The winter weather sets bone deep

True, winter time is the time of year I tend to hibernate…well early winter that is for in the next few weeks I will be up to my neck in seedlings all waiting for the weather to break and find a new sunny home out into the field. I put up my farmers boots for house slippers and spend my time…well, bored and lazy. Well now that it is January the ticking of spring starts sounding in my ears and seeds, pots, trays and grow lights begins to shine all of which turn the farmhouse into a greenhouse. I can’t say I don’t like it though because I do…life giving baby seedlings who wouldn’t love that? This is also the time of year when we start opening our CSA program up for sign ups and plan what sort of spring and summer we are looking at. We limit our CSA program to 35-40 people each season keeping this number we have been able to weather seasons that have taken many of our fellow CSA farms out for the season. The key is to running a CSA program is having enough experience to not get greedy. That is the number 1 killer for newbie CSA farms. They just get too greedy a lot of them and never really have grown more then a few tomatoes in their lives think too big too fast and end up not being able to deliver to their shareholders. I always stress to the new farmers that want to start a farm CSA program 1. start by growing a few years and selling at a farmers market consistently.This is separates the real farmers quick.  2. When starting a CSA program start very small. You can always sell your extra produce at the farmers market on even a parking lot for that matter. The main thing is learning how to grow and how to grow well. When shareholders sign up for a CSA program they are making a big investment in your experience as a farmer. And no, wearing rubber boots and a floppy hat and some overhauls doesn’t make you a farmer…hands in the dirt is the only way to gain that knowledge and it takes more then a couple seasons to really get a hang of growing anything. A couple of years ago we had a really hard dry season that was brutally hot on top of it. We were barely hanging on ourselves with several years of organic farming under our belt. At least once a week we got calls from other farmers needing to either move their shareholders to another CSA or wanting to buy any extra produce we had to give their shareholders something.  It was a year that truly took some tough farming and some committed shareholders. Keeping your shareholders to a limited number really helps and it is always great when you have great bountiful years and can load them up with lots of great locally grown, organic vegetables. My advice is to plan for the best…but prepare for the worst. This way you have some room to make a few mistakes, take some risks and if the rains don’t fall and the heat goes sky-high you are still skilled enough and smart enough to work through it and keep your CSA shareholders happy they found their farmer.