Supply and Demand and Pricing in the CSA
Managing item quantities, inventory, and pricing presents a unique challenge in a CSA. We try to keep things consistent, but the nature of this model means that sometimes we have a bumper crop and our members are signed up to benefit from that. Just as they might miss out when we have a bust.
At the beginning of the season for tomatoes, for example, we’re just harvesting small amounts from our early crops in the high tunnels. Once we have enough to actually offer to our members, we make the bags about a pound. This ensures that as many folks as possible can enjoy these early season treats – everyone wants tomatoes ASAP!
Then comes August. And August brings a tidal wave of tomatoes! By this time our members are getting 2-3 pound bags of tomatoes. We’re still counting this as one item in their share, so it’s technically valued the same in the store.
Now at a farmers’ market you’d be paying by weight, so if you wanted 3 pounds of tomatoes you’d be paying more. But for our CSA we’ve determined that across our crop variety and throughout the seasons, it all evens out.
And in our minds, that’s the CSA way! You’re eating alongside the farm’s successes and failures. It’s a unique way to really stay in touch with how the farm is doing and the seasonality of everything you are eating.
And once you’ve been involved with our CSA for a while you’ll know when these hills and valleys occur. You’ll be SO READY in August to make every tomato recipe you’ve been saving, can jars of salsa and sauce, and freeze anything extra that you have. In spring when it’s peak greens time, you’ll get really comfortable with making all types of green “pesto” and freezing kale smoothie cubes.
Finally, a quick note about pricing in the CSA and on GrownBy, our CSA platform and online store host. After much discussion and deliberation about a year and half ago, we decided to make every item $5 for CSA customization. That number is really just a placeholder rather than an accurate dollar value of the item you’ll be getting.
We have set the “share value” for the Small shares at $30 and $50 for the Full shares. But all that means is that the Smalls have 6 items at $5 each and the Fulls have 10 items at $5 each. The price you’ve paid for your CSA Share takes into account all the steps to grow the food and the wages we pay the team and much more.
Basically it all comes down to the fact that, at least for us, it’s not possible to compare CSA prices to the grocery store ones. d
This is a really key point. It is absolutely understandable to ask "How much does this cost?" and weigh the pros and cons. Supporting a CSA financially, however, is not just about doing a cost analysis of each vegetable you receive and comparing it to what you'd pay at the grocery store.
Our vegetables have added value because they are produced in a way that supports the people, land, and living things that make it possible for us to nourish ourselves. It costs more for a small farm like ours to pay our staff a living wage and care for the land by using cover crops and natural, non-synthetic fertilizers and pesticides than it does for a large, subsidized factory farm to produce a far inferior product while applying chemical fertilizers and herbicides that enter the community through runoff and paying their workers less than they deserve. Any increase in prices at One Acre Farm directly results in an increase in staff wages.
As always, we are so grateful for everyone who joins the farm and supports what we do. It would be, quite literally, impossible without you!
