2. Twice as many bicycles are sold each year in the US than cars.

3. The average American household spends over $8,000/year on owning and driving their cars- more than they spend on food.

4. The average commuter cyclist has just one accident every 8.7 years.

5. For every one mile pedaled rather than driven, about 1 pound of CO2 is saved

…Now go impress your friends with your newfound bike knowledge (just make sure they aren’t Soupetarians, or they might not be so impressed).

Stats provided by:
Bikes Belong and peopleforbikes.org.

AHHHHH WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!

This has been a dream of ours since we started this soupy venture in July, and we are grateful to each of our customers and all those who’ve helped along the way: we owe this success to you. Of course, this is beginning of a longer journey – and one that we’re happy to be on. We’re hiring our first Bicycle Delivery Souper Hero soon to help us with the transition beyond 100 weekly deliveries (those interested can email jed@soupcycle.com) and ramping up for when Soup Season is in full-effect.

Check back soon for more info on how the transition goes. Next blog post and puzzle of the week: how to deliver soup for eight hours in a torrential downpour and still be smiling at the end of the day.

We got great feedback on the breads, which we get from Little T’s American Bakery on SE 26th and Division. I agree- their bread is wonderful. It’s got a terrificly fresh and crunchy crust with a soft inside. I’m never sad when we have extra bread left over after deliveries are done- more bread for me! By the way, when you go to Little T’s you’ve GOT to try their chocolate croissant!

The salad dressing received AMAZING voter results, with 100% of respondents saying they will buy more next time to bathe in.

Oh- and thanks to the lovely individual who wrote: “I love your business! The soup is delicious, the service is friendly, and I love that you deliver by bike!” …You’re making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

New customers is soooo good- it means we get to buy a new bike trailer from Blue Sky Cycle Carts and can start thinking about hiring our first soupy helpers to cycle soup and cut vegetables alongside of us till the wee hours of the morning. And boy do we cut some vegetables! If you’ve ever worked in a food company you know how long it takes to prepare high-quality foods from scratch.

In other news I got to go to Gathering Together Farm in Philomath, Oregon last week to pick up our wonderful vegetables! We bought some carrots from them that were thicker than my forearm. Next time I’m bringing my camera so you’ll believe me.

Lowest low so far: finding our soup fridge unplugged in the morning of week 4, calling all our customers to give them the sad news, remaking all our soups and delivering them a day late. Ouch.

Highest highs: getting customer emails telling us how they love the soup and that “the salad dressing is so good it’s like crack-cocaine!” (no joke!).

The short answer is that we’re already making your soup by the time you read your newsletter (based on what you ordered before Friday). Mondays are our big cooking days, and we start chopping fresh veggies early in the morning.

We make ya’ll order in advance to cut back on environmental and financial waste. By ordering early, you let us know how much of each of our ingredients we need to buy. That means we don’t spend our money buying veggies that aren’t turned into soup. Advanced ordering also means all the meats and veggies we purchase get turned into food, and very little (just the scraps) get composted. When order changes are made after Fridays that means we have extra soup that we can’t sell and extra ingredients that go to waste.

In the end, ordering before Friday makes a big difference for a small business. Thanks for helping out.