Boulder, I think that the more CSA shares you sell also will increase your farm,s popularity so much by the shear word of mouth, that your farm store business will increase big time. This IMHO should leave you completely independent of farm markets. Mark

Lucy, is that $60 for the season, or weekly price? I've
seen shares like that go for over $500 for season.

Marla

Lucy,
Like the farm pickup only theory. I had one person choose to not sign up in 2012 because she doesn't want to drive to the farm due to the construction out front this season (which is over) and I felt guilty not having an option for her. I thought about how to head that direction but in doing everything myself and working part time there is no way to have a drop off 10 miles away. If my dad were in better health he would have loved to do deliveries for me.,,, breath,,, I think the farms that deliver right to people are doing a disservice. And man some people sure don't appreciate what they get when they live a few blocks from me and leave their share here for 2 days! breath...

Anyway, Why do you split the main season the way you do? right in the middle of summer.

We don't do farm pick up. We live 3.5 miles off the main road on a dirt road. If it is muddy and you don't have 4-wheel drive, we would be getting calls to pull my customers out!

I do deliver to a central pick up point. I still do this sometimes, it depends on my orders. Sometimes I drop off at their home. I soon figured out that about 8 of my main customers lived about 8-10 blocks apart. It was faster for me to drop off at their house than to sit for 30 minutes to an hour at a central drop off location.

I deliver to the next big town to a central location. My daughter has speech therapy there. Our online market kind of started and is maintained to help pay for the gas to drive the 40 minutes one way, twice a week. Since we are going, orders or not, we might as well try to make some money too! I deliver to this town to the farmers market too, when we are selling there.

Jay

Marla, that is $60 per pick up and would be $30 a week if we did weekly pick-up.

We chose on farm pick-up for among other reasons, to get people in touch with the farm by being there at least a couple of time a season. When we delivered we got into the situation where we had less contact with our CSA members than we did with our farmers market customers and the last year of delivery there were 2 members who would not even meet us (they would circle the block where the drop off was until we left, very strange) With on farm pick-up we make sure we meet and get to know all the members.

I split the season up because I always have due to working with college people who are gone all summer and would not join a CSA where they would miss May, June and July pick-ups

Thanks, Lucy.

We tried a CSA 1 year, just a few years into growing. Had 4 members, only 2 came out to the farm. 1 was eye doctor and his was delivered to his business each week, his staff loved to see what he was getting each week, but nobody signed up. Another one was a teacher, and hers was delivered to her school. Luckily the 2 of them were delivered within a couple of blocks of each other. The other 2 would pick up at the farmers market.

After 2 years, we gave up and continued with our farmers market. Now, I'm still at farmers market, but want to open the farm and have a stand there, possibly elimating some of the milea driven.

Marla

That inside setup looks good. I'm trying to work out a more efficent way to prepare shares. I'm thinking of using some 2x4's and screen mesh for rinsing root veggies and others with a lot of dirt on them. I also need a large table so I can start an assembly line.

I'm going from 4 shares up to 8 or 12 this Spring/Summer and expanding the garden from 3,000 sq ft to about 13,000 sq feet. I may be undercharging a bit at $325 for a 14-week CSA. This is my first Spring/Summer season though and first large garden. For the Fall CSA I had two harvest/pickup days. Some people came by and picked up their food at the garden on their harvest day and I delivered shares to people that were close to my house.

What kind of boxes do you put your shares in? I was thinking of only bagging the salad greens and using old waxed produce boxes from Costco to put everything in. I believe those boxes are 3/4 a bushel?

I like the idea of getting to know people that share a passion for fresh, local food that's grown sustainably. I also like to send out updates and share what's going on in the garden. Without the up-front money I couldn't have started the garden in the first place. After I build up my supplies and tools maybe I can pay myself.

I am going to sell some easy stuff like squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes at a Sunday farmers market this year and then next year try to participate in a Winter market that meets every other weekend all Winter.

Being in Texas I've already started cool season seeds. I just finished my greenhouse. I used my 6-ft low tunnel bender and raised the height with straight emt and installed a purlin. I put a double layer of 6-mil greenhouse film on the outside structure(6X15) and then constructed a tunnel inside(5X12) and covered it with plastic. We don't get many cold nights, but when we do I'll use an oil-filled radiator to heat the interior tunnel. I hope it works. In order to help prevent condensation I'm going to cover the raised soil inside with plastic.

Pete

Suburbangreen, you are not charging enough really and will be working for about $3 an hour at that rate. And don't worry about high price chasing off potential customers-CSA is such a strange way to buy food that only certain people will even consider joining and for most of them price is not a factor. The person that shops mainly at Wal-Mart, gets a lot of processed food and doesn't cook much is not a good CSA candidate. But a person who cooks from scratch and already shops at farmers markets and is into seasonal foods is a great candidate

I have my members supply reusable bags and if they don't bring bags back to the farm (common with about 33% of the members over the history of the CSA) than their shares are put into plastic grocery bags

I bag greens that cannot be bunched and pre weight everything

My members get a newsletter weekly (or ever other week in winter) with farm news, recipes and a list of what is in their share

I also do a couple of dinners every year for the members and I think next year will do monthly dinners

Oh, and another reason I split up the season other than the fact I deal with a lot of college professors this also keeps cash flow coming in.

I put all my cold stuff into coolers; one cooler per person. But this would NOT be feasible for a larger CSA. I put 5-6 coolers out in the barn in a semi circle then back my pickup near them. I pick everything in a wagon and drop off what needs washing at my washing station. The rest goes in the barn to wait. Then I wash the dirty stuff and bring it all in the barn, on and around my pickup bed. I have an excel file with the customers and I fill in what they get beforehand- I pick what I need according to my list. So I load the coolers up according to the list and check off as I go. Then I put a post it of what is in their share. I put 'dry' crops in a half bushel basket and put that on their cooler and then place them in the shade or in my truck for pickup at my job the next day. The coolers have a half gallon ice jug and towel in them at the bottom.
Well that is the best I have come up with for a small CSA.

Minnie, I can just image having 40-50 coolers with along the basket sitting waiting. It does sound great for a limited number of members. Do you leave the coolers with the members or just unload?

what was the first step to establishing a CSA?
i would like to reduce my dependence on the farmers market although i enjoy the social part of it.

Randy the first step was a lot of marketing and the first 10 years I had a very hard time retaining members and generally lost 90% every year which meant starting at the beginning and some years even though the goal was 25 members we were lucky to get 5 members.

A lot of the reason for the problems was twofold. our farm location was bad-way out in the middle of nowhere and close to nothing and hard to find and secondly SW Ohio, especially the county I am in simply was not yet ready for the idea of a CSA so it was very hard to sell the concept of the CSA (especially when price and not quality are the main criteria for food buying and CSA are not necessarily cheap).

But after fooling with the concept for 15 years I am finally ready to go ahead and increase the membership from 15 to 50 this year and get to 100 members in the next 3 to 5 years.

I will say if you do not grow Organically it will be harder to get members as most people who will join a CSA want the food grown organically and most are very savvy about such things and will probably demand it of you

I have given talks to groups, I have passed out brochures, I have had farm tours and I have many web pages where I write a lot about my CSA and it is the interwebs that have been the most helpful in driving new CSA members my way.

thanks for the info Lucy. Our farm is also way out in the middle of no where and that has made me hesitate about this. i for sure don't want to make deliveries and would want the members to come here. we would like to avoid the 2 days lost for every 1 market day, which is one day harvesting and one day standing around at the market. the harvesting of course is necessary but maybe not the standing around.

Randy, have you thought about hiring someone just to stand around at the FM stand? We have 1 vendor that does just that. He is there on Saturday, our busy day, but the other 2 days, he's harvesting and his hired gal is at the stand. Of course, she's getting paid hourly so she doesn't do well at the selling part, but she sells more (usually) than her pay is. Just a thought. Another vendor does very well with his help running the stand. guess you would have to find the right person and make the right type of payment arrangement, like conmission.

The members take the produce out of the coolers and later I gather them and refreeze the ice. It keeps the stuff fresh so they can pick up when they go by. I think the only alternative is to have a walk in cooler to place the boxes so they get quite cold, but no one wants chilled tomatoes etc. The other alternative would be to drive around delivering in the evening when they are home.

My location couldn't get any closer to a main intersection, but it is in the suburbs and not where people understand good food. If I were to deliver to the metro I could get plenty of customers, but would have more competition and no time to deliver anyway.

I wish I had someone who could deliver for me but I don't at this time.

Minnie, I tell my members that they have 3 hours to pick up their shares if they want them fresh, otherwise I cannot guarantee that the food will be in decent shape. I have had zero complaints about this.

I figure my members are all adults and can follow simple rules and get their shares when they are ready.

I do have refrigeration so any unclaimed shares are refrigerated for 48 hours and than considered unclaimed and will either be deconstructed or go to a food bank.

On delivery have you ever thought about using a member to do it? they could get free food for their efforts.

An alternative CSA model would be what I use. www.locallygrown.net. This is my "CSA" type. People can choose what they want and how much they get. I pick to order and then deliver. This works great for the winter growing season, as if it isn't sold, I don't pick it.

It works for me. My main problem with at true CSA is wastage, Wastage for the consumers and wastage of the growing space. If I really dislike turnips, then if I get them everyweek in my CSA box and I throw them out. As a grower, I am wasting that space I took growing those turnips that ended up being thrown away. I could have used that space growing something else that could have been consumed.

Also the CSA model scares me from a production stand point. What if I don't have 15 broccoli heads ready this week? In my thoughts, it take more space to grow for a CSA than my system. I grow a huge variety of produce and I may have smaller amounts of each, but I try to have things over a longer period of time. For example this winter, I have 5 plantings of spinach, 5 plantings of lettuce, 6 plantings of radishes, 6 plantings of turnips, 4 plantings of carrots, you get the idea. Each planting is small and as the next planting gets ready, I start picking it. My customers know that if I run out of something, I have more coming. Yes you can do this for a CSA too, but to ensure you have enough for each share of each crop, it would be more difficult, IMO.

Check it out and see if it is something that could work for you. I run this year around and hit 2 Farmers Markets a week. I have 40 families that are members. I am probably going to get that up to 60-70 next year. However, it depends on the members. I have many that order the same dollar amount each week. Then I have some that order maybe once a month. I would like to get my order amounts more consistent. One week 5 orders the next 25 orders.

I run this with two other producers. One with meats and one with baked goods and cheeses. Together we have a great balance of products.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Republican Valley Produce

I spent a lot of time on the www.locallygrown.net site after you mentioned it a few weeks ago, Jay. I really like it! When I first started thinking about turning my hobby into sales(not very long ago), I wanted to do let my customers pack their own boxes. I am thinking about a $30 minimum though, and giving the choice of pick-up at a central location( a friend's retail nursery or FM) or delivery for an additional $5.

A growers "locally grown" site link can easily be sent to restaurants and caterers too. If only a few get into the habit of looking for produce there, that could be quite good.

Actually Jay ensuring you have enough of each crop is amazingly easy to do. And there are many ways for a member's share to be packed-they can do it themselves, it can be done for them and I often give a choice, especially when I am short on some crops-for example I don't have enough turnips nor broccoli to put in all shares so half get turnips and half get broccoli and I always ask if anyone has a preference and to tell me before a certain time.

As for growing crops everyone hates, that rarely happens as a CSA farmer has a lot of contact with their members I usually have several emails a week from members and I ask them all the time what they want us to grow and they are pretty good about telling me. And since we are planting new things pretty much every week we can usually do what they ask.

And if you have a failure, well, that is a part of the risk the members share with the farmer and you basically have crop insurance as you don't refund the money. You might lose some members but if they really understand the CSA concept they stay. I have been amazed how many times this risk thing has been tested by colleagues and they rarely lose members just because a flood took out 100% of the produce or a fire burned all the greenhouses and the barn setting the CSA back several months. the members always come through and not just not quite but lend a hand with clean up and help out any way they can.

It's all about community

Jay, I agree with everything you said about your csa model.
Let the customer decide what he wants in his csa. Remember its their money that is paying for it and they should be able to pick their weekly produce ahead of time. If something is not available call them with some possible substitutes for that week. Mark.
( By the way your produce is the best looking that I have ever seen. It even is superior even to the the Amish grown stuff. Maybe you could teach some of us your secrets.)

Cowpie, Jay doesn't exactly have a CSA, he sells by the order.

with CSA the member is buying a share of the harvest so what ever comes in is divided by the members and that is what they get in their share.

Granted many farms do what is called a farmers market set up where crates of produce are set out and the members are told to take a certain amount of each item (this keeps it fair because if you have something popular like strawberries and no guidelines than the first member(s) to come and pick up will often take all the berries when the only limit is take no more than 12 items. So one needs to put more limits than that so it come out fair).

You see a lot of CSA is educating the members about growing food and seasonability and it is not much about choice. But at least for me my members understand this about CSA and have no problem with getting a pre-packed share. And one thing almost all my members have told me, is because they don't get to pick out the food as they would at a farmers market they have been forced into trying foods they would have never considered eating before the CSA like parsnips and celaric and they have found that such foods have become favorites.

And because my CSA is still small I do customize shares-I will leave out hated vegetables for example. And that won't change until we go above 100 members, and maybe even than I will still be able to customize.

A lot of CSA is education, as well as building community which is done with on farm activities such as pot luck dinners, farm tours and work days

Lucy, you explained the difference between Jay's pre-ordered produce and a true CSA quite well. With my CSA, we added some extra produce from other farmers when our crops failed, no problem with our customers, but was not required to do so. Even with Jay's pre-ordering, you still will have excess of some things, and with the CSA you could add just a bit more of the things that area plentiful. For my members, 2 lbs of assorted lettuces each week was too much, so I had extra, luckily I was at the farmers market and could sell the extra there. My delivery days was always the day before the market, so that if I couldn't come up with something that the member wanted, they still had time to go to the farmers market the next day.

One of our vendors, that runs a CSA also, uses play money. Basically you buy the play money and use it at her stand. I'm sure that she is discounting the play money, like pay $15 for $20 worth of play money or something like that. She also pays her help at the market and farm with produce instead of cash. They get to take what is left home for their pay, or a discounted price if she had to buy it.

Marla

While not a true "CSA" I believe it to be a hybrid of a Farmers Market and a CSA.

This is what Local harvest says a CSA is.

"Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season."

My customers pay a small membership fee and they get the best selection of our seasonal produce. I keep them updated on the farm through emails and blogs and many have come out and visited my place. Sometimes people pick up their orders at my house. Several of my members use to be members of another CSA. However, they didn't like it. They didn't care for the people and they said the produce wasn't very good. Also they said they ended up wasting a lot of produce. SO when they learned about my "CSA" they jumped at the idea. There are not many CSA's in my area. The idea just hasn't caught on.

I agree with Marla, I could never go through 2 pounds of lettuce a week. Even feeding a family of 6, (granted 4 are under 10) we don't even do this. Now 2 pounds of potatoes, that is a different story.

I have heard about another "CSA" model that is different. A market "CSA" people pay cash down early and then in return they get to select what they want at the Farmers Market booths. The get things at a discount, not sure how much, but it is another hybrid idea.

The one problem I have with the CSA model is, I would never be a member of one. The problem for us, at this time, is that I don't have $500 sitting around to pay for a share. I know I could save it up. So if this is a problem for me, I am sure it would be a problem for others too. Good healthy food shouldn't just be for those who are rich. It should be for everyone and I feel that CSA's exclude many of the middle class "Working Poor", like myself. With 4 kids, my wife in nursing school and living on a teachers salary. My farm business helps keep us "in the black" every month. If it wasn't for the farm, we would be in a terrible situation. That will change in the next few months, but there are people who are much worse off than me.

Jay

Jay,

I would never be a member of a produce CSA myself either. Too much money up front and no/little choice. But as boulderbelt mentioned some people like that. I would do a meat CSA just because I like ALL types of meat.

As I look down the road long-term I would like to be a part of a local grocery store. Basically, a permanent Farmer's Market. Farmer's still get to sell their stuff when they have it and local community members can 'buy local'. Large cities may have daily farmer's markets but in the town I live in there is only 1 a week.

I was looking at that localharvest website and it does looke like some people are doing well with this idea. I don't really feel comfortable with the idea of co-ops but I think an individual could do well with this 'general store' idea.

For it to maintain integrity, all products would have to be produced/processed within xxx distance from the area. Yes, we have no bananas kind of thing for where I live.

I've heard of CSA's charging a total, but only expecting a down payment and then monthly payments. You basically are paying 2 months in advance, I still couldn't do it most of my life.

I do like the idea of selling certifications or gift cards at a reduced price ahead of season. Don't know if it would work, but it would help out on the upfront expenses. Luckily, I won't need to buy much on the seed front this year, since I didn't plant as much as I normally would have planted last year. Just a few varieties of tomatoes and sweet corn. Maybe we can get some other things instead.

I also would not be a member of a CSA if I didn't grow myself because I am a planner and DH doesn't like a lot of the popular stuff.

Lucy,
I have thought about getting a member to deliver. I tried to get the one lady to sign up some friends near by and they could all take turns but sometimes I wonder if people don't have a lot of friends or something. When I suggest splitting with a friend or something like that people never do.
I will keep working on getting a situation of someone delivering for me.
I did add in my contract this year about the time limit- 24 hours from start of pickup to get your food or it will be donated. So far no one has officially signed up so hopefully that isn't intimidating them.

Also I do an alternative CSA much like the play money mentioned above. I call it the 100/120 program. They pay $100 (instead of $400 at one time) and get $120 worth of produce over a few CSA pickup weeks. I itemize their list so they see what things cost and how much money they have left. They do not get to pick out produce, but all my customers can choose a few things they do not like.

I wonder what the benefits of a CSA is to the purchasers if they can not pick exactly what they want and get a big cash discount for paying up front. It seems that most people would just go to the Farmers market and buy when they want and what they want at that particular time.
I wouldn,t think touring a farm would be much interest for most small town citizens since most grew up on a farm or had many friends that were farmers.
I think CSA,s are better for large urban areas and city folk.
Mark

Actually I have farmers as a part of my CSA. The advantage is you get the freshest food and you become a part of the farm-i.e. community. I guess it is a non tangible advantage that CSA members cherish.

My impression is that farm tours are impoirtant to members and you would be surprised at how few small town people come from farm backgrounds as most of the farmer people have moved away from the small towns to find work and we are seeing more and more people from the big cities moving in to get away from the rat race and while they may be around farms they know nothing about them.

Also the farmers around here know nothing about organic/sustainable produce farming as they all are grain and commodity livestock farmers.

But yes, CSA always do best near an urban center or a place with a university as the more educated the person the more important the quality and source of the food is over price and convenience

Plus, I am sure it is some sort of status symbol among certain circles. 'Look at us, we are supporting local agricultural, yes, it is $700 up front but it's so worth it!. I am supporting the small farmer.'

I think some people still think of farmer's as being 'simple' and I am sure a bit of snobbery/patronization kicks in. But that's just me being pessimistic.

My members appreciated the idea that they did not have to get up a the crack of dawn to be able to get what they want. They appreciated the new stuff that they had not tried, I added recipes for those items. Of course, the new items were a small part of the entire basket. Also, they received different varieties of the same old thing, and discovered that some of the varieties tasted better than others.

Lafayette is not a big city, even if it thinks it is, and surrounded by big farms. Up to 40 years ago, it was a very rural orientated town.

At this time that I had my CSA, there was 2-3 others doing the same thing, and CSAs had not really taken off. Now there is at least 5 CSAs that also are farmers market vendors, not counting those that do not do the farmes market. Things have changed alot in 8 years.

CSAs vary in price in my area, some are as little as $300 per season and others are up to $500. Each area is different, just like the prices that we are able to charge.

Marla

Here is a good article as to why CSA members like being in a CSA as opposed to buying at a farmers market or grocery store

Here is a link that might be useful: CSA Member's thoughts

BB, I do not think one guys take is very many. Besides most of the stuff in his CSA box seemed to be greens which are the simplest stuff to grow and cheapest for the farmer to grow. Where is the good stuff? (cukes,tomatos,summer squash,radish, broccoli,cauliflower,melons,corn,etc.) If I spent 500-600 dollars on a CSA share and they gave me a box of rabbit food every week I would not be very happy I think that about 98 percent of the people feel like I do and prefer to buy there food when needed at fresh markets and get exactly what they want.
Mark

Mark, you evidently don't understand CSAs. The members will receive whatever the farm has ready each week. Some weeks they may receive mostly greens, but in the summer, they will receive tomatoes and those other items that you mentioned. If you went to a farmers market at this time of year, you would find greens and such, not tomatoes and cukes.

My CSA some weeks got lots of lettuce/radishes and other 'rabbit' food, but that was early in the season before strawberries came on. Later on, they received lots of tomatoes, watermelons, cantalopes, cukes, zukes and other things that was ripe at that time. All of the produce was from either my farm or my friends farm. Usually the items were the same items that was available at the farmers market. My members didn't have to decide how to choose properly ripe items or have to fight at the farmers market.

$500-$600 is normal in big towns, my area is more like $300-400 for 26-30 weeks. That averages $15-20 per week, and if they figure how much the normal 4 person family buys at the grocery store, that's cheap. Plus my members had to chance to get extra to put up for the winter, and training to do so if need be.

Marla

Marla, Please understand I wish the best to anyone trying a CSA. I just do not think they would work around my area.
As far as the excessive greens that I seem to see in most of the CSA pictures I have seen on the Internet, maybe they were pictures of early produce. I sell a lot of greens myself but also would not think of them as my best seller.

If I tried a CSA . I would be able to handle 25-35 shares starting with the first in early june and run through oct 1.
example: June 15(lettuces blends-radish peas-green onions-spinach)

June 25(all above plus new red potatoes,brocolli,beets)

July 15( all the above plus early tomato,pickles,cukes,cauliflower)

July 25 ( mainly tomato,cukes pickle,potatos,early corn,beets,green beans)

Aug 10 ( all of the above plus peppers, carrots)

Aug 25 ( late corn,tomatos, cukes,green beans, summer squash, carrots)

Sept. 10 ( tomatos,cukes,summer squash,melons, some winter squash,carrots,beets, fall lettuce and spinach, green beans)

This is based on using about 1.5 acres of total growing space during the season.

Mark

Mark, those pictures were probably either early or late shares. 25-35 shares are alot especially to start with. My 4 was alot for me, with doing the farmers market.

I agree, your area might not be the best of areas for a CSA, unless you were willing to take the shares into a larger town. Your selection would be a good amount of produce, and people would enjoy it, especially if they did not have a garden or knew someone that had a garden.

I know of one that does exactly that. The members can visit and volunteer, but for the most time, the shares are delivered to a drop-off point by a delivery driver. It's working for that farmer. He takes his produce to Indianapolis, about 50 miles from the farm. He does get premium prices, $500 or so for a 6 month season, and the last I heard he had about 200 shares. Of course, he has lots of help and recruits other farmers to help with his shares.

I didn't have luck with CSA, but others do and good for them. I like to contact that I have at the farmers market and I didn't get enough of that with my CSA. Of course, when I tried the CSA, I was early in my produce business. It might work better now, I just don't want to feel responsible for a full-season. The way I work, if I wanted to stop in August/Sept, I could. Just depends upon what I'm growing.

This year, hubby and I decided to go back to college to learn more about the book-learning side of agriculture and school started mid-August. We were able to stop marketing on Labor Day, and spend our time studying. With a CSA, we couldn't have done that with just a few weeks of planning.

Marla

Mark, CSA is not for everyone, be they a grower or an eater. You are correct that 98% of the people out there would hate getting a box of greens but frankly 90% of the eaters out there hate the food at farmers markets and pretty much all produce and sustain themselves on a diet of processed foods/fast foods.

But I market to that 1% to 2% that eats locally and seasonally (which among the farmers market/locavore crowd is more like 30%) and wants a more intimate relationship with a farm/farmer and I forget the rest.

All i know is if I get 2/3 of my projected membership I will net more than doing farmers markets, will have far less waste and will make around 50% more income (more money coming in and far less money going out in market fees, gas/wear and tear on the market van and insurance for that vehicle and less spent on packaging)

BB, I might try one also up here. Maybe run a little advertisement and start with around 15-25 to start the first year. But up in my area I would have to ask each potential CSA to see what they would prefer in their load every 2 weeks. I think a total of 9 pickups in the season and charge 50.00 a pickup.

Mark

Cowpie, you are like bipolar or something.

There were a lot of greens in that box. I also agree that many CSAs do too many greens- just too much for one share per week. I think some people just love them so much they assume everyone does. I try to limit them a bit in my shares.

Mark, good luck getting that many shares. Selling CSA in an area that doesn't already have some is tough and if you are not Organic most potential members will go elsewhere as organic growing (the deeper the better) is very important to most CSA members. And do not lie about this to your members or they will not rejoin when they find out and will tell others

and yes you must ask your members what they want you to grow. Of course most do not have much of an opinion and will tell more of what they don't want to see and if you get everyone to respond you will end up with 15 very different opinions from 15 members and you will go back to growing what you think they will like-been there, done that. i still ask the members at least once a year what they want and than always end up growing the same things (basically) as the year before.

I do disagree about the greens as, at least for me, that is one thing just about all my members asked about before joining-will there be more than one kind of green in each share. All were pleased to find out they will get between 3 and 7 different greens in a share in winter. It's the same in early spring, but late spring through late fall they get a selection of 55 other crops in their shares

there is a CSA around here that doesn't grow the majority of what they offer. they buy food from local small farmers and distribute that to their members.

Each CSA will be alittle different, the one like what you are talking about, Randy, is one type. Someone is the organizing person for all the other farmers. Sort of a Co=op type. Believe me, organizing it all is a full time job, don't you agree Lucy? Plus I have found that certain items don't grow well for me, but grows great for other people. If the memmbers of the CSA is ok with the co=op CSA, then that's great.

Mark, one thing that I did before I started to grow for
the CSA was to ask the members what they would like to see in their boxes, and asked if I had a problem growing something, would it be ok with them if I substituted from another grower. Mine were ok with it.

Definitely start small and learn, whether with a CSA or anything else. Maybe do a market survey, I know it sounds professional, but it is a information gathering tool that can help you decide if something is worth starting or not.

Marla

I do not think my dirt is good enough to handle a CSA after thinking about it for a couple of days. If I could afford new beds and compost I could give a good run but I would not want to be embarrassed and not be able to produce items that are not top-notch quality and have to give refunds.
I will just stick to my produce stand with my low prices and try to slowly improve my over-worked soil.
Happy New Years, Mark

Good luck Mark and I hope you find some admendments for your soil cheaply or free. Maybe you can ask around for some, you'll never know until you ask.

Truckloads of free compost and manure is all you need.

I think starting with a small amount of shares at a low price and prioritizing that and then bringing the extra to market is the way to start.

In 2009 before I had a CSA, we had a tremendous growing year so in 2010 I added 5-6 shares and kept the market. in 2010 we had a very poor year and I didn't bring as much to market but always had something and gave the CSAs more than needed to make them happy (that was stressful and in some cases fruitless due to poor marketing on my end and the wrong clientele for a CSA). In 2011 it was another tough growing year but I chose to do more CSA shares and didn't go to market all the summer. It takes many more hours to prep and sell at market than the CSAs.

For me it is like this: I can make only about $175 at market but it is a 14 hour day. If instead I do CSAs it may be a little less money some of the time but it is 8 hours less in the day. That way I can get more weeding done. I work 2 days a week at a job and one day a week is family/homework day so I am always busy and cutting market in favor of the CSAs saves me time.

So in 2012 I plan to go to market 4 weeks in spring before the main season CSAs start to sell mostly plants. Then I plan on going to market again in fall (Sept and Oct and then indoor markets later) when there is no weeding to do. Hope it is a good year!

wishes there were truckloads of free compost and manure around here.

Where do you live Randy?

Randy -

You might check with you local Extention office as they may be able to steer you to some. Here in Illinois there is a program run by the Extention to match up those with manure with those needing it. I have never used it personally but looks pretty strait forward.
Tom

Here is a link that might be useful: U of I Manure Share

I live in Floyd Co., VA. It is very rural. Not much to be had around here without collecting it yourself.

I know Lafayette, IN shares their compost/mulch with whoever that lives in town and can carry it away. We usually have some manure free for the hauling ads in the paper or craigslist.

I have a CSA here in Southern Indiana We live in a small town. The closest Wal-mart is 20 minutes away. I charge $250 for a 15 week CSA. They get 6 variety of items as a rule. 1 quart berries, 1 gallon lettuce, 1 bunch radishes, 3 summer squash, 1 lb tomatoes and 3 head garlic. I have an exchange table that has varies items, if they do not like an item in there bag. I include a newsletter each week with recipes. I have 25 shareholders. I also do a coop CSA that has 30 members. #1 Please the customer!!!!