(CSA Newsletter: Week 36)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Salad mix — A mix of several kinds of greens: lettuces, frisée, and arugula. This combination of sweet, mild lettuces and slightly herby greens goes great with a cream-based dressing (ranch or blue cheese).
- Tomatoes — Lots of one of our favorite tomatoes. “Juliet” tomatoes aren’t quite small enough to be called cherry tomatoes, nor are they large enough to be full-sized Romas (though they have the shape), and nor are they bland enough to be called sauce tomatoes (even though they are dry fleshed and contain few seeds). Juliets are extremely sweet and great on salads, cooked into sauces, or eaten fresh on their own!
- Sweet peppers — This warm fall has provided a bumper crop of sweet peppers!
- Cauliflower — The first of the fall cauliflower. Our absolute favorite way to eat cauliflower is to roast it in the oven until it is tender and just starting to brown. I think this preparation method could convert even the strongest skeptics in the crowd.
- Delicata winter squash — Yay! Winter squash season has arrived! If you’re new to Delicata squash, this is a thinner skinned winter squash. The size makes it perfect for single-servings — just cut in half length-wise; scoop out the seeds; place cut-size down on a greased sheet; and bake at 350° until the flesh is very tender and the cut edge is caramelized. Serve on its own or fill the cavity with yummy stuff (Roasted cauliflower perhaps? Or chopped sautéed sweet peppers and leeks? So many possibilities!).
- Carrots
- Leeks — The seasons are turning, and it’s time for leeks! Leeks are very similar to onions in flavor and uses. Their big advantage is that they cook down better. To use, simply cut off greens; slice in half lengthwise; rinse out any grit or dirt; chop into half-moons; and then sauté until soft in butter or oil.
- Garlic
Last week, I addressed some of the questions and subsequent responses on this year’s CSA survey: the possible choice option and the vegetable preference survey.
This week, I want to address the payment plans. For the last couple years, we have explicitly offered a monthly payment option (and before that, there were several people who did a monthly plan themselves). We loved being able to offer this option, since one of our goals as farmers is to provide a CSA experience that folks in our own low-ish income bracket could afford. We know that the upfront cost is a burden to participation in many CSA programs, so offering more options (and keeping our overall cost reasonable) seemed good to us.
And, it is mostly good. But, in practice, it is also very complicated having three payment options (single payment, quarterly, and monthly). Having twelve payments makes it very easy for CSA members to get behind on one or two payments without realizing it, which makes for a lot of catch up payments at the end of the year.
And, I try to keep track of who is behind, but so far I’ve found it challenging to do so when everyone is on different plans. It’s difficult to look at the balance sheet and know who is actually behind or just on the quarterly payment plan (since I receive the money at different rates, if that makes sense).
Having so many different payment plans also means that we end up receiving checks every single week. This in of itself is fine on our end, but unless I go to the bank every single week, it means that checks sit in my file for a couple of weeks (which can sometimes be difficult for your bookkeeping).
With the added challenge of being full-time caregiver to Rusty, juggling all these moving parts has been more difficult than in past years. As we are always looking to make our farm more efficient, streamlining our payment options down to two seems to make a lot of sense on our end. So, in 2011, we will just be offering the single and quarterly payment plan options.
Most of the folks who turned in a survey said that YES they could afford to participate in the CSA without the monthly plan, which was heartening. However, there were a few of you who said NO. Now, we didn’t clarify in the survey about still offering the quarterly, so hopefully that option does work for everyone. However, if it does not, we hope you will talk to us so we can work out something that does.
In addition to talking about payment options, we spent much of the weekend fine tuning how we want to organize next year’s CSA. I’ll provide many more details next week (along with the 2011 sign-up form!), but some of you will be excited to know that you will have more options to choose from and we’re going to retain our classic CSA experience as well! Like I said, more details to come, but we really think we’ve worked out some options that will make (almost) everyone happy.
… Of course, one thing we’ve learned over the years of doing surveys is that we’ll never make absolutely everyone happy — we’ll read one survey saying “too much kale” followed immediately by another that says “we want more kale!” But, we try our best anyway to meet most folks’ needs while still keeping ourselves sane and our farm profitable!
Above all, keeping folks happy means growing great seasonal produce! Enjoy this week’s very autumnal vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
