It seems as if everyone is back in town and business is picking up again. The bad news is that our truck is broken with a 4-digit repair quote, so we are going to try to move to having things delivered as much as possible to see if we can dispense with the need for a truck. This will require reconfiguring how we do things a bit, and sinking more money into a larger stash of inventory in back, and possibly investing in such luxuries as a storage fridge in back. Hopefully this change will be mostly invisible to everyone but us. Except, perhaps, that you may see some odd scenes such as one that occurred last night: Andrew, along with 7 boxes of goods from Chinatown on a two-wheeled cart, taking the red line and #55 bus to get to the store.

I would like to take a moment to ask you, dear customer, to stop by Yelp.com or any other review sites you use and write us a quick review. This would really help us out. Our Yelp page, which has 5 reviews, rates us at a nice 4 stars but a hefty ‘$$$’ price designation. Compare to Hyde Park Produce, with whom we try to keep our prices comparable, which is rated at ‘$’, or the very popular Treasure Island, whose prices are literally double ours on dozens of products, but who has the same ‘$$$’ rating.

So, go ahead and give an honest review of the store, and be sure to select what price range you think we fall into. And if you think any of our products is excessively expensive, please let us know — we will in all likelihood lower it. This has already happened with many items, such as our dairy products, which are now significantly cheaper than when we opened.

On the shelf: Ya (”Yali”) pears, papaya, collard greens, strawberries, blueberries, navel oranges, asian gummy candy, wide variety of asian noodles (oat flower, black wheat, etc.), mixed nuts, chesnuts, kiwi.

I know numbers are boring, so just a quick run down: our gross sales for October and November were about $18,000 per month. Assuming an average mark-up of 30% on our food (in reality it varies between -20% and +100%, depending on the item), and neglecting “shrinkage” (spoilage and theft), that means net monthly sales are about $4,500. Our fixed costs are rent ($1700), a full time employee ($1300), and utilities and insurance (about $600). There are some other costs, like sales tax and medicare payroll tax, but this is just a rough outline. This leaves us with a “surplus” of $900, which needs to cover any mistakes, spoiled fruit, fridge repairs, capital expenses, truck-related expenses (gas, repairs, insurance), and, ideally, a salary for me and Andrew. Not quite enough.

Our goal for the next three months is to increase our average daily sales from $600 to at least $800 and see what we can do about cutting some of our costs, perhaps our employee or our truck or something else. If, for instance, our daily sales were $800 and we had no employee, our “surplus” would be $3700 — enough to live on and re-invest in the store, in the form of capital improvements and an operating cushion of cash.

On the shelf: lots of ready-to-eat and frozen Indian food, fuyu persimmons, blueberries ($2), kettle chips, little peaches, fragrant pears from China (ask to try one for free), lots of other types of pear.

Oh yeah, we may open a little late on January 1st, and Medici Bread and Metropolis Coffee will be back on our shelves on January 2nd.

Our sales dropped so low over late December (we hit $50 gross sales one day, down from $600 average for November) that we decided to close for a few days. Between the University’s break and lots of other people taking their vacation, it just wasn’t sustainable for us to stay open, and the time has instead been spent on some much needed rest and time to attend to other tasks by me and Andrew. Also, our employee, Beth, has returned to her pre-Open-Produce life as a college student, so for now it’s just me and Andrew running the store until we decide we need to hire someone else.

We’ll open back up on the morning of December 30th, in time for all of you to do your shopping for your New Year’s Eve Party. We’ll also probably have a late start the morning of January 1st, since everyone should hopefully be celebrating the holiday instead of shopping.

On the shelf: not much!

A lot of people (including our landlord) have asked us why we are keeping our door open now that the weather is cold. The answer is that we want to keep our store around 60 degrees, to keep the produce fresh. This is about the same temperature you’ll find in the produce departments of big grocery stores, like Treasure Island (I recently measured it at 62 F). Anything below 55 hurts things like tomatoes and bananas (and employees!), so whenever the temperature in the store drops into the mid-50s, we close the door until it warms up above 60 again. Even if we didn’t have produce to worry about, we’d want to keep it in the 65 F range anyway just to keep our customers in coats from overheating.

Don’t worry: our heaters are completely turned off and have been the whole season. The only thing that heats the store back up are its adjacent walls (made of brick), the lights, the people (about 100 watts per person), and the compressors on our fridge and freezer. Any marginal additional fuel consumed to heat the surrounding retail or residential spaces that might be slightly cooled by having a 60-degree neighbor are certainly offset by the reduction in the amount of produce that rots before we can sell it (that produce has still accrued environmental costs in the form of transportation and cooling before it reached our shelves). We’d really like to get off-board compressors for our fridge/freezer that sit in the basement or outside — they are more efficient and would make the store quieter — but the initial capital costs are very high. At any rate, our glass-doored fridges are much more energy efficient than those open coolers you’ll find in most supermarkets.

On the shelf: organic carrots (with greens still attached), beautiful organic spinach in bunches, organic beefsteak tomatoes, key limes, eggplant, pomegranates, clementines, tuna (cactus fruit), pineapples, egg nog, silk nog (vegan egg nog), hummus, sparkling cider, Tofurkey sausages.

A handful of people have cornered me, Andrew, or one of the employees over the last few weeks and expressed concern about whether the operation of our store is crime-conscious enough for Hyde Park. Given that two businesses on our block (Quick Snacks and Cornell Dollar) have been broken into in the last two weeks, I thought now might be a good time to write a little about our thoughts.

One concern seems to be that we sometimes have female employees working the checkout counter, sometimes (gasp!) even after dark. Several people have suggested that we only schedule men to work after a certain time, or have a man around whenever we have a woman on duty. This is really backwards thinking. It is huge regression in gender equality to assume that women are less suited to deal with something than men, and we are not going to play that game. All of my employees know that they can talk to me or Andrew if they are uncomfortable working at a certain time of day, and we will work something out. This has, in fact, happened — no need to stereotype based on gender.

Another concern seems to be that we are open till 11pm, which is later than most places on the block. This is on purpose. Hyde Park is full of night owls who keep weird hours and are afraid to go out at night because there are no people around. There are no people around because there are no businesses open late. Likewise, because there are no people out late, businesses see no reason to stay open late. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, and we are eager to push the envelope a little bit. Andrew and I have lived here for over half a decade and are well familiar with the crime patterns in east Hyde Park, and in addition I grew up here and remember Hyde Park of the ’80s — and I have no desire to steer our neighborhood back in that direction by keeping conservative hours and putting metal bars over my windows.

To address a third common concern (one that I shared), we have replaced our cash box with a hefty cash drawer that can lock (the kind that normally sits under a cash register). This also clears up room on the check-out counter for people to set their baskets or items, the lack of which was something which had been bothering me (and some of you) for a while.

On the shelf: Grass Point Farms milk ($3.50 for a half-gallon), fresh cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, radiccio, mixed nuts in shells, canned pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke, clementines in boxes, pre-fried tofu, sparkling cider, and sweet potatoes on sale for 40 cents a pound. We also have 6-packs of cinnamon rolls for $4. Their frosting has a slight citrus twang that makes me eat them for breakfast regularly. You should, too.

It seems every company I’ve ever heard of is laying of workers left and right recently; and, unfortunately, Open Produce has to do the same.

Though business has been slowly but steadily increasing, after poring over our balance sheets, Andrew and I decided there was no way we could become profitable in the short term while paying out 3.5 full-time positions. Since our cash reserves are running fairly dry (i.e. this payroll cycle will probably put our bank account balance in the triple digits), today we gave notice to two full-time employees and our part-time employee, and, after they leave, the store will be run by just me and Andrew, plus one employee (Beth, who has been with us the longest). This really wasn’t an easy decision — our employees have been more helpful and understanding than we could have asked for — but I think it is the right one, since it means we will be just about breaking even instead of losing money fast. It won’t be pleasant for us, since we will have to stretch the existing work over half as many people, and it certainly won’t be pleasant for the three who no longer have a job (especially in the current economic climate), but the alternative is some serious financial problems in very short order. Avoiding that is worth the unpleasantness.

We wish our departing employees the very best of luck, and they will have first shot at any job openings we may have in the future.

On the shelf: horned melon, cilantro, basil, brussels sprouts, sparkling cider, asian soy milk, acorn squash, concord grapes, shitake mushrooms, bosc and d’anjou pears, miso, fried tofu, tempeh, muscat gummies, ready-to-eat Indian food.

Starting today, we will have not one but TWO items featured in store every day. Check in every day for our Daily Special, a familiar food at a dirt-cheap price. Today we have collard greens for 75 cents a bunch.

If you’re out of ideas for dinner, try out the suggested recipes for our weekly feature item. This week, it’s rutabagas! Again, here’s a copy of the recipe sheet available in-store:
Rutabagas are a root vegetable thought to have originated in the wild as a cross between a turnip and cabbage. They got a bad rap during the Great Depression, when they were one of the few foods cheap and readily available, and haven’t been commonly eaten in the US since. However, rutabagas are delicious, slightly sweet, and bursting with calcium, vitamin C, and potassium.

Serving Suggestions:
**Peel, dice, and boil the rutabaga until tender. Mash with butter and, if you want, a little cayenne pepper, ginger, brown sugar, garlic, lemon juice, rosemary or a combination of spices.
**Peel and grate the rutabaga, toss with orange and lemon juice and some raisins for an easy salad!.
**Roast with olive oil to bring out the vegetables’ sweetness.
**Add to winter soups or stews instead of potatoes for a more nutritious, sweeter twist.

Recipe Suggestions:
EASY CURRIED RUTABAGA
Peel and cube a RUTABAGA, then stick in a skillet with just enough water to cover the vegetable pieces (about a cup and a half…not too much or all the sweetness will go away!). Bring water to a boil, then add a little OLIVE OIL, SALT, PEPPER, a little BROWN SUGAR, and a dash or few of CURRY POWDER to taste. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer until the cubes can be easily pierced with a fork.

APPLE RUTABAGA CASSEROLE
Cook 3 C. PEELED RUTABAGA SLICES in boiling salted water until just tender; drain. Slice TWO MEDIUM APPLES Place half of each kind of slice in greased 1 quart casserole. Sprinkle with 1/4 C. PACKED BROWN SUGAR and dot with 1 1/2 TBSP BUTTER. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat layers using up to an additional 1/4 C. BROWN SUGAR AND 1 1/2 TBSP. Drizzle top layer with LEMON JUICE. Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (adapted from southernfood.about.com)

Also on the shelf: Texas sweet grapefruit, sparkling apple cider, tangelos, galia melons, organic celery hearts, GIANT golden delicious apples, 6-pack cinnamon rolls (for only $4!) handmade in Milwaukee, red pears, fresh pita, and half-gallons of Grasspoint Farms milk–it’s locally produced, ‘Certified Pasture’ (the highest humane certification out there), and freshly delicious!

Well, not quite, but two pages on the front page did catch my eye for being Open Produce-related.

One is that New York may start charging 6 cents for each plastic bag. As most of our customers know, we charge 5 cents per bag, both to encourage people to bring their own bag and to cover our own costs of providing bags. A few customers are a bit indignant at this practice, and I think a few feel like we are trying to cheat them out of some money, but most understand the idea and are happy to pony up a nickel, in most cases only a small percentage of their purchase price. A surprising number even remember to bring their own bag the next time, which is the ultimate goal of the fee. Fees like this are common in most European countries (except there the charge is more like 50 cents). The proposed New York plan would give 5 cents to the city and 1 cent to the store owner, so it’s a little bit different than our fee, but it’s nice to see other urban American markets considering similar plans to ones we’ve implemented.

The other New York Times article that caught my eye was that GM and Ford are running out of money. The analogy is more straight-forward than I’d like to admit, but it’s nice to know that big companies have the same problems as small companies sometimes.

On the shelf: crazy melons, pink lady apples, miniature lady apples, artichokes, collard greens, guava, multi-colored cherry tomatoes, pomelos, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, celery root, red pears, gold pears, Italian vinegars, sauces, and sweets, juices of all kinds (in big bottles), and much more. Stop by soon!

Every few days, we’ll feature a new fruit or vegetable in the store. Maybe it’ll be a little weird (i.e., not native to American cuisine), maybe it’ll be something familiar with some creative recipe suggestions, maybe it’ll be something you’ve seen before but not known exactly what it is you’re supposed to do with it.

This week, it’s plantains! Here’s a copy of the recipe sheet available in the store:

Plantains are starchier versions of the banana that are plentiful in Latin American and African cuisine. Plantains can be eaten when green-yellow (for a firmer fruit that holds up well in cooking) or when fully ripe and yellow-black (they won’t ripen on their own, though, if this is the way you want to eat them, stick them by some tomatoes for a few days…the chemicals released by tomatoes trigger the ripening process). Plantains are usually cooked and served as a side dish or dessert.

Serving Suggestions:
**Fry some green plantains for a quick snack! Peel them first– we recommend cutting off the ends, halving it, and prying the skin from the fruit inside—and then cut into small chunks or slices. Deep fry in vegetable oil and salt. A little brown sugar makes it a nice dessert!
**Try sautéing or boiling the plantain and mashing with brown sugar or honey and a little oil.
**Cut into chunks and boil to add bulk to a hearty fall soup.

Recipe Suggestions:
GREEN PLANTAIN PANCAKES
Peel and grate 2 GREEN PLANTAINS, add SALT AND PEPPER to taste. Add a small amount of water, just enough to make the paste stick together. Deep fry, garnish with CILANTRO, HORSERADISH SAUCE, or SYRUP.

CREAM OF PLANTAIN SOUP
Saute TWO SMALL ONIONS, CHOPPED and FOUR GARLIC CLOVES, CHOPPED in OLIVE OIL. Add FOUR GREEN PLANTAINS, PEELED, CHOPPED, and cook until golden brown. Add 4 CUPS VEGETABLE STOCK, 3 BAY LEAVES, and SALT AND PEPPER to taste.

Above recipes adapted heavily from www.sunshine-tropical.com

Also on the shelves: dirt cheap GIANT plums (size of an apple, 50 cents a piece), guavas, fresh asparagus, lemongrass, starfruit, more Hawaiian baby papayas, lady apples, delicata squash.

We are partnering with Backstory Cafe to host a pumpkin carving contest! Bring $7 and your clever Jack-O-Lantern ideas to Backstory on Wednesday night, and leave with one of our desirable prizes (or, at least, your Jack-O-Lantern). Carving materials and pumpkins will be provided.

Backstory Cafe is located at 6100 S. Blackstone, just one block east of 61st and Dorchester. Carving contest begins 7pm on Wednesday, 29 October 2008.

Get directions to Backstory »