Subject: Re: Salt Creek Farm CSA Turnover

From: William Blake <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 10:05:57 -0700 (PDT)

On Mon, 13 May 1996, Douglas Hendrickson wrote:

> 
> I too am worried about the drop outs and need to address what I believe to be 
> "the guilt complex"
> 
> I think there are a fair number of good intentioned folks who sign on only to 
> find themselves swamped with the quantity and diversity of food. We are probably y
> giving subscribers too much food. What quantities have worked well as an 
> average for other CSAs? Our shares are large, 10 -20 lbs per delivery. Half
> shares are also and option and appear to be growing. 

I think that "guilt complex" is very real.  From what I've seen, 
vegetable farmers eat a lot more fresh produce than other people.  
Members may find themselves swamped, and then they start contributing to 
the landfills when they had intended to help the environment.  Offering a 
half-share is a good option.

BTW, depending on the season, 10-20 pounds is probably on the large side 
of normal.

> 
> This season we are going to try to allow folks who don't like a particular
> vegie to replace it something else from a couple of extra share boxes at the 
> drop site. If you don't like mizuna, why take it? We also are going to let
> subscribers come out to the farm to customize their shares. We are making an 
> effort with our newsletter to try to educate folks about what to do with the 
> strange stuff etc. This will probably help to an extent but certainly wont 
> solve the drop out problem. Ideas?
> 

Giving people a chance to choose is great, although you may want to set 
limits 
as to how much customizing you're willing to do.  Do you have a "sharing" 
box/table at your drop-off, a place where people can leave what they 
don't want for someone else to take?

As others have said, providing recipes, especially easy recipes, helps 
members over their "vegetable shock."

Good luck filling out the membership!

Bill Blake

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From: "Peter D. Miller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 12:44:46 -0500 (CDT)

> members over their "vegetable shock."

Hi-I'm Peter Miller from Prairieland CSA in Champaign, IL.  Our farmer is
paying with vegetables and share discounts to prepare "crop sheets"  for
all the different things that (we hope) will be harvested this year.  The
sheets will contain information about the crop (history, nutrition info.,
etc.) as well as a few recipes.  So by the end of the season, we'll have
48 of these sheets, ready to go for next year.  I imagine that we'll also
post the sheets on the web so that people elsewhere can use them and
improve on them. 

Has anyone else already done something like this?  If so, it would 
certainly be helpful to get a look at them (In fact, if they already 
exist, then we might be able to focus our efforts on updating them and 
making them available to other groups via the web!)

Good luck to everyone!
Peter

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From: [email-masked] (Douglas Hendrickson)
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 23:45:26 -0700

Salt Creek Farm cultivates three or so acres for the communities of Port Angeles
Sequim, and Joyce WA. Last season we reached our goal of 30 subscribers. 
However, this season we have only 15 or so signed on. Only 5 or so from last
season have re-subscribed to date but I expect an additional 10 by the first
delivery. 

I would like to know what other CSAs are doing in the way of outreach. What
works well and what doesn't. Have any of you approached the religious 
communities for support and have they responded? What kind of effort have you made to 
made to reach out to the poor? 

I am sorry if these questions are redundant. I just discovered the network a 
few days ago.

My e-mail address is [email-masked]

Doug

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From: Spring Toms <[email-masked]>
Date: 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

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 14:13:29 CDT

> for csa's would be a great help.

I've seen at least two very nice CSA cookbooks, the problem is expense or 
copyright. One wild idea might be for many CSA's to send what they've 
done to one person or CSA, have them make a "best of" and send out one 
copy and permission to copy to those CSAs, and others for a one time fee. 
Something that could be customized to your bioregion would be great, 
maybe include a disk with the computer settings to include your own stuff 
seamlessly... You can get those special recipe sized binders, too.
> simple survey question they can answer to provide me with feedback.
I'm curious what kind of questions give you the most useful information?
Do you prefer your xxx younger or larger?, that kind of thing?

> than what they paid for when possible.

We really emphasized in our first year that they are helping rebuild a 
depleted knowledge base in our area. People can be overwhelmed with 
radishes and turnips, but can almost never get enough peas, carrots and 
tomatoes. Our first season was compressed by weather toward the mid season, 
but over time we will smooth that bulge out, stretch the season both ways, 
and provide greater variety throughout. If both grower and member have a 
view of this goal, they can work together to reach it. 
> Richard

On a totally different track, does anyone offer educational opportunities 
outside the usual apprenticeship or grade school visits? One of our 
college students wants to get Kellogg funds for a project linking our 
land grant, Iowa State, the community colleges and CSA's (and maybe those 
students working with younger ages too). If anyone has ideas, please let 
me know; thanks!

---
Jeff Hall	
[email-masked]