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  • From: John Hendrickson <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] CSA or subscription packaging
  • Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 15:30:49 -0600

Andrea,

How much to put in the 4 and 2 person CSA shares?  There are no set standards or guidelines but here are a few
suggestions.  First, one of the primary reasons CSA members drop out of CSA is because they
often feel overwhelmed by the quantity (even by what seems a modest quantity to someone used to eating
from a garden!) and feel incredibly guilty about composting all the gorgeous vegetables produced by
their hard-working farmer.

Second, and perhaps in contradiction to the former, most CSA members want to get a good value for their
money and want full bags/boxes of clean vegetables that make them say "wow!" when they open the bag/box.

To help avoid monotony and assure a diverse array of vegetables, I know some CSA growers who have adopted
"rules" that they follow such as not putting a given item in the box more than three weeks in a row.  You
may decide to make some exceptions to this rule; your members may be avid salad eaters and want
lettuce/salad mix every week.  Another "rule" might be to try to have at least 8 or 10 different items
in the bag/box each week.

A final thought on quantities is that when CSA emerged in Wisconsin the "standard" share that most
farms offered was a large one geared toward families. Over time, many CSA farms have observed that most
of their members--even those with families--prefer a smaller sized share simply because so many of today's
households do not have time to cook using fresh vegetables every night of the week.

How much to charge?  Only you (and your CSA members) can answer this question!  You must base your share
price on your costs of production and include a living wage for yourself and any other farm workers. This is the only
way your farm and your CSA operation will be sustainable.  If you're new to farming and have no idea what your
expenses will be, you need to do some homework--and guess work--and come up with some kind of trial, first year
budget on which to base your share price.  You could run such a budget by some more experienced growers
(perhaps some of the people on this list) to see if it is reasonable.

-John

At 07:36 AM 10/23/2003 -0700, you wrote:
Hello Group,
 
I am juggling with what kind of container and packaging I should sell my produce to my subscription costumers.I am new at this,but I want it to be pretty and appealing to the eye.What are you selling and delivering them in?Any suggestions?
Thanks Andrea


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John Hendrickson
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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street: 1535 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI  53706
608-265-3704
www.wisc.edu/cias



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