. We’ve always had customers all over the country - so really - it’s about time our east coast customers get the slightly lower shipping costs and faster order delivery. It’s only fair, don’t you think? And since orders will move more quickly (after a week or so =;-) - everyone will be served better - and you’ll love our new seed bags!
We’ll soon start publishing brief Newsletters with special offers, recipes, practical advice, and more. Come tell us what Newsletters you’d like to receive, in addition to my delightfully long and rambling ones - like this.
