A few announcements then a bit about my trip to the fair!
The 13th annual Fresh Earth Farms Potato planting party is this Sunday, April 24th from 2:00 until 4:00. We have had a good response so far but we can always use more help. Let me know if you can make it and how many people you’ll be bringing. There is something for everyone to do no matter your skill level or physical ability. Come out and help grow your food! (If we have rain on Saturday or Sunday please check the web site to confirm we are still on before heading to the farm).
Our neighbor has ducks and has asked us if our members would be interested in purchasing their eggs. I didn’t have the answer yet so I thought I would check with you. Let me know if you are interested in duck eggs.
Black Cod arriving on Tuesday. For those who ordered Black Cod it will be here late Tuesday afternoon. Contact me to schedule a time for you to pick-up your fish. If anyone would like to try Black Cod – quite possibly the most delicious fish on the planet – let me know. We purchased a few extra shares
Farm News
I attended the Seward Co-op CSA fair this weekend. It has been a few years since I last participated in this event. It seemed like the only changes were the farms and the weather.
Whenever someone approached me to discuss the farm I would always start out asking, “Why are you looking to join a CSA farm?” I was surprised that the most common answer was, “Um, er, I don’t know. Seems interesting.” Or something like that. In other words, they really didn’t know why they wanted to join. I found this interesting. I would have expected something about eating more healthy or supporting small businesses or keeping the money local or saving the planet or something. Maybe most of the attendees were just kicking the tires.
Another thing that was surprising was that the location of the drop site was of prime importance. I suspect this was more of a regional issue and not something all CSA prospects would place so highly among their criteria. There seemed to be a lot of people who didn’t own cars, or if they did, they mostly just biked to work or worked at home. So for them having a drop site within a reasonable biking distance was paramount. This of course favors the farms with a large number of drop sites since they would more likely have a site near the customer. And the farms with the most drop sites are the larger farms, which are the antithesis of the CSA movement. Kind of disappointing.
Another surprising observation, and the most distressing observation, was the overall dissatisfaction of how recruiting is going for the farmers I had the chance to speak to. It seems a lot of CSA farmers – and I use the term lightly – are finding it quite challenging to fill out their membership. One felt it was due to not being the “special child” of local agriculture. He felt that in years past – like five or six years ago – there was a lot of buzz in the media about CSA farms that isn’t happening anymore. I’m not sure that has necessarily changed. I contend the total number of shares sold to Twin Cities residents is at an all-time high but the number and size of the farms is increasing the supply of shares faster than the demand so I don’t necessarily agree with him. Another farmer was finding it so challenging he is transitioning his farm away from vegetables and moving toward making cheese. Based on my limited knowledge of that market I wish him luck.
Overall the mood among the farmers was one of disappointment, which is a far cry from where we were years ago when we all sold out and all knew each other. I suppose we are “crossing the chasm” and some of us are falling in.
One last observation that was both positive and negative was that I spoke with several people who when asked if they had participated in a CSA before replied, “Yes but they went out of business before the season ended.” The negative of course was that they had an unfortunate experience with CSA in the past. The positive was that they were willing to give it another try. I suspect they are the minority and that most others who had similar experiences simply gave up on the CSA idea. My takeaway from this comment was that it really pays to find a farm that meets your needs and objectives. If you want to take a risk and help a beginning farmer then be prepared to be disappointed if they fail. If you don’t want that level of risk find a CSA farmer that has a proven track record. And if you have an unfortunate experience don’t simply give up and blame it on the CSA model. Take a look around and see if there is a farm more suited to your risk level and objectives. Of course for this to be successful you have to figure out what your objectives are, which seems to be missing from most of the people I spoke with.
That is all for now. I hope to see many of you this Sunday!