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Re: price structure (long)



When I'm recruiting shareholders I show the average weekly value of a
"typical" share according to this year's prices in the grocery store for the
same stuff (at the commercial rate, not the sometimes-twice-as-high organic
rate).  If I have a bad year in the garden (like this year -- no irrigation
system set up and no rain from July 1st until September), I take their money
out of escrow and buy in the share stuff from other local farmers.  Next year
the CSA will be an alliance of ten farms.  Our market strategy is to stress
the fact that we're local, the quality is high, the price is fair.  We don't
have to be cheapest.

Getting members to agree to take what the garden offers has been a challenge
and a half.  Around here they're very much into the Madison Avenue buy-in,
which means that all of the produce should look alike and be totally blemish-
free, and they should get to choose exactly what they want when they want it.
Limes?  In Caton?  In March?  Sure, no problem <NOT>.

So I handle things the same way I do with "my" restaurants and my freelance
writing customers -- shareholders get a prepaid credit statement at the
beginning of the season (along with a membership card and a certificate they
can frame and hang on their wall), and they get an invoice and recipe sheet
with each packet.  A monthly statement -- showing the value of goods received
to date and remaining credit -- is mailed to them along with their newsletter.

I offer a "picked fresh while you wait" option on Sunday and Wednesday
evenings.  Note that I do not allow civilians into my gardens unattended.
They may accompany me or the trained assistant, or they may wander through the
flower gardens and pick their own bouquet.  This option of course permits more
variety.  I make a list on the bulletin board in the garage of what's
available that day, and they can select from that.

If they choose the "drop site" option (I deliver to two sites, a member's
front porch in Corning and a gift shop/garden store in Elmira) they get what I
give them -- what I was able to get to, what I felt like picking, yadda yadda.
No whining allowed.

They may also choose the option of purchasing one or more $50 "share cards",
good forever (well, as long as the business operates) -- business-card size on
hot pink stock, with the farm logo and eleven little hearts across the bottom.
Each heart is worth $5 and each card costs $50.  They may use these at our
farm stand, farmer's market, or to pay for visits or workshops.  Farm visits
for non-members are coincidentally $5 per person.  Card purchases do NOT make
holders a member of the community farm -- that's $25 per year per person (five
hours of work accepted in lieu of cash).

Farm members receive free visiting privileges, the monthly newsletter, 10%
discount on purchases (including craft items, preserves, dried herbs, etc.),
20% discount on workshops, and invitations to join the garden co-op, summer
jobs co-op, chicken co-op, goat co-op, horse and pony co-op, or affordable
houseing co-op.

This structure results in a membership that pays just for what each member
uses and is interested in.  Each co-op, of course, has its own price
structure:

Garden co-op -- $200 or $100 and 20 hours of work for a weekly food packet for
20 weeks June-October worth an average of $10 each week.

Summer jobs co-op -- work on farm, share profits from market and restaurant
sales in proportion to the amount of work you put in (total hours worked by
everybody/hours you worked).  This year from one restaurant and just about
four trips to market I got more than $10 per hour after deducting all of the
garden expenses.  Of course, total sales were far from enough to cover the
taxes, much less the mortgage.  But it's a darned good start!  (And easy to
figure since I was the only one working this year, boo hiss.)

Chicken co-op -- eggs and/or meat.  $100 buy-in plus $10 per month, minimum
one year commitment.  If you leave, the buy-in for all co-ops is refunded
after we recruit a replacement.

Goat co-op -- milk, cheese, fudge, ice cream, and meat when there's an
accident or if a wether blocks up with urinary stones (I don't leave them to
spend five days dying but I don't spend $500 on "maybe it'll work" surgery for
a $50 goat, either).  Of course we're on a UC prevention program, but they're
prone to this problem and it breaks my heart but off they go and I stay with
them right through to the very end -- they are never frightened and they never
know what happened.  Until last week this was a philosophical decision only,
lost my first one on Saturday and carried through the plan with my best two-
and-a-half-year-old pack wether, darn it I'm still crying.  We do not
intentionally raise our buck or wether babies for meat -- they're all training
as brush hogs and for pack and harness work.  Members may take pack wethers
along to the Finger Lakes or Allegheny trail systems after I've been satisfied
that they can work well with the animal.  There's also a swimmin' hole with a
waterfall just a couple of miles away, a nice hike if somebody else is
carrying towels and suits and lunch.  They travel in a station wagon.  Oh
yeah, co-op price is $200 buy-in and $25 per month, one-year commitment.  I
also of course have does, also a very nice registered Alpine buck who throws
absolutely beautiful babies.  In New York I cannot give away goat milk or
products much less sell them, but if you're a part-owner of the goat....

Horse and pony co-op:  riding and draft, also equine rescue through Panorama
Horse Rescue Association, Inc., a statewide not-for-profit.  We're rather
proud that we're one of three approved sites for the rescue and rehab of
neglected/abused horses and ponies.  After they're rehabbed, they're "adopted
out" for $300.  Right this minute we have no horses or ponies, will go
shopping when we have members.  Members are guaranteed at least three four-
hour time blocks with "their" animal each week.  $1000 buy-in includes tack
and/or harness and other equipment, plus $50 per month maintenance and an
agreement to cover a percentage of any vet bills other than maintenance.  For
instance, if we have three horses and twelve members, each member agrees to
cover 1/12th of the vet bills regardless of which horse has the problem.
During the winter we go with group consensus -- can choose to move the horses
to a boarding stable with an indoor arena with just a small hike in the
monthly maintenance rate.

Affordable housing co-op:  large private room and sharing privileges for the
kitchen, bath, living room, sauna, hot tub, swimming rights in the pond next
door.  $300 single/$400 double (2 people in one room) base rate includes
utilities and satellite TV and shared house phone.  Four hours per week of
help taking back out the dirt you bring in -- and helping with other
maintenance-type stuff like hauling firewood -- is required (hey, that's just
about half an hour a day), and there's an option to work off $100 of the
monthly rent by working an additional four hours per week.  $25 additional per
month if you choose to hide out in your room with your own TV (to cover the
extra electricity), $50 one-time fee to get your own satellite box.  Warning:
electric heaters are not allowed and there's one heat run for the upstairs.
Get social and hang out downstairs with the wood stove, be smart and warm.
House phone is unplugged after 10 PM -- if you want to receive calls later
than that, you may have your own line installed in your room at your expense.
After six months of compatible living, housemates can discuss long-term
intentional community membership with cash buy-in as a farm partner (doesn't
have to be 50%), time payments, or sweat equity arrangements.  At that point
they can elect to remain in the farmhouse or discuss construction of their own
separate dwelling.  Oh yeah, I'm no longer offering a "separate kitchen"
option -- this is an intentional community, not a rooming house.  Food is $50
per week, if we have surplus at the end of the month we decide by group
consensus what to do with it (pizza?  refund? donate to food pantry?).  Note:
affordable housing co-op is offered to non-smokers and non-chemical-users
(this includes hair spray, heavy perfume, and chronic bug sprayers) only.
Violence of action or language (including drunkenness) will be dealt with
immediately and appropriately -- by the Sheriff.  Couples will be considered,
but not children.  One neutered well-behaved pet is discussable.  We already
have four house cats, one house/farm dog, and one outdoor free-ranging
livestock guardian dog.  If you have animal allergies, this might not be the
best environment you could find.  If you have chemical sensitivities and love
animals and are committed to discovering new ways to live and work in
Community, it might just be perfect!  We are out in the country but not out in
the boonies -- good two-year community college five miles away, major mall and
airport and four-year college with Masters Degree programs ten times away,
major university (Mansfield) twenty miles away, Ithaca 45 miles away, good
jobs nearby.  I will reluctantly consider accepting rent payments from the
Department of Social Services (Welfare).  If you are able-bodied, I'd need to
know how you ended up in that unsustainable system and what you're doing to
get out of it.  If you have some disability but are ambulatory, this could be
a more-than-perfect place (eyesight failing, for example?  Nice to have folks
around to read phone books or pour hot tea water).  A car is useful but not
absolutely required -- if you are disabled or receive food stamps or meet some
other qualifications there's a "country access" bus that will pick you up at
the door and take you downtown for $1 -- to the stop for the bus that goes to
the college.  Other housemates are not automatically-available chauffeurs, but
occasional barters for transportation are possible.  Housemates may also
become farm apprentices or interns -- swap four hours of work for each hour of
concentrated instruction (that is, work with me for an hour, then work _for_
me for another three).  After a full season of apprenticeship or depending on
pre-existing knowledge/experience, you can be designated as an "intern", two
hours of work for one of instruction.  Each arrangement is worked out in
writing in advance as a curriculum, and college credit as an independent study
is possible.

When we have an empty room, farm members (remember that $25 annual thing) can
come for a weekend on our "Tanstaafl B&B" plan, another facet of the
affordable housing co-op.  The name is not Dutch, it stands for "There Ain't
No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."  For each night, $25 and four hours of work
gets a visitor a homegrown supper, overnight accommodations, hearty farm
breakfast, and directions to the very best tourist stuff in the area.  Offered
Friday and Saturday nights only.

So that's our pricing structure.  Yes, of course I have a professional-quality
computer setup to keep this all straight!  <G>  And I support it all with a
full-time job and a part-time consultancy (technical writing and quality
system management).

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Corning, NY
(New York State's Third Most Popular Tourist Destination)