The Fall always brings with it a rush of back-to-school, get-in-the-harvest-before-winter feeling. There’s a focus to the Fall. After the languid days of summer, it’s time to get to work.
And at Harvie, there is a lot of work going on right now.
Harvie’s goal is to make eating local easy.
But from our side, this work is anything but easy! We are dealing with 150 producers on a weekly basis — many of whom are not used to selling wholesale because they are very small businesses — to source 550 different products. On any given week, almost 20,000 individual, physical items must be ordered, be received at our warehouse in Lawrenceville, get stored correctly, end up in the right box, and get on the right doorstep at the right time.
This is the reality of building a new local food supply parallel to the national grocery supply chain! We have almost 40 dedicated people working to make this dream a reality each week and I’m so proud of the work we are doing here.
Each Wednesday, I look at the payments that go out to our producers and I’m looking at the money flowing back to all of these local businesses, building a new local food economy in western Pennsylvania with each passing week.
We have big plans this Fall to keep growing Harvie and make it an even more magical experience.
At heart, I’m a software and systems lover, so I’m most excited about the work we’ve been doing under the hood in the software that runs Harvie that will allow us to offer an “always open” shopping window (so you can order any time) and next day delivery. These systems we are developing are truly innovative and don’t exist anywhere else. They are directly tailored towards a local food economy and the reality of fresh products.
If all goes well, you’ll never see these systems and Harvie will get a little more magical over the next few months.
In addition, we plan to bring in many new products for you this Fall. We have even started a “Harvie kitchen” where we are processing and making our own food. If you’ve seen the olives, cornichons, and figs in your our store, then you have seen the beginnings of the Harvie kitchen, with much more to come!