Winter showed up early and in full force this year, as you are certainly aware. All of the snow isn’t that surprising, considering how wet the past two years have been. It seems like when it’s not raining it has to be snowing. In order to better adapt, this winter we are keeping the cover on only one of our high tunnel greenhouses. One seedling greenhouse is plenty enough work to shovel out!
2019 was, overall, a pretty good season. It wasn’t quite as challenging as 2018, but close. Spring was cold and very wet; July was bone dry; and wet weather returned in the Fall. Yet, we still showed up to every farmers’ market; delivered veggies to our wholesalers and restaurants; and kept up with each week’s CSA box. After 15 years of vegetable farming, a few challenges aren’t enough to set us back!
End of season CSA survey
We think one of the reasons our CSA program is so compelling is that we take member feedback seriously, using our end-of-season survey and comments and suggestions throughout the season to improve the CSA from year to year. This allows us to keep track of what CSA members like and don’t like and how we can change things for the next season to keep up with what everyone needs.
We received a lot of great comments and suggestions in the survey this year that we will be mulling over during the winter. But here are some of the basics from the survey….
In 2019:
- 98.2% of our CSA members said that their delivery or pickup option was convenient
- 83.6% said the amount of produce in their box was just right; 14.5% said it was too much; and 1.9% said it wasn’t enough
- 100% said the produce was fresh when they picked up their weekly boxes, and 94.5% said the produce stayed fresh throughout the week
- 69.1% want to see recipes by other CSA members posted on the website during the season
Some of the things CSA members said they loved about the 2019 CSA in the survey:
- Ability to choose much of what goes in the weekly box
- Freshness of the produce
- Convenience
- Ability to have the CSA delivered to a workplace
- Variety of produce
- Cleanliness of produce
- CSA makes it easier to eat healthy
Some of the things CSA members said they didn’t love about the 2019 CSA in the survey (these are the kinds of things we work on improving over the winter):
- Need more tips on preserving food and how to use less common items
- Sometimes too much produce
- Sometimes get a veggie that is not enjoyed by the household
- Trying to use up all the veggies before the next box
- Not being able to get the CSA in the winter
- Odd quantities of some items
If you would like to see what the most popular and least popular CSA vegetables are for 2019, check out our page for that: https://lakesuperiorfarms.com/dukes-farm-member-favorites-least-favorites/
Early sign up for the 2020 CSA
This is the first season we are accepting early sign up for our CSAs. Some members have said they would like to purchase their own CSA earlier, and others would like to gift a CSA to a friend or family member in December. If you do choose to purchase a CSA as a gift for Christmas (or any other holiday you may celebrate), we will send the recipient a holiday card with information on what they are receiving.
If you would like to sign up early for next season’s CSA, just fill out our easy membership form: 2020 CSA Order Form. For more information on our CSAs, just visit our CSA page.
Enjoy Christmas, New Year’s and any other holidays you celebrate this festive time of year!
