pinki! Question about CSAs (Comm Supp Ag)

[Erin]

My friend organizes the farmer''s market in town and I mentioned to her about your weekly bag of fresh foods. Anyway here are my questions:

1. How much would you be willing to pay each week?
2. Would you want only fruit and vegatables? Our market also has baked goods, plants, worm castings, etc.?
3. Does your friend just lose her money if she doesn''t pick up her bag one week?

 

[pinki]

Hey Starset...I''ll answer your Q''s with Typical long winded Pinki Answers:

1. Of course I''d love to pay as little as possible, but to me the $20/Week I pay seems reasonable. I think $30/week would be at the very very top of my spending limit because of course to make the foods that I get I still have to buy some accompanying foods to make a full meal and anything above $30 would be a budget breaker.

2. We currently get fruits, veggies and herbs. I personally wouldn''t want baked goods because that defeats the purpose of eating better, and I am also not interested in worm castings or plants. If I was handy in a garden I probably wouldn''t need to buy other''s veggies...I can barely keep my weeds alive. However, if it included other items like farm fresh eggs, cut flowers or anything along those lines then I''d totally be game. I suppose if weekly I could decide on baked goods that would work for me because if I had dinner at a friends or a birthday etc. then I could just say that I wanted fresh baked treats to keep me from having to buy or make some.

3. If we are out of town on vacation, then we can either email the farmer and tell them not to send a bag and just suck it up losing the $20 and he then sends more food to the other members, or we can give it to a friend. So for example, in July we''ll be out on our honeymoon and my bestie will be going to pick up my bag so that she can enjoy the foods for a week.

There were also many options as far as participation. We could have selected a 2 person family option or a 4 person family option. We also could have gotten it all for free but we''d have to commit to 4 hours a week of working at the farm. We also could have gotten a discount if we signed up to be a drop off location, where the farm would drop off people''s bags every Wednesday and then I''d have to be home so everyone could stop by and get their food. We just went the payment route for 2 adults because my schedule is so insane I can''t commit to any of the work. For payment you could either pay in full all at once, or send 2 checks, they''d cash half right away and then the other half in August. We went with that so that it was easier on our pockets.

I live in Milwaukee, Your neighbor to the North, and there are about 20+ CSA''s in our area. I picked mine based on the foods that would be provided and the drop-off points. I also picked it because of the location of the farm, less distance my food had to travel. I also googled any info on the farm and read people''s reviews on their experience before I committed. Oh, last thing...I also looked at the foods and googled recipes for some of the things I had never eaten/cooked before to see if there was anything I would want to make.

Let me know if you have more Q''s. It looks like some other of our regular posters are members to CSA''s as well, so maybe their experiences are different. Check back in this weeks thread, I can''t remember who it was right now.

Cj

 

[Erin]

Very, very helpful!
Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I''m hoping we can set this up here. For now we have a Farmer''s Market on Fridays but it''s for a small window time frame and not everyone has time to drive out to this location and buy all these different items from different vendors.

I think committing to buying a bag each week would be totally convenient and nice to rely on.

 

[hihowareyou]

I also subscribe to a CSA but it sounds more like what your friend might be interested in running Starset Princess as the produce doesn''t come from just one farm but a multitude of ''local'' farms (I think over 70 in the case of mine) from inside a set radius. It sounds like you''d probably be drawing on some/all of the farmers at your market rather than just one?

I might answer your questions to pinki as they relate to my subscription.
1. How much would you be willing to pay each week?
How much we''d pay depends on what we''d get and how much. We pay AU$30. We''ve been subscribed only 2 months now but when we started the local farmers had weather against them so the amount in the boxes was lower, even then we felt it was reasonable value. We are now getting a lot more in our box which is excellent value. Being able to draw from multiple farms helps protect subscribers against extremely low yield boxes. We have to order and pay upfront for a minimum of 4 weeks at a time, so they can pay their farmers up front too.

The CSA I belong to is a non-profit organization though. The owner/staff get paid fairly but are not looking to get rich from their work.

2. Would you want only fruit and vegetables? Our market also has baked goods, plants, worm castings, etc.?
We get a box of fruit and veg but the CSA also allows people to order addition things like bread, milk, eggs, cheese, spreads, nuts, etc if they wish.

3. Does your friend just lose her money if she doesn''t pick up her bag one week?
We have until the week before delivery to cancel if we wish so if we are going away we can put a pause on our produce until we get back. If we don''t contact them to let them know we won''t be needing the box for a week then we lose our money.


This is an Australian model but I believe that the model is freely available for adoption under a creative commons license. You can look at how it works on their website: www.foodconnect.com.au
They service an entire city and are probably the only form of CSA in the city currently so work on a larger scale than many CSA''s do.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

We pay $550 for 23 weeks of fruits and vegies (enough each week for a family of 2 adults and 2 children)

I mostly want fruit and veggies, but would LOVE it if I could drop off my compost.

We pay for the season and if you don''t pick it up, then yu are just out your money.

 

[lliang_chi]

Hey Starset,

I''ve been doing CSAs for the past 4-5 years. Here in Chicago, the typical CSA is about $30/wk for a box full of veggies/fruits. That''s pretty much what I''d pay for in produce anyway for the week. For the most part CSA shares are mostly veggies. My hunch is because a) veggies harvest multiple times during the season, versus most fruits which only have 1 harvest time. b) veggies can harvest as soon as they''re planted, some fruit trees need the tree to mature before consistent harvest.

I think as far as CSAs go, the baked goods, plants & worm castings etc are probably better suited for a farmers'' market type of medium. That way people can just browse and pick them up rather than getting them and not using it.

And yes, we just loose that week of groceries if we don''t pick up our box for that week. Normally I''ll either give it to a friend or ask the farmer not to pack one for me.