What's Your Share Worth? This is the tile of an article written by J.P. Cooley and D.A. Lass and is actually an extract of Cooley’s Master’s thesis comparing CSA Share Cost vs its Retail Value. Written in 1996, it tracks three Massachusetts CSAs for one season.
I read the above study back about eight years ago and I’ve always known in my gut that their findings were true, that most CSAs are worth approximately double the amount paid. I had not attempted to reproduce their study on my own farm beyond pricing a few items each summer. Occasionally I’d report my findings in a newsletter or two, things such as “your raspberries this week are worth about $4 and corn is selling locally for about $7.80 a dozen.”
This year I decided to attempt to value our entire harvest. To aid in keeping an accurate record I bought a plain notebook. Each week I include the attendance information and a listing of the vegetables, herbs and flowers that I harvest plus the upick selections offered. The use of the notebook has increased the accuracy of my harvest log significantly from past years when I’d enter the information directly from the whiteboards into a Word document. I forgot to enter many a week this way by erasing a board in prep for the new week before recording it. Last year for example, I did not enter one word for June.
A few small mistakes were found in the notebook log as I prepared for this article such as forgetting to record the upicks one week but unlike before, I never missed a week.
I researched prices in three locations - one standard grocery store, a more upscale grocery store with a larger selection of natural and organic produce, and a local farm stand. I found the grocery stores easier to gather information from because no one really cares if you jot notes into a notebook. I felt that would be in poor taste in the tiny farm stand.
I found the task of combining the data, my harvest log and the grocery store prices more difficult than expected. My notes are written in quantity such as one squash or one head of garlic. Prices are usually per pound. There are at times large differences between the organic vs. conventional price and there are price fluctuations week to week. Some vegetables had no organic counterpart; some vegetables were not even available in their raw state, such as fresh edemame. It’s been a time-consuming task to weigh various samples of each vegetable and enter its weight and value into the harvest log. Next year when I enter each week’s harvest information into the log I will jot down a weight for each item as well. It will simply be a matter of bringing my scale out with me as I tend pickups. I always have a spare minute or two as the folks collect their vegetables. This will make next year's research much easier and hopefully more accurate.
As of this writing I am three weeks in advance of our closing date, weeks of which I will need to guess (educated guess however) at the items to be harvested. Due to these less-than-scientific methods, a to-the-penny retail valuation of our CSA share will not be possible, but I believe an accurate estimate will be.
In preliminary surveys of members and farmers, Cooley and Lass found that members believed that they were paying the same or even more for their vegetables than the same purchased from a local store. The authors speculated that this was because the members pay a “large” sum all at once. They also found that the farmers were not using cost savings as part of their advertising. I will interject here that that this study was done in 1996. CSAs have gotten a lot of press since then, especially in the last two years or so, including mainstream newspapers and magazines. There are hardy recommendations in two books I read this summer, Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and Real Food by Nina Planck. Presently all new members that search me out have already been educated as to the definition and often the cost of CSA from all this good press. When we started our CSA in 1997 I did find myself having to explain CSA, but I was able to make mention of this study and the cost saving aspect of CSA in my brochure.
Show Me The Money
June
There are two pickup weeks in June. Our members went home with rhubarb, green garlic, scapes, lots of mint, a smattering of other herbs, bok choi, lettuce, strawberries, frisee, edible podded peas, swiss chard, two eggs and a couple stems of flowers. June tallies at $19.30.
July
There were five pickup weeks in July and the bounty increased: small garlic (last year's volunteers), frisee, tatsoi, scapes, beet greens and beets, lettuce, scallions, edible podded peas in which one week included 300 peas and one week was unlimited (3-5+lbs), assorted herbs with mint being very prolific, Napa cabbage, summer squash, beans with at least one week unlimited, onions, swiss chard, potatoes started in the last week (5 lbs of reds), and a few stems of flowers. July tallies at $107.50.
August
Sees product continuations and additions: leeks, onions, summer squashes, bell and hot peppers, garlic, beets, lettuce, beans with two weeks unlimited, cherry tomatoes, saladette type tomatoes, a small taste of regular tomatoes, swiss chard, good amounts of basil and a taste of other herbs, potatoes, cabbage, bok choi, celery, everyone’s favorite - corn for three weeks in row!, and about 8 stems of flowers including sunflowers, dahlias, snapdragons, zinnias, and cosmos. Also included in most weeks was the “assorted table.” I read about this somewhere and realized that it is a fabulous way to use vegetables for which you have too few or too many. Some of those vegetables included were broccoli and carrots of which there was never enough for everyone each week, and bok choi and regular cabbage for which there is only a select audience. At times I will even include a prolific vegetable that is part of the share that week. By including it on the assorted table it gives the members a chance at a bit more of things like like a lot such as summer squash, peppers, or onions. August tallies up at $170.83.
September
There are four weeks as of this writing. We’ve completed three weeks. Pickups included virtually all the vegetables listed in August plus acorn squash, edemame, and another member favorite - raspberries. Purple broccoli and orange cauliflower appeared on the assorted table, flower quantity increased by a few stems. Projecting the as yet not harvested week four at the same value as week three tallies up at $236.47.
October
The plan is to have two pickups in October. It is “scheduled” to frost sometime during the second week. As in September most of the above vegetables, herbs and flowers will be included until frost. October will also see members taking home approximately four butternut squash, two additional acorns, 3 pumpkins in assorted sizes, 6 tiny Jack Be Little pumpkins, a few random “other” winter squash such as Kuri, buttercup and the weird zucchini look-alike Long Pie Pumpkin.
We have one last batch of corn that as of this writing has nice immature ears. We are optimistic. I will for the first time have some ornamental Chinese lanterns to offer and maybe a (volunteer) gourd or two. The assorted table will allow for a few more winter squash to go home with those who choose. Folks will be allowed to harvest and bunch two corn stalk bundles. Using the last pickup weeks of September and the remaining as yet unharvested inventory mentioned above, it's easy to project that each week in October will tally at $75-100 each for a total of $150-$200.
October also contains the well-loved “Frost Day.” When I hear a frost warning for that evening I send out an email in the morning: “Anyone who can make it may come at l pm today and upick the delicate crops.” This is often surprisingly well attended (7+ ish folks) for such a last-minute event. I guide them in what to pick and it usually includes liberal amounts of peppers (some folks dig up an entire plant just for fun to winter over), tomatoes, eggplant, flowers and various herbs. If I still have a pickup day or two left I pick the above and store them in my basement so as to have inventory to finish up the season. This Frost Day bounty is not accounted for.
I also offer the occasional “free” items, usually baseball bat type zucchinis. I might only have one to three each pickup day. Free items are first come, first served. This past week I picked a handful of Habaneras. They were free. Even after giving them away for free, I had some left. It is New England after all. Upick corn is offered a few times a summer. Just as a batch of corn is about done there are still quite a few “corn for recipes” ears left. One to one and a half dozen is the usual amount offered. None of these free items are accounted for either.
Other Products
Maple Syrup (except for last season) eight ounces to each membership plus the chance to visit the sugar house to watch the process.
Weekly Farm Visit
There is a local “tourist/petting zoo” farm near us that charges $10 a ticket. My folks visit for about 20 weeks and while we don’t offer a hayride (yet) or corn maze we do offer a chance to pick corn and other vegetables. Not only can you pet a sheep, calf, or chicken, you get to feed them corn husks and corn ear worms!
Education
I have child members who’ve virtually grown up with us. There are at least two who began their membership in utero. I’ve had many a parent or grandparent tell me that because the child helped to pick the vegetables, they now enjoy eating them. I have quite a few kiddos who eat cherry tomatoes straight off the vine with the same glee as the raspberries they help pick (straight into their mouths). I have an adult member who just entered cooking school and I know his two years with us will help him in his studies. Last year, his first, he commented a few times on how he didn’t know this or that grew that way. He also now knows what “real” food tastes like.
When asked by a prospective member, “How much will I get?” I’ve learned to answer, “If you take advantage of everything I offer, from “free” zucchini to upick corn to frost day, the answer is tons.”
To paraphrase the credit card commercial: Cost of membership, $475. Value of membership, approximately $734.00+. Plus a weekly trip to a farm for education and fun: Priceless.