MARIQUITA FARM'S OPERATION POLICIES

How do I arrange for deliveries? Talk to us. Tell us who you are, what you need and where you are. If we can make deliveries to your restaurant without cutting service to our existing accounts we will delighted to do business with you.

Do you need credit references? Yes and no. We don't need to talk to your banker but we do prefer to do business with people we know. The community of chefs and restauranteurs that support local farms and cooks with a fresh, seasonal ethic has been good to us. If we know your friends and they say you're good people we're prepared to believe them.

What are your terms? We need to be paid in 30 days or under. Each of the farms that we work with is small and we depend on prompt payment to pay our workers and suppliers in time. None of us have the resources to carry customers that don't pay. Like the Godfather says, "It's nothing personal, just business."

How do I order? We email and fax updated availability sheets every Sunday and Thursday nights. We need to hear from you by 10am Tuesday for a Wednesday delivery and 10am Friday for Saturday delivery. Wholesale produce companies can offer their customers more frequent deliveries on a shorter notice but we are farmers. We need to get the orders in a timely fashion so that we can harvest to order. The upside for you is that our produce is very fresh. During periods of inclement weather we appreciate hearing from you as early as possible because our work is always harder in the rain. When temperatures are cold we may have to wait till later in the day to harvest to avoid spoiling the vegetables and that means we're not left with much daylight to work in.

Do you have a minimum purchase or a delivery charge? No. Because we do not carry a comprehensive list of products the way a produce company can we don't feel it would be correct to expect customers to reach a minimum. Delivery charges are just a hassle for book keeping. If what we can offer suits your needs then chances are strong you'll order enough on average to make it worth our while. We are small businesses ourselves and we want to be sensitive to the needs of other small businesses. If things aren't working out for both parties we'll discuss it with you.

What about ‘cross marketing'? We don't ask or expect you to put our name on your menu. Some folks choose to do it to make a dish more enticing/interesting, some streamline their menus and don't mention specific farms at all. Far be it from us to tell you how to write menus! We do have a page on our website that lists and describes the restaurants we do business with. We also are happy to publish recipes with full credit given, including a link back your restaurant website, in our newsletter. Just talk to Julia about this. (our newsletter goes out to 4000+ folks throughout the greater Bay Area.)