07/15/2026
Maybe this is boring data to some people, but we are incredibly proud to show how much our fulfillment times have improved.
Those who have been with us since the beginning, when we were operating out of a tiny apartment and raising money through a T-shirt campaign, know how difficult it has sometimes been to keep up with constantly growing demand.
This past winter, we were finally able to bring on a wonderful team. We had to hire and train them right in the middle of our busiest season, but they have since become highly skilled at fulfilling orders quickly and accurately.
The numbers in this chart represent the median number of days between an order being placed and being fulfilled.
During peak season, many of you probably remember the large red banner on our website stating that fulfillment could take 7 to 14 days. Even during that period, our monthly median generally remained within that stated window. However, fulfillment times like that have never been our goal.
By May, we were making major changes to our training and fulfillment process. Some orders became backed up during that transition, and we had to take the time to teach our team how to identify bottlenecks, prioritize work, and keep orders moving without sacrificing accuracy.
The results were almost immediate.
Our median fulfillment time dropped to zero days in June and has remained there through July. Our current typical fulfillment time is approximately 14 to 17 hours, even though many orders are placed in the evening after the post office has closed. Currently this week, it is about 9 hours.
Orders placed during the workday are sometimes being fulfilled in as little as 30 to 45 minutes.
In fact, we recently had two customers complain that their orders were taking too long to arrive after being placed around the Independence Day holiday.
One customer placed an order on July 3, after the post office had ended regular service for the holiday weekend. When we reviewed the order, we found that our team had fulfilled and prepared it for shipment within approximately 45 minutes.
Another customer placed an order during the same period and said the delay was a sign of a failing business and that we should feel bad about ourselves. When we reviewed that order, we found that it had been fulfilled within approximately 30 minutes of being placed.
Both orders arrived within two to three business days.
We understand that customers are eager to receive their seeds, but fulfillment time and carrier transit time are not the same thing. Once a package has been fulfilled and handed over to USPS, holiday closures, transportation schedules, and postal backlogs are outside our control. In both of these cases, our team completed its work within less than an hour, and the packages still arrived within a normal delivery window.
Summer has traditionally been our slowest time of year, but that was not always caused by a lack of customer demand. In the past, our limited team and production capacity made it difficult to replenish inventory and return products to stock quickly. Customers cannot order products that are unavailable.
We have improved greatly in that area. With more products remaining in stock, improvements to our website, and stronger systems behind the scenes, our current June and July order volume is matching and even surpassing what we experienced during our January and February peak season.
Despite handling peak-season levels of orders during what has traditionally been our slowest time of year, we are fulfilling orders faster than ever. Our median fulfillment time has dropped from 12 days in February and 13 days in May to zero days in both June and July.
We are already preparing for our next peak season. Training continues, our fulfillment systems continue to improve, and we are planning ahead for the increased demand.
We will not promise that extended lead times will never happen again. Political changes, disasters, sudden growing trends, and unexpected surges in demand have repeatedly overwhelmed even the largest seed companies.
Still, where we are today looks incredibly promising.
We started in a tiny apartment. Now we have a trained team fulfilling some orders within minutes, even as our order volume continues to grow.
Soon, we will be back on the land ourselves, growing along with you all. Something we would not have ever been able to sustainably do if it wasn't for you all, and now our team.
And we are only getting started.
