Heritage Lane Farms
Shown here with wife Victoria and children Lauren and Connor, Greg Boyd of Heritage Lane Farms gets his early spring CSA produce started in a former tobacco greenhouse. Boyd has harnessed the power of computers to offer a very flexible CSA system that requires minimal administrative fuss on his part.
The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) concept is, on the face of it, simple: customers pay up front for a share of the season's produce which the farmer provides for pickup, usually on a weekly basis.
Many CSAs focus on veggies but some offer add-ons such as eggs, flowers or meat, as well as building in flexibility in other ways. The upside of offering choice seems intuitive — customer satisfaction. But can flexible options have a downside?
A little elbow grease
While most CSA programs package the week's offerings for customers to collect, Simcoe, Ontario's Meadow Lynn Market Garden operates differently. On Tuesdays customers arrive to find the produce arranged in bins at the pickup location. Consulting the chalkboard that lists the serving sizes (one bunch of radishes, two zucchini etc.), each customer works their way down the line filling their box accordingly. In some cases they get to make a choice, for example between two types of salad greens, or different kinds of squash.
Meadow Lynn's CSA manager Sarah Judd notes that most customers like the system. Though self-pack leaves the door open for folks to slip extras into their bin, Judd feels there is a sufficiently strong trust relationship with her customers to minimize the risk of abuse.
Managing add-ons
Many producers offer add-ons to the weekly veggie box. Meadow Lynn offers egg, flower and meat shares. Sleepy G Farm of Pass Lake, Ontario gives CSA customers first dibs on items like pickling cucumbers, freezer beans and beef.
In Meadow Lynn's case, customers sign up at the start of the season for the extra shares. The pre-order helps Meadow Lynn plan ahead.
Sleepy G on the other hand, simply puts out the word to customers when extras are available. Because Sleepy G sells at a market as well as running the CSA, they're confident they can sell what they produce either way.
Sleepy G's customers can also sign up for weekly portions of locally-baked bread or locally-roasted coffee. "We like to partner with other locally owned, similarly aligned businesses," notes Sleepy G's Marcelle Paulin. The farm makes a small amount from each transaction. More importantly, though, it's a way of adding value to the program.
"If there's a problem with the product, we have to manage the complaints but have no control over the issue," Paulin notes. "We choose our partners carefully."
CSA Bin Layout
Meadow Lynn Market Gardens lay out the week's produce so customers can pack their own boxes. The method saves on labour costs and customers get to choose, in some cases, between different options.
Pick-up or delivery?
In many CSAs, customers can elect to pick up on-farm or at a specified off-farm location. Some farms offer home delivery. Ben James of Fresh Start Farms in Waterford, Ontario notes that there's a benefit to the latter option.
"When we started out, we decided to drop off orders on the way to the market," James explains. "We didn't spend time waiting for someone to show up at the pickup location, and we were sure each person got their order. It can actually take less time to do it that way."
There are costs associated with delivery, such as fuel and depreciation. Some farms add a convenience fee as an offset.
On the other hand, offering on-farm or specific-location pickup gives a chance to offer a "swap" or "trade" bin, a feature offered by both Meadow Lynn and Fiddle Foot Farm in Mulmur, Ontario. The swap bin, pre-stocked at the start of the day, gives the customers a chance to trade items from their basket one-for-one for items in the bin.
Managing logistics
CSA Swap Bin
A swap bin like the one shown here at Lynn Meadow Market Gardens, gives customers a chance to trade off items in their CSA basket for something they might prefer. While it doesn't require much work on the CSA operator's part, it's seen as a bonus by some customers.
The more complex your operation, the more data you need to keep tabs on. Both Fresh Start Farm and Fiddle Foot Farm use spreadsheets for tracking. Meadow Lynn uses a free information management program on their email distribution system. Sleepy G opted to pay for CSA management software. Paulin feels the money is well spent, noting that the system "helps my members manage their membership without me."
Greg Boyd of Heritage Lane Produce in Langton, Ontario, took data solutions one step further. Boyd's CSA members can customize their box by opting to receive additional quantities of some items, and skipping others.
"The first few years we did a lot of manual entry back and forth from emails," Boyd says, "Preparing 80 boxes a week took us about five or six hours of inputting."
To address this issue, Heritage Lane's web site designer developed a customized ordering system. Using a dropdown menu, the customer opts for zero, one or two servings of the veggies on the list, until they hit the pre-set number of items for the week. They also input their desired pickup location. The system crunches the data and provides a readout of who's picking up, where, as well as a pick list for each box.
Boyd attends three local farmers' markets. This secondary sales avenue is key to the sustainability of his CSA model. Otherwise, he'd risk ending up with excess produce, depending on how his orders shook out.
The bottom line
Flexibility can contribute to customer satisfaction and retention. The good news is that computer-based solutions exist for managing the complexity that comes with choice. And as Sleepy G's Paulin notes, the less time the farmer spends on administration the more time they can spend in the fields growing good food.
- Lisa Timpf