TAA DAA!

Today's the big day folks! The Bountiful Sprout went live at midnight, and orders are already coming in. We board members (well, not so much me, as I'm a Johnny-come-lately) have really been scrambling these last few weeks, trying to get as many producers as possible on board, but it's a slow process. First you have to convince them that it would be advantageous to use our website to sell their produce/products to member families, and much easier than having to lug their stuff to the farmers' market each week, never knowing how many people will show up or what they will buy, and having to sit out in the heat or cold for hours on end, just twiddling their thumbs. With TBS they just go to our website twice a month, at the end of the ordering period, and look to see the exact total ordered of each of their items. Then all they have to do is drop that amount off on pick-up day, and go back home. We even sort it for them! How easy is that?

But convincing them isn't really the hard part. In fact, once word spreads, they'll be knocking on our door! No, the hard part is getting a busy farmer to take time out from their work day to fill out their application and return it to us in a timely manner, so that we can come out for a site visit. Then we have to get them to sit down at the computer and list all of the items they plan to sell. Of course, this only has to be done once. After the items are in, all they have to do is log in twice a month and adjust the amounts on each item, to reflect what they have available at this particular moment in time.

We managed to get a decent number to complete ALL the steps before we went live, have several more that have been approved but haven't listed their items yet, and have a whole butt-load who have said "Count me in!!", but who just didn't get their paperwork in soon enough to be included in this first order. Maybe that's just as well. It will be like a new restaurant doing a soft opening, before letting the general public swarm their doors. I have a feeling this whole thing is going to mushroom into something unbelievably wonderful, once word gets around, and I'm hoping other communities will follow our example. To find out more, go to http://www.bountifulsprout.com/.