Our sourcing policy is pretty simple really, organic always, grow it ourselves if possible, local where possible, IRISH where possible, next Europe and next further afield, never airfreighted. Simple really.I had to catch myself this week. I found myself in a high energy and high not in the best sense of the word discussion with one of our apple suppliers, I was not happy with the quality of the apples we had been sent.These were gorgeous UK apples, they tasted amazing, and they were juicy and good, but they had some blemishes, Bruna our quality manager was not happy either, it is her job to protect the quality of what you our customers get. But I decided to take a breath and let a little silence enter my frazzled mind.It is a fierce situation to be in, I as a customer was reacting badly to the quality of the produce we had been given, and you our customers may also react in the same way, I don’t know. There is also the possibility that between packing and delivery that these blemishes might transform into mighty blemishes! It can and does happen.What do to? I went back to the supplier, he told me there is a shortage of good quality northern European organic apples, so we could take them or leave them. I must add that we are paying a good price for these apples, we would have the option of course of opting for a more commercial further afield apple of the generic “supermarket” variety such as Royal Gala. But that is not what Green Earth Organics is about, that’s not our policy. What to do then? Be ethical and make the right decision of course I hear you chant. But……You don’t last very long if you have to give 20% of your newly purchased premium apples to our ever so eager and consistently hungry pet pigs and as much as they might really enjoy these lovely apples and probably as a result vote me back in as CEO next year, in short order there might not be anything to be CEO of at all!So, we took a closer look at the apples and decided that maybe the blemishes were not as bad as we thought, we relaxed our stringent quality rules to allow these apples to go to you. Will you be happy or sad, or mad? Well time will tell, I guess.Ultimately you are paying for a premium product and you are entitled as are we to get one. But what does that mean? Obviously it means an apple that we can eat and enjoy. But is it more important that these apples are organic, fresh, taste amazing (Will blow away anything you get in a supermarket) are sustainably grown and are sourced from as close to Ireland as possible or that they look immaculate? Well I will leave you to decide.I find myself though still a little unhappy and nervous about this decision and I hope it is the right one. Either way after next week we will be getting the very first pallets of Irish apples from the one organic apple grower in the country: Richard Galvin. His apples are amazing and are grown in county Waterford, I can’t wait, but again there is no guarantee they will be blemish free. They also will be ungraded so size will be big and small. This is our decision we will buy his apples above all others because basically we believe that is the right thing to do, always.Anyway, you have now had a little glimpse into the inner workings of our quality department and a small idea of the kind of dilemmas we wrestle with week in week out!We hope you guys are all doing well are keeping safe and are enjoying your deliveries. Thank you so much for your support it means a lot!Kenneth