We Had To Freeze The Cactus To Keep It From Freezing

   We sent out the latest Rivenrock Subscriber E-Mail Newsletter on Tuesday the thirteenth.
   It is the Winter Cactus Forcast… information on how the edible cactus plants have fared through the winter so far.

   We do this so that people can understand the cultivation techniques we use.
   People nowadays do not have much contact with the people who grow their food… they are less likely to know the grower as a person, their philosophies on things and how they feel about growing things… since food is so essential to life, it seems reasonable to want to meet the people along the supply chain who grow and deliver your food.

    Almost all human social gatherings feature food as the focal point of the gathering. Food cements friendships,  people invite business associates over for food and an informal atmosphere to encourage ‘opening up’ and the blossoming of successful associations. 

   Since we sell throughout the country, and the majority of our customers are in other states, they will likely never get a chance to speak to us face-to-face to find out how the coming weather will affect the cactus, or other issues that might affect supply and quality. The newsletter is a way for us to give that information out, as well as occasional ‘special offers’ we might put out for the subscribers to the newsletter.
   Now, I was supposed to have sent this -e-mail out a month ago the day after we had a big freeze and I performed some rather heroic measures to save the cactus from freezing…. the newsletter below has the information.

   You also can sign up for the Newsletter, this will get you an occasional e-mail… usually with some information pertaining to the present or future cactus harvests. We also sometimes pass along ‘special offers’ to the newsletter subscribers… and we won’t deluge you with a lot of Newsletter E-Mails, in fact, we usually only put one out every month or so.

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Rivenrock Gardens

Rivenrock Gardens     ============================================ You are receiving this email because you are a Confirmed and Valued subscriber to our mailing list. Using Name: John ============================================ This email is ONLY Sent To Verified Subscribers.  ===============        The winter always causes a reduction in the quality and quantity of the cactus leaves we can sell for fresh eating.  Last night as the freezing temperatures bore down on us, I turned on the sprinkler system to provide warm water to the plants and hope to forestall any freezing. The resulting thick layer of ice held in the warmth and reduced damage greatly. If I am successful in holding off severe damage this winter, we should be producing enough cactus to meet demand through the winter.     However, the cold has done enough damage that we don’t want to try providing Grade ‘A’ cactus until the spring brings us the fine weather that gives us ‘near perfect’ cactus.  We’ve removed the Grade ‘A’ cactus from the site. However we’ve not changed the prices of the grade B or grade C cactus.    You can get the five, nine and eighteen pound lots of edible cactus at http://www.rivenrock.com/ediblecactus.htm      The larger lots of thirty five and forty five pounds can be seen at http://www.rivenrock.com/bulknopal.htm        If you have a  specific need for a particular maturity, you can always e-mail us, we’ll try to accommodate as well as we can depending on what the plants can give us.      So the purpose of this mail is to let you know that the cactus will likely be available through the winter this year.     During the cold snap this morning, I took several photos of the cactus plants with icicles several inches long hanging from them. I thought it was unusual and interesting enough to place into a free screensaver you can see at http://www.rivenrock.com/screensavers.htm             Above are two photos from the free screensaver at www.rivenrock.com/cactusiceart.exe   ============================= Thank you ============================= Our blog….http://www.nopalcactusblog.com/ . =============================