October Update
October was a productive month at Radius — we opened Thanksgiving pre-orders, construction started in earnest, and we visited two regenerative farms. We’re still on track to open around Christmas, and will keep folks updated on our schedule. Read on to learn more about October progress 🎉
Thanksgiving Pre-Orders
Support a local food system by pre-ordering your Thanksgiving essentials from Radius. We have local pasture-raised turkeys from Richardson Farms and Behind the Oaks, and scratch-made pies from Texas French Bread, Baked from Scratch ATX, and Pie Jacked.
The last day to order will be November 21st, and pick-ups are at Radius at 1912 E 7th St from Saturday, Nov 23rd to Wednesday, Nov 27th. We have limited turkeys remaining; order soon to reserve a pasture-raised centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table.
The reason we have limited turkeys this year is because a bobcat killed most of the smaller turkeys from Richardson Farms last weekend. This is a rough emotional and financial hit for the Richardson family, and we are doing what we can to support them. Farmers deal with tragedies like this every season, whether it’s livestock lost to predators, produce shocked by an early freeze, or prolonged drought. Especially in Central Texas, farming and ranching is not easy.
For better and worse, large grocery stores with global supply chains shield customers from local disruptions due to weather, predators, or just a bad crop. Limited strawberries from California this season? No worries, buy more from Mexico. Worried about losing turkeys to predators? Raise them in a warehouse instead of on pasture. These decisions lead to a more secure food system, but they disconnect consumers from the repercussions of their local ecosystem.
At Radius we can’t (or won’t) buy turkeys from Arkansas, broccoli from California, or blueberries from Chile if our local farmers have disruptions. This means as Central Texas consumers, we will feel the pain of drought along with local farmers. We will feel the pain of predation. All to a lesser extent of course than farmers stewarding their land and animals every day, but this connection between consumer and the local ecosystem is important — even if it is painful at times.
Specifically for the bobcat tragedy at Richardson Farms, it means we will have fewer than expected 14 - 18lb turkeys (still enough to fulfill already placed orders), and that the wonderful Platt family from Behind the Oaks stepped in to sell turkeys to Radius at the last minute (usually orders are placed 6 months in advance). If you can’t get the perfect sized turkey for Thanksgiving this year, it’s because of a bobcat. You could buy an ideal turkey size from Whole Foods instead, but if you do that you won’t have a bobcat story to tell your guests when explaining why you ended up with a 24lb bird. Buy local; the stories are better.
Construction
We finished demolition in September and officially kicked off construction in October — framing is up, HVAC is installed, electrical is making progress, and plumbing is nearly done too. Here's a video walkthrough:
These mounds of dirt and exposed walls will transform into a beautiful and welcoming space in just a few months. Construction is so cool. As a reminder of what we are building towards, here are architectural renderings:
Renderings from Michael Hsu Office of Architecture
It has been a relatively smooth construction process so far (demolition and remediation, not so much — read our August update for that story). Right now the forecast still has us opening around Christmas. We will do winter holiday pre-order and pick-up similar to the process for Thanksgiving.
Sourcing
The most energizing aspect of building Radius is visiting local farmers. In October we visited two regenerative farms — Elder Hill Farms in Driftwood and Origin Ranch in Dripping Springs.
Elder Hill Farms is a regenerative family farm run by Ben and Meghan Roberts with their four children. They raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, sheep, pigs, and cattle. The Roberts family is also the driving force behind the Driftwood Farmers Cooperative, matching local landowners who have underutilized land with farmers who can graze it with their animals. Local businesses are involved too like Vista Brewing who give their spent grains for compost. The Roberts family are community builders with a big vision, and we can’t wait to see their farm and the co-op continue to thrive. We hope to offer their ducks to Radius customers for Christmas pre-orders.
Scenes from Elder Hill Farms
Origin Ranch is led by Jared Holmes, probably the most knowledgeable person we’ve encountered about the Hill Country landscape. Walk in a field with him, and you’ll learn more about grass than you ever imagined. At Origin Ranch, Jared uses regenerative practices to raise sheep and chickens as purely as possible. We are very excited to collaborate with Jared on projects like a zero external input broiler chicken.
In addition to farm visits, we’ve been hard at work selecting the ~750 non-perishable products and ~750 perishable products that will fill our shelves. Last month we finalized the top-down planogram that lays out where product categories will go on the floor plan, and this month we have been putting individual products on specific shelves. It’s basically one giant visual puzzle to make sure only the best products make it on our compact floor plan. Here are some products we selected recently that we are particularly excited about:
- Mill-King Milk and Dairy. Third generation dairy farmers outside of Waco, TX producing low-temp pasteurized, non-homogenized, and delicious milk. Low-temp pasteurization and non-homogenization maintains the structural integrity of the milk and improves digestibility. The Mill-King herd of Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Jersey cows spend their days on pasture eating grass and grass-based supplements only if necessary. The cows never consume grain like corn, soy or cotton seed. The Mill-King chocolate milk is legendary.
- Texas French Bread. Family bakery producing breads, pastries, and desserts in Austin since 1981. They make everything from scratch using 100% organic grains from Barton Springs Mill and Central Milling with no preservatives. We are very excited to offer fresh baguettes, ciabatta, buns, coffee cake, muffins, cookies, and more from Texas French Bread each day!
- Organico Bello Canned Tomatoes. Canned tomatoes might not be as exciting as local grass-fed milk and fresh baked bread made with heirloom flour. But we scrutinize the ingredients of every item on our shelves. We specifically want canned tomatoes without any citric acid to stay true to our sourcing philosophy — “when deciding between two options of the same product, we choose the simpler one”. Citric acid doesn’t sound so bad — just lemon juice right? But today 99% of citric acid is industrially produced with fermentation. Black mold converts sugars, usually from corn, into citric acid. The citric acid is then extracted from the culture by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) to form calcium citrate, which is filtered out and treated with sulfuric acid to release citric acid. Finally, it is purified, crystallized, and dried for commercial use. Delicious! We’ll stick with just tomatoes please.
That's all for October — see you for the next update after Thanksgiving 🦃 🥧
