The Changing Face of Community Supported Agriculture

May 2013

Avi Miner, Cornell Cooperative Extension-Tompkins County
Ithaca, NY

As the movement to eat a more locally sourced diet has grown, food producers have become increasingly creative with direct marketing to reach a larger customer base. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become popular because of its flexibility, risk management benefits, and potential for close relationships with customers.

For Tompkins County the current movement began in 1990, and experienced slow but steady growth for about fifteen years. During that time, vegetable shares were the predominant option, with some meat shares also available. CSAs generally adhere to several traditional principles, although in recent years the model has experienced significant evolution. The basic principles of CSA include:

• Community members agree to purchase a farmer’s harvest in advance of the growing season and a farmer agrees to grow the food necessary to meet that commitment.
• All or most of the cost for a portion, or “share”, of the harvest is paid up front, providing farmers with funds to purchase supplies for the season.
• When the harvest season begins, CSA members receive a share of the harvest each week.
• Opportunities for shareholders to visit the farm informally throughout the season for pickups, u-pick crops, and special events.

Over the past five years, Tompkins County has become an excellent showcase for the benefits and versatility of the CSA model. In 2012 over 3,400 customers in and around Tompkins County were enjoying a wide variety of products from area CSAs. In 2010, the number of shareholders was around 2,200, showing a 55% increase in shares over two years. This increased participation is due only in part to growth in the number and size of traditional vegetable CSAs. Many notable changes have also occurred in how CSAs are run and what products they offer. The annual March CSA Fair sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County had 15 vendors in 2011 and 30 in 2013.

First and foremost, the range of products available through CSA is wider than just vegetables and meat. New products include a variety of artisan cheeses from throughout the Finger Lakes region, berries, bread, value-added products such as prepared foods, fresh cut flowers, herbal products, fruit, apple cider (fresh and hard), mushrooms, animal fiber, and even art. This explosion in product availability is evidence that more farms are seeing a benefit to engaging customers in a more active and continuous way than just single purchases.

As more farms adopt CSA marketing options, co-marketing and collaboration between farms has given rise to organizations like the Full Plate Farm Collective, a group of several CSAs that customers can sign up for at the same time. This adds convenience for both farms and customers by combining pick-up locations for several CSAs into one location that creates good visibility for all participating farm enterprises and becomes a weekly fun event for shareholders to attend. The Full Plate Farm Collective has further capitalized on this method by aggregating produce from several mixed vegetable and fruit farms into a single, more comprehensive share. Another method of collaboration is for CSAs to partner up in order to offer multiple pickup locations, making shares available to a larger customer base.

In addition to new products, CSAs in Tompkins County have branched out from the basic principles listed above. Several have adopted a pre-paid loyalty discount model in which customers pay a set amount up front and get an additional amount as a bonus. For example, at The Piggery’s farm store the minimum is $100 and customers get an immediate ten percent boost: $100 turns into $110 of store credit issued on a card. Similarly, vegetable CSAs that vend at multiple farmers’ markets benefit from this model because it offers increased flexibility for customers and reduces the farmer’s effort spent tracking which customer has picked up their share or how many shares to pack for a given location. Shareholders who buy a pre-paid card can buy products according to their own needs and schedule.

One drawback to the pre-paid discount loyalty card is that risk is not truly shared between the farmer and the shareholder. A crop failure may cause potential shareholders to hold onto their credit for a long time, delaying their next purchase. This can mean the farm earns less from each shareholder, because the initial investment is much lower than for a traditional CSA.

Wide Awake Bakery has also opted for a different model. Breadshare members reserve a set number of loaves ahead of time and pick them up on a weekly or biweekly basis, skipping weeks when they are on vacation or don’t need bread. Payment and balance tracking of breadshare members is accomplished through third-party software called Farmigo. This system works well for a bakery because of the need to know in advance how many loaves to bake for a given week. Like the store credit pre-paid card method, this sacrifices risk sharing in favor of greater convenience and flexibility for the customer.

New products and models lend themselves to an environment in which CSA enthusiasts can easily sign up for multiple CSAs, covering a large portion of their grocery needs with products such as bread, meat, cheese, and stored winter crops keeping CSAs going year round. A CSA that goes year round will need to do less marketing work to re-recruit last year’s members. In Tompkins County, it is possible to eat local vegetables almost year round, between CSAs that are offering Summer/Fall and Winter shares and the Good Life Farm, the sole farm to fill the Spring CSA niche so far. Beyond Tompkins County, the “full diet” CSA is gaining popularity. This gives shareholders some of everything and often works well with farm cooperatives with a large variety of products.

Modifications and rapid growth in the Community Supported Agriculture model over the past five years have proved its flexibility in creating symbiotic benefits for farmers, customers, and the local food economy in Tompkins County and beyond. Farms are finding that CSA often combines nicely with or even replaces other direct marketing channels such as farm stands and farmers’ markets.

Avi Miner is a Local Food Community Educator in the Agriculture Program at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County.

“Smart Marketing” is a marketing newsletter for extension publication in local newsletters and for placement in local media. It reviews elements critical to successful marketing in the food and agricultural industry. Please cite or acknowledge when using this material. Past articles are available at http://marketingpwt.aem.cornell.edu/publications.html.

Crooked Carrot "CSK" Celebrates its First Season on the Farm

By Erika Lundahl

Since 2011, Crooked Carrot Community Supported Kitchen has sought to provide healthy, locally sourced meals to the larger Finger Lakes community - and this season brings a big change.

Early morning on Crooked Carrot Farm, out past rows of apple trees and a small creek, plots of onions are just beginning to sprout. “Garlic, hot peppers, cabbage, parsley, herbs – we’re really so excited for the farm’s first season,” says Jenny Caldwell, one of the farm’s founders. Alongside her is Silas Conroy, one of the founders of the Crooked Carrot Kitchen in 2011.

The farm, located on two acres of land between the Cayuga Lake Watershed and the Chesapeake Watershed, began as Hemlock Grove Farm by Jenny’s parents. Jenny, who has been farming on various Upstate New York farms since she was in high school, is giving the farm a second life.

Now it serves to support the Crooked Carrot Community Supported Kitchen in their CSK (similar to a CSA) “shares.” Each share contains a variety of pre-prepared dips, broths, beans, and vegetable dishes with ingredients sourced from the Crooked Carrot Farm as well as several other local farms.

Groundswell has played a crucial role supporting the development of the two businesses – the kitchen and the farm. Silas, an Ithaca transplant from Central Pennsylvania, took the Groundswell farm business planning class for the kitchen in 2012, and Jenny took the same class in 2013 for the farm. They have been working together to refine the interdependent relationship between the two businesses.

“The Groundswell class really helped us develop our budgetary goals and create a comparison enterprise budget to see the costs vs. income viability of each of our ventures individually,” says Silas. He has been working with the kitchen for three years and sees the farm as a way to further their personal values of sustainable agriculture and sustainable living.

“In farming you get to see so clearly how interconnected ecological systems are, and how your decisions effect your immediate environment. This lifestyle is sort of a bridge between personal and environmental health,” says Silas.  Together he and Jenny presented their unique business plan and budget at the Northeast Organic Farming (NOFA) conference. Is was essential, Jenny explained, to put the goals and values of the organization first and foremost when considering every monetary decision the farm makes. “You have to ask yourself how you want your life to be, and then try to reflect that in what you do, and how you farm.”

In these early stages of the formation of the farm, Crooked Carrot is constantly making major decisions about the direction of the farm, a process that Groundswell has assisted with from the beginning. “Taking the business planning class definitely helped us see what kind of growth was realistic, and how we can best focus our energies,” said Jenny.

So, other than the Facebook advertised blackened garlic and pinto bean salad rumored to be in the fourth CSK share of the season, what else is on the menu for Crooked Carrot in the future? Growth, hopefully. The two acres of land won’t support the budding farm for long. “This is a tiny operation right now in comparison to most farms. It’s great because the kitchen provides an immediate venue for everything the farm produces- but we hope to expand within the next couple years,” says Silas.

It’s clear that Crooked Carrot has exciting times ahead of them in the years to come, as they continue to make a name for themselves in the Ithaca local food and farming community.

Find out what’s cooking at the Crooked Carrot on Facebook or at www.crookedcarrotcsk.com
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_Erika Lundahl is a volunteer writer for Groundswell. An Ithaca transplant, she graduated in 2012 from Ithaca College with a Writing degree. While in school she worked with our local bookstore cooperative, Buffalo Street Books and has been working at The Piggery for the last year. We're grateful for her help in bringing you stories about our amazing Groundswell trainees. Thank you Erika!_

From the Director

Just a couple Saturdays ago, I had the huge pleasure of hanging out with some of the area's most amazing farmers, foodies, visionaries, activists and dreamers.... and LOTS of energetic kids... at the second annual Asparaganza Festival at the Good Life Farm in Interlaken. What an inspiring community! These folks are passionate about re-learning skills, re-building farms and food businesses, and re-weaving the fabric of personal relationships that make up a strong community and local economy. They're creating the social and economic infrastructure that we're going to need so very badly in the coming years of climate change and all its attendant ecological, social, and institutional disruptions. 

What took me by surprise was just how many people I ran into at this gathering who were Groundswell alums and instructors! There were literally dozens of them - 20-somethings and 70-somethings and everything in between - who had participated in one or more of our training programs. I knew from our records that we have engaged 290 trainees so far in our programs. But here, at Asparaganza, was concrete evidence of the huge impact that Groundswell has had in four short years. 

Will you join us?
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We invite you to be part of this exciting movement! This month we are launching a new Groundswell Membership Campaign  to help raise funds to support our new farmer training programs. Your contribution of $25 or more will help us provide training and business incubation support to aspiring farmers, with programs like our Sustainable Farming Certificate Program, Farm Business Planning Course, Finger Lakes CRAFT, Farm Mentor Training, and the new Groundswell Incubator Farm. As a Groundswell member you'll get program discounts, a cool sticker, and invitations to member-only events like our new Homestead Farmers and Gardeners Gatherings for those of you want to be involved in rebuilding the food system in your own backyard.

Become a Groundswell Member Today!
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Click HERE to find out about member benefits and make a secure online donation. As always, thank you for your support of a strong local food system!

Joanna Green

Calling all Homesteaders!

Groundswell Members are invited to the June 16 Homestead Farmers and Gardeners Gathering.

Not sure if you’re a farmer or a gardener? Serious about growing things, but not for sale? Eager to learn from other serious homestead-scale producers? Then join Groundswell as a member and receive invitations to our monthly gatherings of homestead farmers and gardeners. Our first awesome gathering was May 19 at the Lansing homestead of Philip Snyder and Pat Dell. Philip is an amazing gardener with decades of experience, and every one of us learned something new about intensive, year round gardening, extending the season, and establishing an organic orchard.

The June Homestead Farmers and Gardeners Gathering will be on Fathers Day, Sunday, June 16, from 3:30 - 5:30 PM. We'll tour Steve Austin's homestead in suburban Ithaca. The event is free for Groundswell members, but you must register in advance and space is limited to the first 20 registrants. Sorry but we cannot accept walk-ins.