Organic Farmer Network: Network Discussion Summary

Topic: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

By late March Charlie’s 100 CSA memberships were all sold and he had a waiting list of 10.  He noted the temptation to take the extra memberships, but is cautious to take on the extra work.  He says, “…as I get older, I am getting more respectful of my limits.”

Cathy notes that early spring makes the CSA model look good because she has lots of money invested already in labor and other farm expenses, but she isn’t bring in much money yet, as her crops are just beginning to yield. 

Ellen says, “I swear that's one of the best reasons we keep doing CSA - it means $40,000 in the bank coming in Feb 15 until May 1st. and it sure gets spent quick!!!”

Charlie shows another advantage to CSAs:  “Some of my lettuce in the field took a beating from yesterday's hail, but I believe I will still be able to market it to my CSA by communicating to them what happened to it.” And later, after the excessive rains continued another month, “Our CSA subscribers are helping us get through this time by expressing appreciation for their weekly bags knowing that the [wet]weather is challenging. I have been preparing them to expect the summer crops to be much later than last year. I may have to start preparing them for the absence of some crops.”

By fall, Ken was considering starting a CSA and asked the CSA farmers in the network, including project leader Jean Mills, for information on starting and running a CSA.

Jean replies:  “To learn how our CSA works, go to www.tuscaloosacsa.com. I do want to mention a couple of things you won't learn from the website:

1. The website is a great marketing tool. For 12 years we sold shares mostly by word of mouth. We put brochures in the health food and related stores, but mostly people didn't join unless they knew us or someone already in the CSA. The website went up in January 2003. We've been contacted by at least a dozen folks that were moving to Tuscaloosa and found us on the web before they even got here. I think to date we've gotten membership fees from at least 10 of these without ever meeting them. And technically, our CSA membership for 2003 has been closed since February! (you'll notice we haven't even started advertising the 2004 season yet).

I think the brochure was too little space to give people enough info to make them feel comfortable sending a check to a complete stranger with just the hope that they would eventually get produce. The website gives us the ability to give them a real feel for the CSA, the farm and us.

2. We think our distribution system is a key to our success. It really does help folks feel more connected and invested in the farm and us. And of course it's a huge help to us. And it's so much more fun. I won't lie, it takes skill and patience to get it set up. But we only have to do it once a year. After that, all these nice people show up each harvest day to help us get the produce ready for distribution, then they deliver it for us. Occasionally someone forgets. We keep all the delivery schedules and contact info so we know who to call when produce doesn't get picked up at the scheduled time. And sometimes we have to fill in for someone, but these minor issues are so much easier and less time consuming that either having 100+ families come to the farm each week or us delivering to 100+ households every week.”

Ellen replies: “We've done a CSA for 3 years now, and have lots to say about it. My main question for you Ken, is why you want to start one? Sounds like your presence at the markets is highly appreciated already, and maybe you're selling out as it is? Here's the quick and dirty short answer for me/us.

Pro's:
The CSA is great for early money - they pay in March when you need cash to get the season started.
It doesn't matter whether it rains on pick-up day - they come no matter what and it's already paid for!! unlike a rainy Saturday at market that means half the usual total.
Community service: chance to influence peoples choices by weekly newsletter brainwashing device. Depending on how you pack the bags and arrange pick-ups also a chance for people to learn more about you and your farm.

Cons:
There's a weightiness to the promise you've made to provide for these people. They paid, so they come first, and the market comes second. It's just not as carefree as packing a market load where you've got what you managed to pick, pack and load and they can take it or leave it.
You need to have diversity of vegetables in QUANTITY. I think of myself as a diversified grower, but wait until you need to fill 175 bags with lots of different things!! Just to give our bags 2 celery for the season is already one third of my whole planting! 175 fennel even once is a big planting.....
Distribution, the bagging, the newsletter, and the bookkeeping are all time users that would be new to you. Do you like these things or would they seem burdensome? That's my short course on CSA for this morning.”

Tim replies:  “my CSA operates 52 weeks of the year with me deciding all aspects of distribution, harvesting and when I will be taking time off for vacation with the family. I usually always include 8 different crops in my grocery bag full of veggies. With up to 17 different crops at peak times. For the majority of the customers they have no say in what they get. Obviously it is in my best interest to keep them interested, happy and excited in what will appear the following week. All crops are washed and bagged and delivered to their home or office -- Mainly 2 different delivery days based on geographical routes.

For one delivery day I stop at the feed store, library (for my reading and 1 CSA), Garden store(1 CSA and to buy supplies) and the bank. This route is done in a little over 2hours with all the stops. The other route is drop offs, running trail 2-5 miles, grocery store (wholesale and personel). Over the years which I think back my deliveries have always been multi tasks business and pleasure. I am always looking for new customers who live along the roads that I travel on those 2 routes.

Prices are from $10 -15 per weekly delivery, no other method of payment. If they don't want a delivery that week let me know. I love doing the CSA because you meet the customer and build up that farmer trust between each other. They are less finicky than the Farmers Market customers. You must sell them on the concept of eating in season.”

Rosie replies: “We have been operating our CSA since 1996. A local couple who was following the CSA movement went looking for a local farmer to offer their products via a local CSA. After searching and asking a number of people many of them told them to ask us. They came to our farm and we talked about the concept and they informed me that they had a number of people interested in signing up. They would form a core group, get a volunteer treasurer, write a newsletter and arrange any on-farm activities. We agreed that we would both try out the concept for a season and evaluate the results at the end of the season to see if we were both interested in continuing with the relationship. The first year we started with about 30 families. I simply did less wholesale and more retail and did not take on more growing. Already, I was growing a mix of veggies for direct market so I did not have to change much in terms of my growing practices. I did put up nursery greenhouses to have cherry tomatoes and basil during our winter season for more variety. We developed a single page write up to recruit families. Later, this turned into a full brochure. We allow people to rate their vegetables and I customize bags each week according to their likes and dislikes. We offer half and full shares for 250. and 450./year. Our season is approximately 32 weeks. We currently have 78 members with about equal half and full shares. We offer two pick up days per week and they can either pick up at the farm or the farmer's market where we sell at the same time. This allows me to more efficiently use my time. I pick twice a week for both the farmer's markets and CSA. I bag all of the CSA orders first and what is left over is sold at the market. Whether the weather is good or bad I always have a good market because a good chunk of my product is sold before it leaves the farm. We offer a flower share as an extra purchase in the spring for 10 weeks for 50.00. We sell approximately 20-25 shares each season. The best thing about the CSA is a sense of security and for markets that are not as well developed, they are a great plus. The disadvantages of a CSA are that you need to go to every market rain or shine because you contracted with your consumer. Our CSA has been successful because we are always dependable, on time and consistent. Others have come and gone because they decide one week that they don't feel like going to a market or they didn't plant enough of this or that. The other disadvantage is that there is more pressure in this type of marketing. You develop a relationship with a set of people and they have certain expectations and you must meet those in a consistent fashion. The hardest time is the first few and last few weeks of the season because it is when you have less variety available. I have improved my ability to plan ahead and have a good amount of diversity each week. Also, even with all the things we grow most people like the good old "American" favorites---lettuce, spinach, broccoli, squash, beans, corn, tomatoes, strawberries and melons. For us some of these are easy and others are hard to grow. The easiest stuff to grow are turnips, radish, kale, collards, arugula, basil, bok choy etc... takes more education to get lots of people desiring them or preferring them each week. One of the best things about our CSA is that we have lots of volunteers and support and we work as a team. My advice is to try to do a core group and get your consumers active so that you or your family member can do more of the growing and less of the organizing.”

Charlie replies:  “We are starting the 14th year of our CSA. It is the major part of our market. This year we have had 115 members, up from 95 in 2002. We started out with about 25 in 1991, and have grown gradually each year. We offer both full and half shares, and find that the demand for half shares outnumbers the fulls by about 2 to 1. Our distribution runs from early May to late October for 24 weeks. For 2004, the cost of a full share is $400 and for a half is $225. We require members to make a deposit of either $100 or $50 when they register, and then to complete payment by May 1. If someone asks to extend their payments beyond that date, we usually accommodate.

For the past several years we have divided the distribution over two days, Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays we deliver about 70 bags to one of our subscriber's homes in Williamsburg then stay there for two hours while members come to get their bags. We ask members to come between 4 and 6. This becomes a nice time to talk each week with many of our customers, strengthening the connection many feel to our farm. We set up a table with ‘extras’ including surplus produce and some items we don't put in all the bags (e.g. okra and flowers). This gives folks an opportunity to customize their bags if they choose, and adds to our income. We have evolved to a system where everyone gets the same things in their bags. This has become more important for us as we have gotten larger. If someone tells us they are allergic to a particular food, we will leave that out and substitute if we are able. The Friday distribution of 45 bags is managed differently since this is for members who live closer to our farm. (Williamsburg is 45 minutes away from the farm, which is why we have chosen to deliver to those members.) On Friday, some subscribers come to the farm to get their bags, while we deliver other bags to a couple of our subscribers' homes for pickup by other members. We include this delivery on our way to a restaurant we sell to. Ideally we would like for more of our members to come to the farm to pick up, but because we are a good distance away from most of them, we find that delivering to other pick up locations helps our market. I mostly enjoy the big delivery on Tuesdays to Williamsburg, for it gets me off the farm and gives me a chance to do other errands.

Every week, I put a letter in the bags which includes news about the farm, how crops are growing, how we are dealing with the weather, and information about what is in the bags. We also include recipes and tips on preparation. Our subscribers love these letters, which are usually hand written by me right after we have finished getting ready by distribution. The downside to doing this is that I've created another expectation. If I fail to get a letter in the bag because of a lack of time or the copier runs out of toner, subscribers will express their disappointment!

At least once each year, we have an "open farm" day for subscribers when all are invited out to tour the gardens and fields and share a potluck supper. These are very popular and lots of fun. We have organized a core group of subscribers to help us with the planning and implementation of this event.

We maintain an open farm policy, meaning that subscribers are welcome to visit the farm at other times to see how their food is grown, and help out with the work if they are so inclined. We have experimented with work shares through the years but do not find much interest in these. Most of our subscribers seem to love our food, but are happy to pay us to do the work.

Because we have been doing this a number of years, we have gotten pretty good at judging what folks like most in their bags and how much they can use in a week. It's important not to overload the members with too much produce, for they get anxious about using it all within the week. We stick mostly with the standard crops, though we are having success with some unusual things like oriental greens and green soybeans (for edamame). The most popular crops are the berries, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, melons, lettuce, beans, cukes and new potatoes.

It is a challenge to grow a large enough volume of a wide diversity of crops to fill 115 bags each week for 24 weeks. This year was particularly challenging because on many of the distribution days the weather was inclement. For the CSA to be successful it is essential for the grower to be very dependable and have those bags ready -- on time. For the first time in years, we did have to cancel a couple distributions this year because of hurricane Isabel, but this was an unusual circumstance in which members shared with us, and they were very understanding. In fact, throughout this year, as the summer weather was consistently bad, our subscribers expressed more gratitude for our efforts and work.

In case you are unfamiliar with it, a very good resource for CSA information is the Robyn Van En Center at Wilson College in PA. Their web site is www.csacenter.org. There is a link there to a CSA at the college which is very interesting.”

Ellen replies again:. “We have just concluded our 3rd year of CSA growing. Basically we created what we wanted, not what we perceived our customers wanted = a good income from mid-week vegetables. We are not shy about buying "organic" produce from our colleagues to keep the bags interesting, especially at the beginning and end of the season when our choices are fewer. We grow NO FRUIT. We have changed the prices and length of season over time. We start now June 1, and end Nov 17 split into two seasons: the "summer share" (june 1 to oct 1) and the "autumn" share (oct 7 to Nov 17). We do this because many customers don't REALLY enjoy the fall crops of greens and sweet potatoes - once tomatoes are done they would rather not be burdened with ever stranger foods....bok choy, turnips, collards, celeriac etc, AND we don't have as many of these crops either, so it works out great. Of our 170 members this year, only 80 signed up for fall shares = perfect. We raised our prices almost 30% this year because we had seen other local CSA share prices and felt we had low-balled previously. They now stand at $22 per week for a regular share, and $32 for a Robust share, plus $2 per week delivery fee if they pick up off the farm. I prefer these terms to full and half shares because they seem less pejorative and because "regular" is for most people, and bigger is for just the few hard-cores. The addition of the delivery fee has made a world of difference in how it feels to take these bags (we pack in paper grocery bags) to the designated pick up locations (a few customers porches/garages). We also offer additions of eggs and cut flowers @ 2.35/dozen and $3.00/bunch. So, how much is really in the bag? We figure full retail price for at least 7 items. We try very hard not to give too much of any one thing, as Charlie said, people hate to not finish eating the bag, it makes them feel guilty and bad. So we keep them lean and mean, and it seems to work. Remember that these people are not like you - they eat out many nights per week, and are mostly not eating a vegetable-based diet, so really watch your quantities. For example an August bag would contain: 3lbs tomatoes ($6.00), 2 bell peppers($1),1.5lbs green beans (3.60), one head garlic (1.00), one bunch basil (2.00), 2 zucchini (1.80), one bunch swiss chard (2.50), 2or3 cucumbers (1.50), 1.5lb of potatoes (3.00). That's all. If they want more they can come see you on Saturday at the market. We have gotten over thinking that the bags need to be the same. They don't know what anyone else got, so that gives us the freedom to use smaller quantities of more kinds of crops. For instance, if I don't have 170 bunches of something, I can just pick 55 of three things, and it's fine. That's a big relief in the spring and fall when things are slow and little tight.

It's important for us that they folks are not getting any kind of "deal", they are merely paying ahead of time to insure their access to the freshest best produce available, and being PC about it. Charge them good.

I was bumming about CSA this season, feeling the weightiness of the promise to provide. At our fall meetings, my partners and I decided to up our CSA to 200 for next season. Why? because we feel the competition at market is getting much stronger, the weather getting weirder, so why not increase the part of our marketing that is competition proof and rain proof. The down side is that you will almost absolutely have less to bring to market on Saturday - you will have saved the small amounts of weird interesting stuff for the shares. That makes me sad sometimes, and makes the market a bit less fun, but hey you got the good money early and it doesn't matter if it rains on Saturday morning anymore - it's all paid for in advance. We're talking $40,000 here, in the bank, by May 1st!

As for distribution, about one third of the people pick up at one of our two farms, the rest we deliver to pick up sites. We reward the house mothers with a $300 credit towards their share, and they deal with late comers, and no-shows etc. We just deliver and go: the down side is that we have almost no contact with these customers, and the up side is that we have almost no contact with these people. I just don't know if I could stand to stand around for 2 hours greeting folks - not farming or being home to make dinner either? We do keep paper contact with our shares by including a bi-weekly newsletter that's pretty big and juicy and fancy, and an In-Your-Bag sheet every week telling them what it is and how to cook it. My partner Hana handles creating all this paper and words, and that's a blessing because I would find it burdensome. We take that opportunity to do a little education (soap-boxing or brain-washing???) about broader topics in agriculture and culture in general. I think most people enjoy receiving it.

We have no core group. I don't know what it would be like to have one. We have created a CSA here that is not very philosophically pure - it's more a marketing tool. We don't pretend that these folks are really sharing the risk of farming - we make sure to fill those bags no matter what. It only makes sense when the CSA is only part of a farm, not it's sole raison d'etre. Therefore we just do what we want, and people buy in or not. We have no working shares - not interested in having dawdling "helpers" in the field, and these people are wicked busy and don't really want to do the work as Charlie says. We have an open house on each farm during the year with attendance of maybe 20-30 families. So far, as most csa's find I think, we have a drop out rate of around 30%. It just doesn't work for lots of families and that's okay. You Ken, live in the land of lots of good growers and may not be able to be so flip about what "they" want. But you have to like it or you'll be resenting them all season long.”

At the end of January, Ken made this announcement: “We launched our CSA 9 days ago, on Sunday evening, with an email announcement, which we sent out to about 75 people in this area. A copy of the announcement is below, with our web address included. If you read about our CSA, you may notice that I freely used ideas, and plagiarized text, from each of you. Thanks for all the help and advice in getting this new project going. Each day's mail since last Wednesday has contained checks and registrations. We have 11 members so far - 9 small shares, 2 large shares and 7 flower shares, about an even split between people we know and don't know. We had intended to cap registrations at 50 this year, but didn't anticipate so many small shares so will go a bit higher if we can. Overall, allowing for continued growth at the Durham market, we plan a 20-25% expansion this season. Guess I better go make out some planting schedules!”