Page 32 of Butter You Up
Heads nod in agreement. Quiet descends, and we think some more.
Perry rubs his chin. “Why do you ask, boss?”
“Yesterday, my brother asked if there was a way that our farms could partner together. But I honestly…” Alex rubs his face. “Everything I can think of that I want is new equipment or impossible.”
“What’s on the list that’s impossible?” Kit asks.
“I’d love to give farm tours. There are educational programs we could run here, but we don’t have the space. We can’t just make space happen. And I’m not sure how that would benefit Bedd Fellows.”
The guys go quiet, thinking.
Jesús speaks up. “The best thing for our bottom line is to sell more milk directly, right, boss?”
“Yeah.” Alex glances at me and Kit. “The cooperative takes most of our milk, but they pay us way less than the public does.”
“Cutting out the middleman,” I say.
“Exactly.”
“Is strawberry milk just as profitable?”
Kit grins, and Alex rolls his eyes. “More profitable.”
“You know, people love strawberry milk. What if we offered it in the farm shop and in the CSA? Maybe even call it a limited run and see how it goes.”
“If Ethan has enough strawberries.”
“Ugh.” Alex puts his head in his hands. “I hate that stuff.”
There are snickers around the table.
“Why?” I ask.
“Our stance has always been that our milk is healthy. ‘Healthy for you, healthy for the cows, and Udderly delicious.’ That’s always been our motto.”
“The health benefits are still there, aren’t they? Kids—and adults—that drink strawberry milk are still getting all the protein and calcium and all that good stuff, right?”
“Yes,” Alex begrudgingly admits. “But we have to clean the bottling machine every time, and that’s annoying.”
“We have to clean it every time anyway,” Jesús points out.
“Actually,” I muse. “What if we added chocolate milk?”
Alex glares.
“Look, peoplelovethe strawberry milk. You get tagged on Instagram every weekend by people raving about the milk.”
“We do?”
“Yeah. Who runs your social media?”
“Uh. Me.” Alex shrugs, chagrinned. Then I see it hit him. “Is this how you knew you could sell enough last weekend?”
“Hell yeah. And now I’m taking over your social media.”
“Good riddance,” Alex mutters.
“So, call Ethan and ask how many strawberries he can set aside for syrup. We’ll email your CSA newsletter—you have one, right?—and offer a limited run of strawberry milk.”
