Changes to the CSA Model
History
When we started this farm in 2019 it was just Nick growing on less than 1 acre of space at the crest of what used to be old tobacco and hay fields. We bought this beautiful land to have a home place for our family, and grow nutritious food for ourselves and our friends. It did not start as a businesses, but our friends and acquaintances soon started asking to purchase boxes of veggies each week when we had abundance to share, refusing to accept free veggies any longer.
In 2020 we dipped our toes into the CSA model with just people we knew. It was very small, with no more than 10 or so bags each week delivered to our community pottery studios and places of work. Ohh, did I mention that we were both still working full time jobs alongside the farm when it was just getting started?
Leading up to 2021 we had no idea how much interest we would have in the CSA once we got our website launched, started to advertise around town with flyers, and offer farm-to-door delivery. People jumped on the opportunity to receive freshly harvested veggies delivered to their door during a time when going to the grocery store was risky, and the food there was basically trash (looking at you COVID).
For the past 3 years we’ve only raised our prices a bit to help with the impact of inflation, still offered delivery for the same $100 for the season, and have had a steady stream of farm hands to help as we get more and more customers.
We’ve grown from less than 10 customers in the start to 50 customers in 2024. More customers means more seeds, inputs, infrastructure, and most importantly the addition of a full time farm hand to make sure everything continues to run smoothly even if Nick is not on the farm all day every day. It has been beyond stressful and we’re not complaining, but something had to change.
That’s why the 2025 CSA will be a little different than in year’s past.
Changes coming for 2025
One of the biggest changes that will affect our current customers is no longer offering delivery. The most important thing right now for the farm to succeed and make sure we can actually make a profit in the future is to keep Nick and our farm hands here on the farm, working to plant, build soil, weed, keep on top of pests who like to snack on our crops, and everything else that is involved in the day-to-day of running the farm. Deliveries take us away from the farm for many hours a day, multiple days a week so we have decided to limit the CSA to a pickup only.
You’ll be able to pick up your boxes at the Farm Stand in Marshall, or at Sow True Seed in Asheville. We may offer other pickup locations if we have a minimum number of customers confirmed in each location.
We’re also focusing this year on the crops that grow best here in our little microclimate including many items that are suited for long term storage, fermenting, pickling, freezing, and other methods of preservation. We’ve been growing on this land for long enough to know what consistently grows well here, and what we struggle with every single year (look at you, eggplant). We want to make sure each week’s boxes are abundant in the crops that will feed your family now and in the future through preservation methods. We are also learning our share of preservation and will be sharing tips, our stories, successes and failures on social media as we go.
Some examples of crops we will grow in 2025 are: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green beans, squash (summer & winter), tomatoes, peppers, melons, kale, lettuce, chard, bok choi, and more. But please note this is not a guaranteed list, as crops surprise us each year, as does the weather.
We are also shortening the CSA season to be May - September, our most successful months of growing. The weather has become increasingly unpredictable in the spring and fall, so to make sure we are able to best meet our goals for growing, we have decided to shorten the CSA season to those months where a frost is not as likely ruin our crops.
Each year we are making investments in the farm to increase the yields, viability, regenerate the soil, and increase the length of our growing season but we have to remain realistic for the time being and grow when we know we can get good harvests.
We hope you will enjoy these changes, and we hope this will reduce the stress and overwhelm we have felt the past few years trying to run this farm with very little help and money. Every year is better in a way, and every year brings new challenges we could not have imagined. And we wouldn’t want to be doing anything else with our lives, so I hope you stick it out with us and enjoy the bounties of the 2025 season.