If you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter at least read the “Item 1” and the “Last Item”; they both request your feedback.
After my last newsletter about this season’s survey I received a number of responses from you that made me think that you felt that I felt the survey responses were all negative. On the contrary. More than 90% of the survey responses were positive. But how do you respond to comments like: “Love farm pick-up!” and “Love it! Keep up the good work! Love the beets!” and “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all you do to make it a great experience!”? I believe “Thank you!” seems to be the best response. But maybe “THANK YOU!” is better! In any case, thank you for all the kind words, for supporting the farm and for making it a success!
Now that I covered more than 90% of the responses, let’s cover some of the rest.
But first, don’t forget to rejoin for 2017. Sign-up before the end of the year to lock in this season’s price for next season’s produce.
We can still add more Winter FruitShares. This week we have clementines, satsumas, navel oranges, apples and pears. Delish! Contact me for a prorated price.
Now back to the survey.
Item 1: “Friday night dropsite in Eagan is very difficult in the summer.”
This brings up one of the ideas we’ve been kicking around the last few months of the season. It seems like finding employees is getting increasingly challenging. So we continue to try to find ways to make the farm more efficient and save time any way possible. One idea is to switch pick-ups days from our traditional Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to Tuesday and Thursday. This would save time in a couple ways. First, we’d save around four and a half hours of time just running the pick-up tent one less time per week. Second, we could save time by packing boxes only two days per week. If we consolidate the boxes into two days instead of three it would make more sense to find ways to make box packing more efficient. Plus if nothing else, one less day of box packing would save some time in the set-up and take down of the box packing process itself. Third, though not an efficiency issue, Mondays and Fridays seem to be the days people like to take off if they are going away for a short trip. Switching to Tuesday/Thursday seems like it would work better for many of our members.
So, let me know if you would prefer to have us stick with our traditional plan or have any issues with switching to our proposed plan. Or, does a Tuesday Thursday approach work better for you? We haven’t made any decisions yet so now is the time to weigh in. (There would still be a morning pick-up, most likely still Thursday).
Item 2: “The variety is good. Is it possible to have more growing in covered spaces throughout the summer in case outdoor yield is less or compromised by weather?”
I wish we could. Just to give you an idea of what it would take, our current high tunnel cost around $9,000 five years ago. Plus it took us (a rough guess here) about one person month to assemble. It may have been more than that, I don’t really recall. It covers approximately 3000 square feet — or about five 100 foot rows. This past year we grew twenty 200 ft rows of winter squash. We would need eight more equivalent sized high tunnels to cover just the winter squash. We could save a bit buying in volume but it would still cost the farm at least $64,000. With CoupleShares selling for $560, we’d need to sell 114 CoupleShares just to pay for the structures (we sell some where around 130-150 shares per season). And that is revenue, not profit.
So as you can see, growing under cover is expensive. Plus I didn’t even mention how driving a big tractor inside a smallish building is not very easy or how almost everything we do inside a high tunnel is hand work because of the difficulty in maneuvering the tractor or how we’d have to have some type of water management plan to deal with all the rain falling on impervious spaces. So though I would like to have more high tunnels it just isn’t in the budget right now and probably won’t be soon unless the membership ramps up significantly (which would result in the need for more labor which is becoming increasingly difficult to find…) If anyone wants to donate a high tunnel or two please contact me directly and we’ll get the process started!
Item 3: “More napa cabbage, less eggplant ;-)”, “More of the staples, potatoes, onions, lettuce”, “Fewer green beans please!”
I lumped these altogether because they represent the difficulty in running a CSA farm. Everything we provide is governed by the Goldilocks Principle multiplied by the number of members we have. Some say “too many green beans” others say “we need more green beans” and there are always a few that say “wow, you really hit the number of green beans right on the head!” No matter how many green beans we give out some will be satisfied and other won’t. In past surveys I had a question that asked what items you want more of and which you want less. It was surprising that in total people wanted more of everything (then buy more shares!) but that everything also was given out in too large of quantities (then buy a smaller share!). But seriously, there is no way we can meet the culinary needs of everyone. We try to mitigate the problem by having on-farm pick-up with choices for our members but of course that doesn’t work for drop-site members and there are times when people want more of something anyway. So, we continue to tweak our offering every year with Mother Nature having a much larger tweak (does anyone recall this year’s eggplants?) and hope that it works for the majority of our members. Plus, we hope that as you get more experienced with CSA you’ll be able to figure out how best to use whatever we provide, which brings us to our last survey item for the week:
Last Item: “more recipes for quick meals particularly for all the wonderful eggplant”
I mentioned in a newsletter or two ago that I’m hoping to to put together something that makes it easier for people to use their weekly veggies. If nothing else what I’d like is a list of easy/quick recipes that match the contents of the week’s shares so that I can easily insert them into the newsletter. To get this started, I’ve put together a list of what was included in this season’s FamilyShare delivery boxes (see below). Though this isn’t all that was available in a given week it was at least representative of the seasonality of the veggies. It would be very helpful if you could look through this list and respond with your favorite recipes that use items from the given week. For example, “Week 1” Sauteed Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese. You can also write up your recipe and email it to me. Or take a picture of the recipe from your cookbook and email that to me (please let me know where it came from so we can give proper credit). If everyone responded with just one recipe we would have over 140 recipes to share with fellow members next season (hmm, idea for the future. To (re)join, you need to submit a recipe with your payment). So let’s come together and put the C back in CSA! (Though veggie recipes are preferred, recipes for other items we resell — seafood, meat, fruit, etc. — would be acceptable as well!)
As always, sorry for the length of this week’s newsletter and please send in your recipes and thoughts on next season as soon as possible.
Week 1 – June 15
1 bunch Chard
3 Green Garlic
1.5 # Snap Peas
15 Green Onions
2 Lettuce
3 Bok Choi
Week 2 – June 22
15 oz Garlic Scapes
3 Green Garlic
15 Green Onions
2 Broccoli
1 bunch Radishes
3 Bok Choi
3 Lettuce
1.5 #Snap Peas
Week 3 – June 29
¾ # Snow Peas
3 Green Garlic
15 Green Onions
3 Zucchini
2 Broccoli
1 bunch Beets
1 Lettuce
0.4 # Basil
¾ # Garlic Scapes
Week 4 – July 6
15 Green Onions
9 Summer Squash
2 Green Garlic
1 bunch Radishes
3 Lettuce
2 bunch Chard
1 bunch Beets
Week 5 – July 13
15 Green Onions
3 Squash
2 Eggplant
1 bunch Beets
I Cabbage
1 Kohlrabi
¼ # Garlic Scapes
1 Lettuce
2 bunches Kale
0.3# Basil
Week 6 – July 20
1 Lettuce
2 bunches Chard
2 Red Onions
5 Green Onions
6 Summer Squash
3 # Red New Potatoes
1 # Carrots
1 Cucumber
1 Broccoli
8 Okra
1 bunch Parsley
Week 7 – July 27
3 Onions
3 Cucumbers
3 Zucchini
3 Eggplant
1 Fennel
2 bunches Beets
1 Cabbage
2 Kohlrabi
1 # Green Beans
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
Week 8 – August 3
12 ears Sweet Corn
3 Onions
1 Broccoli
20 Okra
1.5 # Green Beans
6 Zucchini
6 Eggplants
1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
1 Cucumber
2 bunches Chard
0.2 # Basil
3 # Tomatoes
Week 9 – August 10
3 Onions
12 ears Sweet Corn
3 # Yukon Gold Potatoes
6 Cucumbers
1 Red Cabbage
1 bunch Beets
1 Fennel
3 Eggplants
1.5 # Yellow Beans
3 # Tomatoes
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
3 Summer Squash
Week 10 – August 17
12 ears Sweet Corn
3 Cucumbers
1.5 # Carrots
3 bulbs Garlic
3 Peppers
3 Eggplants
3 Onions
3 # Tomatoes
1 # Tomatillos
¾ # Okra
3 Kohlrabi
3 Jalapenos
Week 11 – August 24
3 # Potatoes
3 Onions
3 Cucumbers
3 Eggplant
3 Peppers
1.5 # Green Beans
2 # Tomatillos
1 bunch Beets
3 # Tomatoes
3 Jalapenos
1 bunch Parsley
1 Watermelon
Week 12 – August 31
3 Onions
3 Garlic
1 Watermelon
1 # Carrots
1 bunch Beets
2 Cucumbers
1 # Tomatillos
1.5 # Green Beans
6 Peppers
3 # Tomatoes
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
3 Hot Peppers
2 Eggplant
½ # Okra
Week 13 – September 7
3 Onions
3 Garlic
3 # Potatoes
6 Peppers
1 # Carrots
1 # Picking Cucumbers
1 # Green Beans
1 Cucumber
2 # Tomatoes
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
Week 14 – September 14
3 Onions
3 Garlic
3 # Potatoes
1.5 # Carrots
1.5 # Green Beans
6 Peppers
1 Eggplant
1 bunch Beets
1 # Okra
2 Broccoli
1 Napa Cabbage
Week 15 – September 21
3 Onions
3 Garlic
3 Winter Squash
3 # Potatoes
3 Leeks
3 Peppers
1 # Green Beans
1 bunch Chard
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
1 # Tomatoes
Week 16 – September 28
3 Onions
3 Garlic
3 # Potatoes
3 Leeks
1 Winter Squash
1 # Carrots
1 Kohlrabi
1 # Green Beans
3 Peppers
1 Daikon Radish
1 bunch Watermelon Radish
1 Eggplant
Week 17 – October 5
3 Onions
3 Garlic
3 # Potatoes
3 Shallots
3 Peppers
3 Lemongrass
2 bunches Kale
1 bunch Chard
2 Kohlrabi
1 # Tomatillos
Week 18 – October 12
2 Onions
3 Garlic
3 Shallots
3 # Potatoes
1 Leek
3 Red Peppers
9 Green Peppers
21 Popcorn
3 Daikon Radishes
2 bunches Kale
1 Cabbage
3 Lemongrass
Pile of Hot Peppers
Week 19 – October 19
6 # Sweet Potatoes
3 # Potatoes
6 Garlic
3 Shallots
1.5 # Carrots
2 Red Peppers
2 Green Peppers
2 Onions
1 Leek
3 Brussels Sprout Stalks
1 # Beets
2 bunches Kale
1 bunch Watermelon Radishes
7 Popcorn
1 Kohlrabi