So how do you decide if our CSA would be right for you?
Before you sign up for this seasonal commitment , ask yourself these questions….
Q1: Is the relationship to the actual farmer important to you? (Do you want to support a farmer?)
Effective CSAs focus on the farmer-customer relationship as much as the product.
In fact, in our surveys of current members, we find again and again that one of the top reasons for joining our CSA was to support a local farmer.
CSA members want to be able shake the hand that feeds them.
Likewise, I can say that growing our vegetables specifically for our CSA members is one of my favorite parts of farming. There’s something rewarding about the relationship we have with those customers and them knowing they are doing their part to support a local farmer.
I always say “Mother Nature bats last”, so part of our relationship is riding the highs and the lows of the season together. We may face weather or pest problems and be a little short on something or we may be blessed with a bumper crop and you’ll get extra tomatoes! But know that we really work hard to balance all that out and give you really good value for your investment in us!
Q2: Do you value having quality vegetable ingredients that actually taste good?
Our vegetables become your medium to create in the kitchen. Make something beautiful.
Cardboard tomatoes in the winter.
Blah. If you’re a CSA prospect, you know this frustration well.
Taste matters for foodies. Because you know that putting together a terrific meal in your kitchen isn’t just about your skill.
It starts with the ingredients.
The second most important quality of our CSA “masters” (people who “stick” with CSA) is that they love food. Real food.
Food that tastes like it should, because it’s grown in quality soil.
In fact, we jokingly say that our CSA often creates food snobs, because our customers finally experience how lettuce should really taste, and they cannot go back to the bland, mushy stuff they find at the grocery stores. haha
If you really love cooking and you really value taste, then you will LOVE being in our CSA. Because we are all about providing high-quality, artisanal vegetables that make your home dining experience feel like an event.
You’re paying for that taste experience when you join a CSA.
If you’re just looking for a basic celery and carrot at the cheapest price so you can make an iceberg salad — this is not your gig.
Q3: Are you willing to try new foods? (Really?)
We have designed our CSA to provide mostly the staples, the cozy comforts that you know and love, and probably buy most often BUT we like to occasionally throw an unusual outlier in the CSA box to expand your horizons in the kitchen. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover new veggies you thought you’d hate. Looking at you, kohlrabi.
Look let’s face it:
We know that if left to your own devices, you would never purposely put a kohlrabi in your box.
(Or would you? If you would then you would definitely click with CSA).
It’s all part of the great goal in CSA of developing food diversity and teaching our communities (and our kids) how to eat seasonally again. If you want to grow in the kitchen, you have to push yourself to try new ingredients.
Here is an actual quote taken from our end-of-year surveys by a CSA member:
“The CSA has introduced my family to veggies that I never would have bought at the store, and I learned that we liked them! Also it helped me become more creative in my cooking.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Q4: Do you need control in your menu planning?
Broccolini — a special variety of broccoli . Would you be willing to play around with new ingredients like this?
Remember the saying: “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit?”
CSA members have to learn to be flexible with their menu and make things work in the kitchen, because you often don’t know what you will get in your box until a few days before the pick up.
Some people love this spontaneity. Others will be stressed by it.
Think hard on this:
Are you willing to give up some control over what goes in your box? Or do you need to live by your plan?
If you’re someone that wants to have spinach lasagna on Wednesday, and your box doesn’t have spinach that week, will you be upset that you have to go elsewhere to supplement your CSA box contents?
If so, then you may be better off buying from our store or our farmer’s market stands.
This is the number 1 reason non-renewing members give us for leaving our CSA:
“I didn’t get enough of the things I wanted, and I got too much of the things I didn’t.”
CSA works best for customers who see their kitchen as a creative space, and our vegetables as the “paint” for their canvas.
They can handle the spontaneity required and are willing to experiment with new ingredients to make old meal templates come alive in new ways.
Q5: Are you willing to work at eating the CSA way? Patience, my apprentice. (It’s a marathon, not a sprint to the finish line).
CSA takes time to see results. We have customers that have been with us for years, and they all say it took about 1-2 years before they learned how to consistently use the box’s full contents.
That means you will waste some food on the front end, as you go through your learning curve.
Come into this experience with an adventurous spirit, and go easy on yourself if you fail to eat the entire box every week at first. It’s really hard to do, especially as a rookie to the system.
There will be many weeks when you have best intentions to be a super-chef and maximize your CSA tasting experience… and then real life sets in, and you find yourself simply eating the broccoli raw with ranch dip.
It can sometimes feel like you’re “failing” in your original goal to change the way you eat.
Realize that if this is your goal, it takes time to learn the skill sets. (Don’t worry, we’ll teach them to you). Set realistic goals the first year, and work your way into it.
Also realize that in this journey to kitchen mastery, you’re going to waste some food, especially in the first learning year.
This is a really hard reality for some to face.
Either you don’t get home to make dinner in time because your life is hectic (so the veggies rot)…
…or you end up eating take-out several times a week because you’re playing chauffeur to your 3 kids (so the veggies rot).
Like all paradigm shifts, it takes time to develop new habits and learn how to eat nimbly.
If you are committed to learning how, you can do it!
But it may take a few seasons before you feel like you’ve got it down.
Do you have the staying power to “work” at CSA?
Q6: Are you looking for a “deal”? Are you comparing CSA prices to the grocery store?
People who fully embrace the CSA model don’t look for their membership to be a “deal” or a bargain. Though we do incentivize our members by calculating the box price at a discount to what buying the items individually would be.
And they don’t compare the CSA experience to the grocery store price table.
Read that again. This is a really key point.
It is absolutely understandable to ask, “How much does it cost?” And to then weigh the pros and cons.
Supporting a CSA financially however is not just about doing a cost analysis of each vegetable you receive in your box and comparing it to what you’d pay at Hyvee or Costco.
Our vegetables have added value because every one of our vegetables is telling a story.
Not just the story of how the food was raised, how it was harvested, or what struggles it faced to come to your plate.
Not just the story of the farmer and how you help them live out their calling to the land.
Every vegetable is also telling YOUR unfolding story.
Our vegetables become a means to an end: they showcase your journey with food.
They are the starring attraction in your quest to master your kitchen space and prepare a delicious meal to rival any restaurant fare — a meal you can be proud of.
This is not something any grocery store can give you.
Our CSA customers appreciate this added value of our product.
QUESTION #7: Will you be traveling a lot this summer?
I never really mentioned this question in the early years, but it’s a pretty big one. If you’re going to miss several weeks of the 16 week season due to traveling — you shouldn’t sign up for our CSA.
Our CSA does include 1 vacation day, that will credit your account when claimed. We don’t “hold” your boxes in the cooler for several days and our pick up sites are not equipped to hold your box for multiple days. So if you have to miss your pick-up several weeks, it doesn’t make financial sense to sign up for our CSA.
How’d you do?
Did you pass the quiz?
Remember, CSA is just one model out there for getting fresh vegetables food onto your table. For those who value the story, the journey, and the farmer relationship behind the food, it can be a great option that can change the way you eat forever.
But there’s no shame in passing on CSA and instead buying weekly “a la carte” from our store or farmers market.
And that may in fact be a better fit to your style or needs.
your farmer,
Steve
