I have a half acre and do a 18 week share for $400. I will do 15 shares this season.
I start with $18-20 worth of produce per week in June and go up to $30-35 in the harvest time. I do not judge by size but value of the produce. It is sometimes a full cooler and a full half bushel basket per week.

There is no way to guarantee success and do you want 50 people pissed at you? I started with 5 people and one market in my 3rd year of growing for money and mid season added a 6th person. I did 10-11 last year and now 15 this season with one market still most of the time. To take some pressure off, I have some pay as you go shares that could be dropped if it gets to be a bad year.

Leaves take a while to compost. Horse manure should be composted a year before using (and ask if the hay, straw they feed and use for bedding was grown without herbicides - so many grass/grain growers are using some really nasty *persistent* browd-leaf herbicides - will pass right through into manure - and of course in bedding - you don't want to kill your veggies!).

I wouldn't think of offering CSAs until I had a couple years of successful market growing under my belt. I've grown successfully for family (with excess to give extended family and neighbors, and to can) but last year was my first year in business and the weather didn't cooperate, yield was way less than I've had in the past, and this year looks to be the same (dry, not wet). Don't want to start off with *anybody* mad at me, bad word-of-mouth will shut you down before you even get started!

My gut tells me that you are biting off a lot with 50 shares on more than one front.

With row cropping (which is what you will be doing with tractors) I don't think you will have enough land. More intensive planting will be required. Which is more labor intensive.

Have you ever practiced successive planting for a season? Planting lettuce every week? Bunching onions every week? Have you previously grown all the vegetables you plan on including in a share already?

Harvest days will be very very labor intensive for 50 shares.

Do you have your infrastructure in place? Germination/seed starting area and lights, pick up area, cooler space, bags/boxes, picking containers, wash station, etc.

Have you actually planned what will go into each share week by week? What constitutes a weeks worth of each vegetable for a share? Do you have a planting schedule, seed order, and row requirement for planting? Have you explored the software/databases that could help you plan this?

What I suspect is that you will be devoting too much time trying to make 50 shares work and will be neglecting marketing, website development, a newsletter, and community outreach.

As others with much more experience have said, it is important to your future to not have a bunch of pissed off customers in your start up years. Much better to start small and grow slowly.

But there is something to be said for just going for it. I guarantee long days and a very sore back, but it could work. Just be flexible and modify your plans as you go. And don't be afraid to ask for help.

If you do get 50 members (CSA's are not always easy to sell) i would strongly suggest doing 3 harvests days. i have done a harvest for 30 members and it takes me 2 days to get it all done (and I am a fast harvester) plus clean and weigh/bunch/bag the stuff for making into shares 9and it will take about 3 hours just to do what you have to do after you wash the produce to turn it all into a bunch of boxes of food ready for pick up. if you plan on delivery add another 2 to 4 hours to your day.

Maybe I came off as a total newbie from my post---not to say that I'm experienced though.

I grew 6 shares on around 3,000 sq ft last Fall and this year I have 12 shares on a third of an acre plus I'm adding another 6 for a short Summer vegetable share.

I spent last year and this year working on succession planting and I believe I have a pretty good calander worked out. I have done a whole lot of research online, read books, and attended a new farmer's workshop and believe I have some good systems in place.

I am not doing straight row cropping. Instead I'm growing on 30"-wide raised beds. So for carrots and lettuce I can get 3 rows per bed and two rows of bush beans and beets. I am using a system similar to what Eliot Coleman recommends.
The leaves are being used as mulch and the horse manure is being aged the recommended 180 days. I am also using some purchased compost, but the cost is really high. Soil testing is guiding my amending and fertilizing, although I have grown in this soil for the last 7 years.

I have some infrastructure holes, but also a foundation. As far as growing trasplants, the Fall season is easier to manage. After getting seeds germinated inside, I put them outside in low tunnels covered with shade cloth. Direct seeded items like beans are planted near drip tape to aid in germination. Carrots, of course, require special attention.

I have designs for a washing station which I plan to modify a bit.
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/cool_tools/wash_stations1

Working out an efficient system for getting shares ready is crucial. Thanks Lucy, three harvest days seems like the way to go. Along with a helper, we spend between 1.5-2 hrs harvesting and preparing 7 shares. We pack the shares straight into iced coolers early in the morning and leave them in the shade until they are picked up(by next Spring I want to build a cool-bot cooler). So 15-20 shares would take a few hours, 3 days a week.

Fortunately we don't have to deliver, because we are in the city. I could not afford to deliver for sure.

Marketing has not been a problem so far. Again we are in the city and have had plenty of demand. As long as I keep producing the product I am now, I believe people will come back next year and recommend me to others. My biggest fear is not being able to deliver what I promise. And the biggest hurdle I see is labor. I plan on making the main job of the work share folks harvesting and getting shares ready as well as transplanting into the field. University of Texas at Dallas is close by and we have plenty of independent garden stores in the area. I envision environmentally-conscious or vegetarian college students doing workshares, with maybe 2 friends working for and spliting one share. I notice that most CSA's use interns, work shares or volunteers for much of their labor.

For weed control on the large crops I may use some plastic mulch---although for the time involed I could just lay hay or leaves.

Again, I know this will be a challenge, but I think it can be done. 50 shares is the lowest number I can go. Before finding out I was getting laid off, I had planned to work up to around 20 shares this Fall---a tall order with a full-time job. Instead of getting another job and postponing what I really want to do, I have decided to go for it. I know the job is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding at times. Then again, working for someone in an office is much worse in my mind.

I am really lucky to have so much in place to do this in the first place.

Could you recommend or share farm planning software? My wife is doing the books with Quicken.

Thanks,

Pete

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Farmer-Pete-Red-Wheelbarrow-Farm/198942070148079

Pete it is awesome you are at this crossroads and ready to go for it. I recommend doing some of the shares as pay as you go like my $100/120 shares. That will give you leeway and less stress. My most stressed ever was my first CSA year when I didn't have the produce amounts from the year before and I was a wreck. It is all about keeping the customers you know.

Could you please explain what a CSA is? Those of us not familiar with market gardening have no idea what some of those abbreviations stand for. Thanks. Northwoodswis

Here is how we explain it on our farm's website:

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA programs are designed to build a relationship between the farmer and the community. A CSA gives its members the opportunity to have direct access to high quality, fresh seasonal produce (or meat & eggs) grown by a local farmer.

When you become a member of Chimney Creek CSA you are purchasing a “share” of a season’s worth of food from us. We commit to raising your food with sustainable and environmentally responsible practices. You also know that your food is grown locally, handled minimally, and not shipped from across the country or even across the world!

CSA members pay for an entire season of food upfront. This early bulk payment enables your farmer to plan for the season, purchase new seed, make equipment repairs, order chicks, buy feed, and more. Members also share with the farmer some of the risks and benefits that come with farming. A growing season can bring an abundance of food, but on occasion it can have less than ideal conditions (hail, insects, accidents etc.) that may affect some crops & animals.

Visit our website below for more information

Here is a link that might be useful: Chimney Creek Farm

Personally, I would double what you are doing, maybe 3x. I found that by doing that, even with only market gardening, I had enough time to change the way I had to garden. The more you grow, there will be some changes that you will need to do. These changes can be very simple, and others are major.

I did a CSA for 1 year and had 3 members. I had trouble getting that many. This was about 10 years ago and CSA wasn't quite what people wanted. I lived near a good sized city, so the population was there.

Not knowing what the weather will hand you each year, is very difficult for farmers. Hopefully you will get members that are familiar with CSAs uncertainties. New to CSA members may not be too forgiving if it happens to be a bad year for you.

This is just my opinions and thoughts.

Marla

One thing I noticed both during our short csa year and since just growing produce for market was trying to figure shares per acre depends on how many different types of product you are growing. With the plants that produce several pounds of produce such as tomatoes and peppers you need less acres, but the plants like carrots and turnips take more acres. So my thought would be a large table like Territorial Seed has that tells how many plants per acre to start figuring how many acres needed. Then decide how many shares you can produce off those acres.

This might not read right but a little thought will tell you what I mean.
James

I have seen some really good information in Mother Earth News regarding market growing and CSAs. I believe they also have a program for planning your gardens and crops that is publicized as easy to use. I think Gardener's Supply Company does as well. I am interested to hear how it is going now. How did the first season go? What ended up being the biggest challenges? What was easier than you anticipated? Have you continued with the CSA now?

Just one thought I didn't see in other comments: plants don't grow quite as fast in the fall as in the summer season. It's pretty easy to plan for harvest on the same schedule as your spring planting and not realize that it may take an extra couple of weeks in the fall; a detail that becomes important when planning for csa harvest.