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Small CSA Survey Results



In August I posted the following questions. 12 people responded. Their individual responses are separated by a slash (/). Also several people wanted to know what my answers were to the questions, so I include them here.
 

If you operate a Small CSA - say under 5 acres and involve 2 or less
laborers - counting yourself, would you send me an email? and answer the
following questions?

1. Number of farm laborers - counting yourself:
One. / 3 half timers, plus some casual student labour / We don't exactly fit your criteria.  My husband and I are laborers plus we have an intern 3 days/week. / Only ourselves-3.  /  2 full-time,  2 apprentices (4hr/wk). /  2.  /   I am
the only person working. /  2 plus volunteers / only me really, but this summer I thankfully had the help of 2 woofers most of the time. / I have 3 fairly consistant
gardeners plus 2 interns from 2 separate colleges.  My strength is my volunteer core, however. Plus I work about 80 hours a week these days. / 2, but many more friends at work parties and harvests. / 1 /
(Averages 2 or less, but then that was who I asked to respond.)

Me: Just me.

2. Number of Acres:
2 / 3 in vegetable production / almost 3 / The farm is 85 we have only a generous one acre planted to veggies / 1.5 under cultivation.  total acrage 1.8. / 1/2 acre / I presently farm about 1/4 acre. / 4.5 / in CSA - 1 plus / We are a bit unusual.  We
are a total of 4.5 acres but spread out over 9 sites (vacant lots within the
city of Tacoma, WA). / 1/4th. /  2 + 50 Pasture. /
(total of 23.5 acres for an average of just under 2 acres.)

Me: 1.5 acres

3. Number of Subscribers
97 / 60 + additional sales / 67 / 8 full shares 2 1/2 shares / 55 / about 60 people, 1 restaurant and 2 deli's. / I planned for five shares, had one, and
learned alot. / 50 plus some stores, restaurants and farmers market. / 22 X 2 person shares / have 2 pick ups a week, Tues. & Sat. and a total of 31 full shares (but some folks split so we
serve about 48 families). / 10 / 5 half shares, 1 full share (first year) & I'm working another job full time. /
(A total of 468 shares, but varied from 1 to 97, for an average of 39 shares/respondant. If we throw out the high and low we still come up with 37 shares / CSA respondant. But this is still misleading: Half of the respondents reported 1 to 31 subscribers; half reported 50 to 97 subscribers. There was a 19 subscriber gap between the high half and the low half. ? )

Me: 23 subscribers.

4: Delivery Season:
22 weeks June 1-Oct 31 / End August to February / 3rd week in May through Halloween / Basically July-October / Mid April through mid September  (24 weeks) / 20 weeks, early June to early October. / mid June to late October (19 wks) / mid-end june till end of Sept, first of Oct / (No reply) / 20 weeks June-Oct. /  late May to mid-October, then intermittently. /

Me: Mid May (small),  til the week of Thanksgiving.

5. Do you put out a regular newsletter?:
yes, weekly / We've only just started this year, but last week we put out our first
newsletter which we aim to be a monthly issue through the season /  every week / Its my goal to have a regular newsletter I wrote about 2 this summer, too
busy and with only 10 members I was in close conversation with them all
summer. /  Every week, describes what's going on at the farm, suggested recipes for  different veggies and special farm events. / weekly in season, about monthly
or less out of season. / I presently do not do a newsletter but may in the future. / Monthly / update on web page and monthly newsletter / I do a newsletter weekly (gotta get on it right now). / weekly harvest letter with shares during season. / weekly "letters", quarterly newsletters. /
(One did none, one did a couple, 3 do monthlys, 7 do weeklys.)

Me: I don't know how you guys do it. I managed a couple. I just don't have it in me.

6. State or Country:
Virginia (shares mostly delivered to Washington, DC) / Hungary /  Ohio / Massachusetts / Western Washington State / MI / Ohio / Ontario, Canada / Ontario, Canada / Tacoma WA /  WA / West Virginia /

Me: Sacramento Valley, CA

7. Do you plan to get bigger, or smaller, or do you just plan to get
better?:
yes/ First better and then bigger! / better and maybe smaller if I branch out into a different farm-related business and abandon the CSA to my husband's care. / Bigger and better.  30 members would be our first goal then maybe 5ish
years from now about 50.  I personally think 20 next year would be a big
enough jump from 9. / Explosive land prices makes getting bigger highly unlikely.  We use every square foot we own for rotating raised biointensively planted beds.  We interface with city government, other local growers and wannabe growers to actively create direct marketing opportunities, farm tours and cooperative workshops to support current CSAs and to stimulate new CSA start up. /  better / I plan to grow to 15 shares and stop there. I want to improve quality before expanding beyond five shares. / both / this is my first year, plan to review and decide over the winter. / Size wise, its max I can handle with the variables.  Next year, hope to empower the gardeners with more duties so I can go start a new csa at another location--this time in a school district. /  good question. probably a little bigger, and better ;-). / both /

Me: Maybe increase from 23 to 25 SHARES, and I am now as good as I'm going to get.
 
 Thank you all for responding. Hope you can get something out of this.