Community Supported Agriculture

[Johanna Knox]

Hi - I'm new to Intersect, and noticed that you have a posting about the Simply Good Food event that's on tomorrow evening.

I just wanted to highly recommend Simply Good Food as an organisation - and a great source of organic produce. We have been with them since they started and they just get better and better. Their avocados are reliably great, they have heritage potatoes at amazing prices, they are so good communicating with their buyers ... (I could go on ...)

The organic box schemes that have been running forever are cool - but this is a whole different thing.

Happy to talk more about our experience with them if anyone wants to know, anytime.

Johanna

[The Intersect Crew]

Hi Johanna
I am not sure if I will be able to make it to their evening tomorrow night, so it might be good if you could write something in this discussion about how it works and what it takes to get involved.
The link to the Simply Good Food website is
www.simplygoodfood.co.nz/

Choice!

[Johanna Knox]

Hi Megan - sure - how it works ... Well, overseas, CSA farms generally operate by subscription. Subscribers buy, in advance, a share of the farm's production, and then receive boxes of produce throughout the season. The system cuts out middle-people and fosters a strong relationship between growers and consumers. As a subscriber to a CSA you have a real stake in what's going on at the farm(s).

To encourage this further, most CSAs keep their subscribers in touch with all their goings on (what's growing well, what's not ... and why) and welcome farm visits from their subscribers.

SImply Good Food is the first CSA in NZ, and they are operating *slightly* differently from most overseas. They have a lower initial subscription fee, and you pay for the produce as you buy it (but at lower prices than you would pay in shops). I would estimate that, after 5 months, my family has now nearly got our subscription fee back. (And it's a one-off - so we never have to pay another.)

The other benefits of being part of it are the freshness and quality of produce, and just the great feeling of being connected to the people who are growing our food. They organise regular farm days where you can go along and find out how different crops are planted or harvested - and participate if you want to ... as well as get to know other Simply Good Food subscribers. I like the way they are building a community around what they do.

Oh - and what is great about Simply Good food is that they have a focus on heritage food - so potentially more nutritious and flavoursome!

They offer a mix of boxes, and individual produce items, so unlike a vege box scheme you have a lot of choice in what and how much you buy ...

The start up fee, I *think* is $400, or thereabouts - but as I mentioned - after several months it should work out worth it.

They have drop off points ... we pick ours up from a house in Newtown. (You can get it delivered to your door - but it costs more.)

Oh - and they are entering into a deal with People's Coffee soon too!

Johanna

[Joshua Vial]

Hey Johanna,

a timely recommendation as our flat is just now looking at signing up - couldn't really get a feel for how big the baskets were though. How much have you been getting in each one?

[Johanna Knox]

Hi Joshua - it's different each week, but last week we got both the greens plus box and the salad box ($10 each), and from memory (and after a quick peek in the fridge), I think between those two boxes we got -

- a big bunch of carrots
- a massive bunch of chard/silverbeet
- about 7 medium-size yellow tomatoes
- a huge bunch of parsely
- 2 capsicum
- a bunch of about six beetroot (chioggia)
- a mixed bag of brassica pieces including broccolini and some cool heritage broccoli-ish things
- a mixed salad bag

At the moment they say they are having trouble sourcing really good stuff for the mixed salad bag - so it contains a lot of iceberg lettuce pieces - which get brown round the edges pretty fast ... so we try and use those on the first day ... hopefully that will improve soon. They say on the website they're working on it.

Johanna

[Kaye-Maree Dunn]

kia ora Johanna,

I'm keen to learn more about Simply good Food or whether Chantal is a better option for delivery of kai. Just watched the movie Foodmatters and it's put me on a mission to get better kai in place for our whanau.

I'm in Newtown, is there anyway to double up on orders? What are the benefits you see from being a member. What are the average costings?

Looking forward to hearing from you

K

[Carl Chenery]

Looks like a great initiative.

From what I saw of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) when in the USA- it was a great way to get beautiful food, to support local farmers with income throughout the year, develop relationships with local farmers and where our food comes from.

Hope it spreads up north!

Haven't seen Foodmatters Kaye-Maree, but we showed 'The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil' to my sister-in-law- came back three weeks later- and they had a mean garden set up.

Carl

[Manu Caddie]

I have a copy of the DVD "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" if anyone wants to borrow it.

http://www.angelicorganics.com/

[Jay Robinson]

That movie really "hit home" as I lived through the eighties myself on the farm in Iowa, not far as the crow flies from where Farmer John is. There is that absolute tension between struggling to stay on the land and to do the right thing by it.

Having said that, over the course of 10 years I was very involved in local CSAs in Minnesota and Iowa and also with setting up a farmers market in Wisconsin. The upper Midwest has been very fertile ground for the local foods movement and I'd be quite happy to chat with anyone about that. There is great potential here in NZ but I don't see it really quite tapped yet....

Check out also the CSA group at the Transition Towns social site on Ning for further information.

organically yours,
Jay