Look at the beautiful cucumbers above. When purchased from a typical retailer "cucumbers" are all they will ever be, a commodity sold by the ton and distributed by the tractor trailer load.

But these cucumbers were not found at a typical grocery store. These cucumbers were grown by Jennifer Gillette and her husband Tom at Bird's Nest Nursery and Garden. They are better than the commodity cucumbers sold by the ton and distributed by the tractor trailer load.

Don't take my word for it. Ask Jennifer how these cucumbers came to be attractively displayed on a bright August morning at the Dane County Farmers' Market, in Madison, WI.

Jennifer will tell you her story. You'll learn of a life's dream driven by an entrepreneurial spirit that some say is gone in this country. You'll hear of her loyal customers who return to Jennifer year after year to purchase her cucumbers, flowers, peppers, and more.

Ask her why those customers continue to return. Aside from the obvious quality of her products, Jennifer speaks of the community she belongs to.

In a buy fresh and local environment consumers directly share and experience the effect of their commerce on individual producers. When producers do well, their customers feel that they are a part of the reason for that success. This is true in any business (just ask Steve Jobs or one of his customers). It’s a much more rewarding feeling when the customer is on a first-name basis with the farmer, grocer, chef or other retailer when celebrating that success.

In all aspects of the buy fresh and local environment individuals experience a more direct cause and effect influence than with large corporations, whose most intimate customer is a market segment.

• We believe the buy fresh and local environment to be an evolving transaction model that is moving to a prominent and vigorous position in our daily lives, our commerce, and our love of what is good and rewarding in our community.
  
• We believe the buy fresh and local environment builds and maintains strong local communities by strengthening the bond between its members in a larger society that has seen cohesion between neighbors lost in the last 100 years or so.
• We believe the buy fresh and local environment builds respect for our planet while improving its health. It does so by rewarding those who farm sustainably, who eat locally produced products, and those who learn to balance what they think they need to eat with what is healthful and prudent to eat in regard to environmental impact.
• We believe the buy fresh and local environment offers better tasting and more highly nutritious food while protecting and improving our planet's bio-diversity.
• We believe the buy fresh and local environment offers safer food, and a safer food handling system.

At Lubing Creative, LLC we pledge to serve, honor, and move forward buy fresh and local participating businesses by using the best of our skills and those of our business partners.

William C. (Bill) Lubing