My Evil Plan

I'm happy to say that I've recently started implementing My Evil Plan.

For long-time readers, My Evil Plan could probably be considered a spin-off of My Crazy Scheme. For non-long-time readers, here is the Reader's Digest version of My Crazy Scheme. The four part opus, or as I prefer to call it, the Director's Cut, can be found here:
Part 1: Big Hairy Deal
Part 2: Little Tiny Steps
Part 3: Magnification
Part 4: Change the World?

A lot has changed since then, and I've learned a lot too, but I think the general plan holds up pretty well three years on.

I do have to say that I just love the fact that if you google "my crazy scheme," I've got the top few spots locked up, and even with just "crazy scheme" I've still got the #1 spot.

It also reminds me that I need to start taking credit for inspiring The Bullseye Diet. :)

Anyway, on to My Evil Plan: Simply put, it is to position myself, at least for now, as the middle man between my coworkers and local farmers.

I have at least four different people at work interested in buying naturally raised chickens (remember the Free Soup bird?) from the place we get ours. I'd pick them up frozen from the farm (which is about 2 miles from our house), bring them to work in a cooler, deposit them in one of several break room freezers (which are essentially empty), and pocket a modest delivery fee.

I'm also laying the groundwork for holiday turkeys, as well as any local produce, honey, baked goods, sides of beef, duck, fruit, or whatever else people might request.

I've been thinking for a long time about how cool it would be to get our production up to CSA level, or at least to have enough of a surplus to make it worth selling. But it's taking much longer than I'd hoped, what with the baby, the special needs daughter, the learning curve, not to mention the laziness and incompetence.

But with my Evil Plan, I can cheat a little bit by leaning on my more experienced neighbors, and maybe even run afoul of local food laws or company HR policies. I can gauge interest in various small farm products with no real risk. I might have people tell me they want okra, but if I can't grow it, or if I do grow it and they don't end up actually wanting it, that doesn't help anybody. If tell them what I can get and then bring them what they ask for, I can find out what and how much they really want, and then deliver a product that's superior to what I can currently produce myself. And at the same time, figure out what to focus on for our own production.

Then again, if we never want to raise meat turkeys or keep bees, I can still keep delivering those things, along with our own stuff. It still helps the local farmers, the local ecosystem, the local economy, it helps my coworkers have easier access to better food, and it helps me establish valuable relationships.

But now that I've written this all out, I don't seem to be making an especially convincing case for joining the Evil League of Evil.

I'll have to refine this a bit...