I recently retired from a electric utility that had over 1000 people at our headquarters campus. A local vegetable farm did a CSA there, but the variety of vegetables contains such a broad array of product, most people weren't attracted. For those forward thinkers, they began a sort of a swap shop at the pickup area where one person may not want their squash, but they did want more green beans. Once people got into the veggie swapping, the sales picked up. The farm actually started promoting this model to other large organizations and it helped sales everywhere.
Great info and I really like the structure. We’ve toyed with the idea of joining a veg farmer and giving their customers a protein option but just haven’t been able to figure it out. This is super helpful. Just a thought, since ground beef is usually pretty abundant, did you consider adding a ground beef “add-on”? No guesswork on the cut, consistent price and additional revenue. Thanks again for the info! Chuck
Probably old idea now...but you could take credit cards for your CSA, and just uplift the cost by the CC charge, and then offer a discount of that charge for cash or check. That's typical sales/marketing approach and gives customer options to pay for convenience and gives you same net profit.
Hi Pete, Am loving the videos, I was just wondering how many freezers you use and are they working of your solar system. If not how much do they consume in electricity. While I am still trying to find my way through your great bank of videos, I have seen the one explaining your solar system, I would be interested in seeing your set-up and power consumption for a month. Many Thanks your Fan Martin.
Peter hi it's Ralph your csa fascinating and really interesting, I have small holding and what you might call window box. I love the programme keeping it good luck. Ralph from South Wales UK.
Could you not do a csa for beef with a dollar amount instead of cuts? There might be some left over or more to pay in the last month, but it would enable the farm to be able to have more funds.
Thanks a million. I just retired & want to grow my on food, sale a little so to break even on infrastructure & raising of crops/animals. I got more ideals on plants then I can deal with, very few on meat. Why do you not offer duck & rabbit or lamb ?
Hi Joe, we used to grow Peking ducks for meat, but they didn't work very well with our pasturing system. They played in their drinker & made a muddy mess of things. I have no experience with lamb or rabbit; don't know how to raise it or cook it, so was never interested in adding them to the farm. Best of luck with your farm.
You mention that you only accept cash or cheque for your CSA Boxes. Do you still have cheques in common use there? Do you have available Eftpost and direct electronic deposit. Here in New Zealand banks no longer accept cheques and without eftpost we wouldnt do business. Cash is becoming rare.
It is all about the Math! Linear thinking. Question: Do you recommend accepting Paypal, Zelle or other 3rd party companies to process your payments? Unfortunately, the IRS just came out with their new rule to require disclosure of any payment over $600. The Taxman Cometh for small businesses...
DO YOU USE YOUR SQUARE APP FOR ONLY CREDIT CARD SALES OR DO YOU USE IT FOR CASH SALES ALSO, FOR ACCOUNTING PURPOSES? AND DOES THE COMPANY TAKE A % OF THE CASH SALES?
Hatching out chickens in large enough numbers to make a living requires infrastructure and labor that is very costly if it is not something that you are doing at an enterprise level. Additionally, the fast growing broiler varieties do not really have any mothering instincts left, so you can’t really get around having an incubator, etc. Purchasing chicks at ~$1.50 from a reputable hatchery with stable genetics saves so much labor and money, it’s pretty much impossible to beat on a home scale.
I'm surprised that you are paying three to three and a half percent credit card fees. They're much better options out there for processing credit card transactions that cost very little. Far be it for me to tell you your business that's very often it's the terms of financing in credit that determine whether you make a profit. It sounds like you may be leaving quite a bit of money on the table.
now we are comming to the problem people aren't stupid they will take the best parts so the average price would way to low and when he would make it higher people won't choose the beef at csa