Re: Salt Creek Farm CSA Turnover

Spring Toms (spring@ecst.csuchico.edu)
Thu, 16 May 1996 11:11:35 -0700 (PDT)

I run R farm in Chico, CA. I have around 50 active subscribers. I very
much like the idea of a public domain "crop sheet book" with several easy
recepies. I am pretty much a one person operation with some part time
seasonal help for one person, and getting out newsletters has been one of
my biggest hurdles, at least with any regularity. Some kind of cook book
for csa's would be a great help.

I know of some copy shops that would be
willing to keep the master and run off pages for customers as they need or
want them. This would make things even simpler for me.

I have a sign-in sheet at the pick-up sites and every week I try to have a
simple survey question they can answer to provide me with feedback.

I set up the harvest boxes and subscribers go down the list and fill their
own bags and boxes. One week I asked them if they would prefer I make up
individual boxes. It was almost unanimously "NO!" They prefered filling
their own. That surprised me. Now I need to go back and ask they why!

RE:Giving subscribers too much. I am not sure yet but I question the
assumption that you can. There were weeks when subscribers were taking
home 35-45 lbs of produce (including melons and sweetcorn, etc.) They were
making 2 to 4 trips to their vehicle to get it all. I have single women to
larger families that split a share. Some use it all themselves, others
take the excess to work to give away, others give the excess to friends
and neighbors, some just pick out as much as they think they can use and
leave the rest at the pick-up site. I try to emphasize that the "PRICE" is
based on what a single vegetarian would eat. R farm as a csa is only one
year old, so I'm not sure about this yet - it just seems there may finally
be a danger in believing to strongly that you are giving subscribers "too
much." It might be safer to assume you are going to be giving them more
than what they paid for when possible.

A PROBLEM: This year everyone's onions are going to seed. 80% plus are
flowering. Anybody got any ideas on how to salvage them?

Richard