What to Give Your CSA Members
Overview of Two Onion Farm CSA Program
Year
Number of members* Average number of large boxes delivered per week**
2005
51
33
2006
168
83.4
2007
176
77.15
2008
296
122.1
2009
340
136.6
*i.e., signup forms received; some "members" are multiple households
** In this column, each small box is counted as half of a large box.
Pickup Locations: We deliver to Madison area on Tuesdays, and to Dubuque, Platteville, and
Galena on Fridays.
Delivery frequency: We offer weekly and biweekly (every other week) deliveries.
Box size: We offer large and small box sizes.
 Large is now packed in 3/4 bu box, small in 1/2 or 5/9 bu box. We aim to pack boxes pretty full
but not crammed full, because crammed boxes are time consuming to pack and cramming may
damage produce.
 In general, we aim to include the same number of vegetables in both large and small boxes.
Small boxes usually receive 1/2 - 2/3 the amount of each vegetable.
 History: In 2005 we offered one box size, packed in a 5/9 bushel box. Many people complained
this was too much for them, so in 2006 we renamed the previous standard box size as "Large" and
offered a "Small" box as well. Size of both small and large boxes has crept upwards from 20062009. Most members now report in surveys they are happy with the amount of vegetables they
receive from us.
 Different box sizes (large and small) cost time in packing and administration, we charge
proportionately more for a small box to compensate ourselves for this.
 An advantage of offering two box sizes is that it allows flexibility in dividing veggies among
boxes. For example, if we are giving out kohlrabi one week, we could decide to give 3 per large
box and 2 per small box, or 4 per large box and 2 per small box, depending on how much kohlrabi
we have available.
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Delivery
Frequency
Box
Size
Weekly
Weekly
Biweekly
Biweekly
Large
Small
Large
Small
Notes
Approx.
Percent of
members
10%
Most are split between 2 households
36%
12%
42%
Delivery seasons
Season
Full
Summer
Autumn
No. of
weeks
20
12
8
Dates
Approx Percent
of Members
6/13 – 10/30 79%
6/13 – 9/4
12%
9/5 – 10/30 9%
 Autumn season popular with new students and faculty at university who arrive in September,
and with some people who have summer gardens and only want veggies in autumn.
 Summer season popular with people who just don't like autumn veggies (too many roots and
squash), with schoolteachers who have summer vacations and cook more in summer, and with
families with college age kids who consume more veggies in summer.
 Some first-year members try a summer or autumn season share to see how they like CSA
without committing to a full season.
 From our point of view, a summer season and an autumn season member combined receive as
many vegetables as one full season member; the two short season members require more
administration time than one full season member; we charge a proportionately higher price for the
short season shares to compensate ourselves for our time.
Deciding what to put in the box
Our aims:
 Please members. Members should like the mix of vegetables, should feel they are getting a
good value for their money, and should not be overwhelmed with the amount of vegetables.
 We can't please everyone. Different members like different things.
 Please ourselves. What would we like in a box? What do we like to grow? (Not potatoes,
sweet corn, or salad greens)
 Include combinations of vegetables which go well together in recipes.
 Consistency from year to year. While we want to improve, we also want to project a fairly
consistent image of our farm and not drastically change our offerings from year to year. Returning
members should know what to expect from us.
 Each week's box should be reasonably full but not crammed.
Page 2 of 11
Specific goals
 Aim for 8-12 vegetables per week.
 We break vegetables into groups, and aim for a certain number of vegetables from each group
each week; varying over the course of the season. Table below shows our goals:
Vegetable Group
Alliums
How often
Every week: Green onions 2x, bulb onions 18x, garlic
bulbs 12-14x, garlic scapes 1-2x, and leeks 6x.
Beans and Peas
Peas 3x at beginning of season, beans 8x weeks in July,
early August. Beans & peas are very popular.
Summer Fruit Vegetables. In late July and August, we aim for 5-6 of these vegetables
(Eggplant, summer squash, every week. Only 1-2 per week in early July, early
cucumbers, cherry and
September. Members tire of eggplant, others can be given
slicing tomatoes, peppers) out as often as we have them. Succession plantings required
for cukes and summer squash.
Cooking greens
Collards 1x, Chard 1-2x, Kale 1-2x. These are not popular
veggies with most members. We try to save them for weeks
when we don't have many other vegetables ripe.
Salad greens
Head lettuce every week of season. Lettuce is very popular
and easy to prepare. We use frequent succession plantings
and seasonally adapted varieties to ensure availability
throughout season. Spinach 1-2 weeks at beginning and 1-2
at end. We do not grow baby salad mix because of labor
required to harvest.
Potatoes
4x in fall. We buy our potatoes from another farm. We
don't enjoy growing them, had poor yields in past, and lack
specialized planting, hilling, and harvesting equipment.
Winter Squash
Last 8-9 weeks of year. Acorn 4-5x, rest buttercup,
butternut, or delicata. Members like squash.
Big Brassicas
Broccoli is very popular and we aim to include it every
week in June, July, Sept and Oct (~16 weeks total) –
sometimes we do not achieve that because of difficulty
properly scheduling succession plantings. Cabbage 4-5x
over season (easy to grow and we like it, but not popular
with most members). Cauliflower 2-3x in late summer and
early fall (we have abandoned spring cauliflower because of
difficulty growing large nice looking heads in that season).
Brussels sprouts are very popular – last 3 weeks of season.
"Roots" (Beet, Carrot,
0-1 of these veggies per week in late July and August, 2-3 of
Celeriac, Fennel, Kohlrabi, them most other weeks. Carrots are very popular and we
Radish, Rutabaga, Salad
give them 2-3x in early summer and again every week for
Turnip)
last 10 weeks. Radishes (regular and beauty heart) are
popular and we give out 6-8x over year. The others in this
category are not too popular with members and we give
them 1-3x.
Herbs
Basil 4x, dill 1x, parsley 2-3x.
Page 3 of 11
Portions
Table below shows, for each vegetable, the portion which we aim to include in each box in the
weeks when we distribute this vegetable. Factors we consider here are:
(i) For most vegetables, we aim for each small box to have 1/2 to 2/3 the amount in each large box.
(ii) We aim to include an amount large enough to be useful for people preparing and cooking the
vegetable (e.g., 5 green beans or 1 carrot would not be good portions for a box).
(iii) We aim for an amount that is not so large that it will overwhelm members.
Crop
Large
Small Unit
Notes
Box
Box
Basil
2
1
plant
Beans, Green
16
8-10 oz
Beet
5-8
3-5
roots
Broccoli
2
1
heads
Brussels Sprouts 2
1
stalk
Cabbage
1
1
head
Carrot
8-12
5-8
roots
Cauliflower
1
1
head
Celeriac
1
1
roots
Collards
10
6
leaves
Cucumber
2-6
1-3
fruits
very variable yield week to week!
Dill
2
1
plants
Eggplant
2-4
1-2
fruits
variable yield week to week
Fennel
3
2
bulbs
Garlic
2
1
bulbs
Kale
10
6
leaves
Kohlrabi
3
2
roots
Leek
4
2
stalks
Lettuce
2
1
heads
Onion, Bulb
2-3
1-2
bulbs
Onion, Green
2
1
bunches
Parsley
8
5
leaves
Pea, Snap
16
8-10 oz
Pepper
2-4
1-2
fruits
Potato
2.5
1.5
lbs
Radish, Beauty
3
2
roots
Heart
Radish, Red
8
5
roots
Rutabaga
3
2
roots
Spinach
16
8
oz
Squash, Summer 2-6
1-3
fruits
variable yield week to week
Squash, Winter
1-2
1
fruit
Swiss Chard
10
6
leaves
Tomato, Cherry
1
0.5
pint
Tomato, slicing
4-12
2-6
fruits
very variable yield over harvest season
Turnip, Salad
3
2
roots
Page 4 of 11
Recordkeeping and planning forms
 In planning our plantings, we write a grid of what we would like to give out each week of the
season. We decide what, when, and how much to plant based on this grid. We make sure that the
grid meets our aims for numbers of vegetables in each box. We try to ensure that there is an extra
vegetable available for each week of the season in case of crop failure. Here is a portion of the
planning grid, showing in which weeks we plan to distribute each vegetable:
Week
Crop
1
2
Leek
X
Onion, Bulb
X
Onion, Green
3
4
X
X
5
X
6
X
7
X
8
X
9
10
X
X
11
X
12
13
X
X
X
X
14
X
15
16
17
X
X
X
X
X
18
19
X
X
20
X
X
X
 We record what goes into every box we pack. Here is an example of datasheet used to record
box contents for one CSA delivery day in mid September, 2008:
Large
Large
Small
Small
Small
Small
Small
Delivery Frequency
(Weekly / Biweekly):
W
B
W
W
W
B
B
Box letter (for internal
tracking purposes):
A
B
C
D
E
G
H
1
2
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
10
5
1-2
2
3
10
5
2
6
2-3
2
6
2-3
2
6
2-3
2
6
2-3
2
6
2-3
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
12
12
6
6
6
6
6
Box Size:
Crop
Squash
Garlic
Onion
Cauliflower
Kohlrabi
Carrot
Leek
Broccoli
Peppers
Lettuce
Kale
Type /
Variety
Tiptop
Frontier
King Rich
Gypsy
RK/Lab
Eruption
Red
Russian
Page 5 of 11
 At the end of the year, we draw up a grid showing in which weeks we gave out each vegetable.
We use this to evaluate whether we met our aims and decide what we should do differently next
year. Here is a portion of a summary showing when we gave out particular vegetables in 2009:
Week
Crop
Delivery Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Eggplant
Tues
1 2
2 2 2
Eggplant
Fri
2
2 2 2
Fennel
Tues
2
2
Fennel
Fri
2
2
Garlic
Tues
2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Garlic
Fri
2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Garlic Scapes Tues
2 2
Garlic Scapes Fri
2 2
Kale
Tues
2
2 1
Kale
Fri
2
2 1
Kohlrabi
Tues
2
2
2
Kohlrabi
Fri
2
2
2
Leek
Tues
2
2 2
2 2
2
Leek
Fri
2
2 2
2 2
2
1=We gave this vegetable out in some boxes
2=We gave this vegetable out in every box
Page 6 of 11
Surveys
 In our end of season surveys, we typically ask the following survey questions about box
contents:
2. Did you receive the following vegetables too often, as often as you wanted, or not often
enough?
As often
Too
as I
Not often
Often
wanted
enough
Comments
Beets



Broccoli



Brussels sprouts



Cabbage



Carrots



Cauliflower



Cucumbers



Eggplant



Garlic



Green/Yellow Beans



Kohlrabi



Lettuce



Onions



Peppers



Summer Squash/Zucchini



Tomatoes



Winter Squash



3. Please list any other vegetables which you received too often or not often enough:
Too often:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Not often enough:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. Were you splitting your vegetables with another household?  Yes  No
5. How many people in your household were you feeding?
___________________________________________
6. Overall, did you receive the right amount of vegetables?
 I received too many vegetables
 I received the right amount
 I did not receive enough
 From 2005-2007 we distributed surveys in the last box of season together with a SASE.
Typically 70-80% of members returned the surveys.
Page 7 of 11
 In 2008, we switched to SurveyMonkey.com online surveys. We emailed a survey link to
each member (except we mailed surveys together with a SASE to members without email).
Survey return rate has dropped to 55-60%, but we saved much money and time.
 Clear patterns have emerged from survey in many years. In response to this we have
increased amounts of garlic, peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, and green beans which we
distribute, and decreased kohlrabi, beets, and cabbage. Generally our members prefer "common"
vegetables over "unusual" ones.
 Problems with survey:
(1) Sometimes members disagree with each other. E.g., many members say they got too much of
something, and many say they got too little of same vegetable. This often happens in our
surveys with eggplants, cooking greens.
(2) Hard to differentiate members' opinions of how many weeks they got a vegetable, and how
much they got each week.
Page 8 of 11
Extras for members.
Swap boxes. All of our pickup sites have swap boxes, so members can trade items from their
box for other items from the swap box. We seed the swap box with a few vegetables at the start
of each day. We post a list of what constitutes an "equivalent" exchange with the swap box. The
pickup site host keeps what is left in the swap box at the end of the day. This has worked very
well for us; some members swap extensively, and others not at all.
Extra bulk or storage vegetables. We used to offer a storage vegetable share but now allow
members to buy extra storage vegetables a la carte. Storage shares often contain a lot of a few
vegetables (e.g., squash, carrots, potatoes, onions) and members may choose to not buy them
simply because they do not like 1 or 2 of those vegetables. Most members do not buy storage
vegetables from us. We also allow members to order bulk paste tomatoes from us in late
summer. We have offered some other bulk vegetables to members in the past for freezing or
canning, but they were generally not popular.
Non-vegetable items. We do not raise or sell non vegetable items. We don't want to spread
ourselves too thin. We do partner with a meat CSA program run by another farm, but most of
our members do not sign up for that. Fruit would probably add a lot of value to our shares –
many members request fruit. We have raised watermelons in past and will reintroduce them this
year. We have tried purchasing raspberries from another farm but there were negative aspects to
this: particularly cost, difficulty maintaining freshness of berries during handling and transport,
and arranging logistics of delivery and transport.
Recipes and storage tips. Essential and valuable to some members.
Pick-your-own and on farm events. We do not offer because of time needed to manage and
orchestrate. Added value?
Farm work opportunities. Our members can choose to sign up for 4 hour workshifts and
receive a $25 or $35 rebate on their membership price for each shift worked. Approximately
10% of members opt to work on the farm. Most working members work for the experience, not
the rebate, but we feel it's important to make some financial recognition of their contribution.
The opportunity to work is valuable to some members. Member work is important to our farm.
Mandatory workshifts?
Service. Organized deliveries; flexible pickup times and delivery schedules; member
communication all are important to members and add value.
Page 9 of 11
Pricing your share.
Price history. Originally we based prices primarily on what competition charged. Between
2006-2007 we raised prices by about 50% so that we could continue farming. Since then we
have raised prices each year at approximately rate of inflation. 2010 prices below
Delivery
Season
Full
Full
Full
Full
Summer
Summer
Summer
Summer
Autumn
Autumn
Autumn
Autumn
Box
Size
Large
Small
Large
Small
Large
Small
Large
Small
Large
Small
Large
Small
Delivery
Frequency
Weekly
Weekly
Biweekly
Biweekly
Weekly
Weekly
Biweekly
Biweekly
Weekly
Weekly
Biweekly
Biweekly
Madison
area
$750
$475
$435
$280
$485
$320
$290
$200
$330
$210
$200
$145
 In general, we offer volume discounts: full season, large box, weekly deliveries cost less "per
vegetable" than short season, small box, biweekly deliveries. We justify this primarily because
of administrative overhead per member.
 Prices in table above are for Madison area; inn Platteville, Dubuque, and Galena, we charge
$5-$10 less for each share because of lower delivery costs there.
Pricing Philosophy
 We do not compare price to stores or farmers markets.
 We do not try to add up the value of the items in our boxes and make sure that each box has a
certain dollar value of produce.
 We do look at prices charged at other area CSA farms but don't try to follow them closely.
 We rely heavily on surveys and informal feedback from members to gauge our prices and the
success of our farm. Two of our goals for our farm are to satisfy our members with quality food
and to provide a decent livelihood for our family (and pay a decent wage to our farmworkers). If
members like the value they get from us and if we can make a living then our prices are good.
Page 10 of 11
Resources
CSA Training Manual from CSAFarms.org (http://www.csafarms.org/csafarms0656231.asp)
has some discussion of share types, pricing, and what to include in CSA boxes (see Chapters 1
and 4 in the manual)
Sharing the Harvest, by Elizabeth Henderson with Robyn Van En (Chelsea Green Publishing
Company, 2007) discusses what to include in shares in Chapter 16. Suggestions from different
farmers there:
 1) Get input from members about what they want; 2) Don't give too much; 3) Offer some
choices in box contents (swap box, choice items, etc.)
 Offer a special extra "greens" share – a bunch of cooking greens each week for those who
want it; others get few or no cooking greens.
 Include a weekly postcard survey with each box to get immediate member feedback on the
veggies in the box.
 Some CSA farms allow members to order their vegetables each week and decide what they
want in their box.
Page 11 of 11