Flying Tomato Survey #2–To Deliver or Not to Deliver?

I’m referring to one of the subjects of my last post–stinging nettles.

These nutrient-rich, mild-flavored wild greens are a staple of Harry and I’s spring diet, and I would love to include a bag of the tender tops in one of the first CSA deliveries of the year.

The problem, of course, is that they’re stinging nettles.  You can’t grab them if they’re raw without getting a host of painful stings.

So, if I delivered them, I would have to seal the bags shut with a little sticker that said, “STOP!  Nettles must be cooked.  Do not handle with bare hands.”  And then the newsletter would have to include more extensive handling and cooking directions (which I normally include for any crop I grow).

So–is it worth it?  If you were a CSA member, would you be happy or horrified by a bag of nettles?

 

Opening up the CSA!

OK–I was really limiting my shares this year due to a number of factors both on the personal front and with the organizations I’m involved in.

I decided in the last couple of days to open up a few more Community Supported Ag shares due to the large volume of calls and e-mails about the CSA, and because I’m not even sure where the farmers market will be this year.  I don’t want to put quite so many eggs in a basket that may be a moving target.  So, I gave my past members a call and e-mailed back the two families that had found me online.

I don’t know if it’s the spring-like weather or what–but I am totally jazzed about getting going for this year, and not holding myself back so much.

Hooray for Spring!  Hooray for vegetables!  Hooray for CSA!

 

Community Supported Ag Shares for the 2008 season

I am only doing a couple CSA memberships this year, and I’ve already got one member signed up.

I’ve had a couple people ask me if I am “giving it up,” and I’ve also had a few people act like I am letting them down.

Let me tell you that a small business like this one has to remain flexible to remain viable. My plan this year is to only sell as many memberships as it will take to get this year’s gardens off the ground, which is about two or three. That way, I am bringing more produce out to the Vermillion Area Farmers Market–out where people can see it. I am also trying to be more responsive to the needs of local restaurants–scouting their menus and talking to their owners about what I can grow for them.

I’ve found that when most all my weekly produce goes into shares that are paid for at the beginning of the season, I get a little worn down late in the season by all of the work I’m doing to fill those shares. I’d rather think of the couple families I do deliver to as the farm’s capital supporters–those that supported me early on–even when there were no veggies in sight for months. Those are the people who make it possible for me to get the early seed orders out, the people who encourage me to keep going in the dark months.