In the last couple weeks, I've had something of a change of heart with regards to the CSA.
All along, I've planned on this being a learning season, with no idea what I'm going to do next year. Well, I've learned enough in six weeks of deliveries and five months of work in the garden to figure out what I want.
After this week's pickup (today), I will not be providing a pre-filled bag of produce each week.
Instead, anyone who wants produce will be able to pick-and-choose what they want, from what I have available, instead of paying a fixed price for a fixed bag of veggies.
Every week, I will send out an email (and post to the blog) what will be available that week, along with a price. You'll either tell me what you want via email, or show up on Wednesdays (market days), and I'll slaughter the produce fresh from the garden, just for you.
I'll have standard prices for produce like heads of lettuce for $2, a pound sack of mixed greens for $3, a bunch of greens for $2, a bunch of cilantro or parsley or basil for $2, tomatoes for $2/lb, a half-dozen eggs for $2, etc. The prices will be relatively equal to New Seasons prices. The availability will vary greatly from week-to-week. Some weeks, there will be only greens and lettuce. Some weeks there will be tomatoes or squashes or melons. If things go well I may put a sign up on Ainsworth: "Fresh Veggies For Sale".
I'm doing this change for two reasons:
1. I don't like making money with the CSA, and when running a CSA, there are expectations to deliver specific quantities and varieties of produce each and every week. Hence, there is a lot of work to do for very little money, and working for money takes away the enjoyment of the project.
2. We (Sarah, Lily and I) need to remain the primary consumers of the produce, which means that some crops that I had planned to include in the pickups are now going to be nearly 100% canned/preserved by us instead. Take for instance the peas - I gave out about 15 pounds of peas this spring, but as it stands, we're going to run out of our frozen-preserved peas before the winter is through, so I really should have given out none (or planted about five times as much as I did). Take also the onions - I've been yanking those spring onions early, to fill out a weekly bag when I should have just left them in the ground to mature.
I cannot continue to provide an abundance of high-quality produce to my CSA subscribers, and still meet my goals of growing for our family while enjoying the work.
My primary goal with this project was to experiment a bit, and through the act of trying, figure out how I wanted to garden. I now know that I don't want to be a farmer, I don't want to make money gardening, but I do want to grow a lot for my family and be able to offer extras to friends. Thank you again for helping me get this far - I've learned a lot.
So stay tuned for next week's post with produce availability, and you can always use the new link at the top of the page, "
This Week's Availability & Prices".
