Tag: core

We have filled our membership for 2010! Payments are still coming in, but we have enough commitments from old and new members to close our registration form.

If you are still interested in our CSA, you should sign up right away for our Wait List. There’s always the possibility that someone who signed up decides to back out, in which case we would immediately turn to the wait list to fill in any extra shares.

We still have just a few shares available for 2010 and you can sign up right here.

If you need more information about us before you commit, please read our About Us page. If you still have questions, email us and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

These shares should go quickly, and we will close the sign-up form as soon as we are filled up. In that case, you should immediately put your name on our 2011 Wait List.

We’ve just about completed our first two rounds of registration for past members and people on the wait list — and there are still about ten shares available for the 2010 season.

We’ll open up general registration tomorrow, Saturday morning, right here on this site. If you know anyone who wants a chance to get organic produce from a local farm this summer, tell them to check back here this weekend.

Everyone on our 2010 wait list has just received an email with instructions for registering for the season. Shares will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and when we have reached our quota for the season we will close the form to any new members.

If by any chance there are still shares available in two weeks, on Feb. 25, we will open up registration to the public. Please check back here for information.

Last year’s members have just received an email with instructions for re-registering for the 2010 season. The deadline for re-registration is February 9, after which we will notify our wait list if there are shares still available for this year.

2009 CSA members will be receiving instructions for re-registration via email within the next week, and will have until Feb. 9 to commit to the new season.

After that, everyone on our wait list will be notified via email about how to register for 2010.

Farmers Dave and Julia have already let us know that we’ll have 10 more shares available for the new season, which means that we’ll have room for up to 20 new members.

We’ll keep this site updated with registration information over the next couple months while we fill up our roster.

The core group does the basic admin work of the CSA — signing up new members, arranging distribution, creating special events, etc. In addition, there is a core member at each distribution shift during the season, which last year meant six volunteer shifts for each core member, as opposed to the usual two.

But specific responsibilities can vary depending on each member’s interests and availability. If you’re at all interested in participating in the CSA in a more constructive way, please join us for our first 2010 planning session on Jan. 13.

We hope the long survey didn’t turn you off, but getting basic input on each type of vegetable and fruit gave us a lot of good data to look at. It’s difficult to reach consensus about how much of each crop to request from our farmers, but where there was a clear majority for “Too Little” or “Too Much” we can definitely ask for changes next year. For vegetables, that list looks like this:

Too Little
91%   Sweet Potatoes
87%   Brussel Sprouts
85%   Broccoli
75%   Cauliflower
71%   Cucumbers
67%   Spinach
67%   Scallions
65%   Eggplant
64%   Peas
62%   Onions
55%   Leeks
55%   Tomatoes
52%   Beets

Too Much
75%   Potatoes

For fruit, obviously, it was pretty clear that apples were oversupplied while berries were marginalized (more on this below). And for eggs — well, maybe it was a little silly to ask the same questions for eggs.

If you’re interested, you can see pretty graphs of the survey results here.

After collecting survey results, the core members met to discuss the year and make some initial plans for 2010. Among the many things we covered:

• We’d like to have more constant communication with our farmers/vendors, and with our members to make sure everyone’s in the loop about upcoming crops, weather-related mishaps, distribution problems, etc. On the core side it means assigning a primary contact person for each of the outside groups we deal with. For members, it means you’ll probably be getting more email from us and/or our web site will be updated more regularly.
• We are wary of going back to Breezy Hill for our fruit next year. The variety was a disappointment to many members, and our communication with the farm was less than ideal. If we can’t make sure of having a better relationship with Breezy Hill next year, we’ll look into finding another source for fruit.
• Providing low-income shares is a priority for 2010. We may be able to work with Henry Street Settlement or one of two other non-profit groups that have contacted us about finding eligible members. This year’s donations have given us a good footing for next year’s subsidies.
• We would like to have more Tuesday events next year tied in to distribution, and we’ll be looking for a (new) core member specifically interested in helping to plan some special programs.
• We will begin sign-ups for the season much earlier than last year — in January.