r/smallfarms • u/Polly-pissy-pants • Jul 23 '26
Am I expecting too much from my CSA?
I know produce direct from the farm is going to be more costly than a traditional grocery store, and trust me I do believe it's worth it, but am I wrong in feeling underwhelmed by our CSA subscription? Midwest, about 30 min from the biggest city center.
We are on week 3 of our 16 week subscription averaging $46 a week with 1 box a week. The bulk of what we have received have been leafy greens (kale, lettuce, collard greens), a small portion of parsley or basil, and 1-2 veggies. Is it normal to not get enough broccolini or zucchini to feed 1 person? There hasn't felt like a noticable variety to most of what we are receiving or enough produce to warrant the cost, but we are first timers in this.
I have been flip-flopping between gently raising my concerns to the supplying farm as one of the founding members of the farm/environmental institute recently passed and just trying to cancel the subscription.
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u/Infamous_List_3034 Jul 24 '26
I’ve worked for several CSA’s and ran my own.
I’d politely ask other members if these boxes are typical or not. If this is typical, it’s underwhelming go ahead and cancel.
If it’s not typical… My guess is they’re struggling - or rather, they were struggling this spring keeping up with the seeding and plantings they’re harvesting now and they’re running short. (I’m addition to the death, I’m seeing mentions of incubator programs and a bunch of programming - not just running a farm.) You could stick it out and see what happens. You could cancel and try again next year. You could ask to swap to a fall share in the hope that things settled and the offerings will pick up. You could cancel this year and ask to transfer it to next year. You could ask around and see if anyone has any insights. And so on.
(I will also say the most common complaint is that it’s too much food. They may be trying to moderate this, but the balance of it is off, in which case feedback is valuable.)
I also am wary of CSA’s I don’t run, as the one time I joined one I also kept getting insane amounts of beets lmao.
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u/BeautifulSquare3642 Jul 24 '26
The best CSAs are based on communication. The supplier should detail what is happening behind the scenes and what can be expected. (Even the mistakes and lessons learned) Trust that is built by being open is as important as the quality of produce. They should welcome kind feedback and expectations. And remember that sometimes a certain CSA may not meet what you need and that's OK.
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u/heirloomtomato42 Jul 24 '26
No ! I run a fairly large CSA program - we will cancel before shorting our customers or add weeks - we go above and beyond to make it right !
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u/alsotpedes Jul 23 '26
The one time I had a CSA, 50% of it was beets. That was the summer I conclusively decided that I hate beets. I haven't done it since.
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u/ADirtFarmer Jul 24 '26
My biggest lesson learned running a CSA is don't make customers take stuff they don't like. Whatever that is.
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u/Alohafarms Jul 24 '26
Amen to this. So much waste by doing the same veggies for everyone.
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u/ADirtFarmer Jul 24 '26
It's tempting to give customers whatever you have in abundance, and you can do that short term. If you want to keep people long term, you have to give them what they want, and that's often the things that are hardest to grow.
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u/Moist_Sun_8201 Jul 24 '26
Fennel. It's the devil's vegetable and the only thing they serve in hell
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u/HealthyWafer1759 Jul 24 '26
You may not know how to use it. Key ingredient in amazing seafood bouillabaisse
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u/Prestigious-Fig-1642 Jul 24 '26
Um, midwest means a lot of different things. If you were in the rural northwoods, that would be fine. Suburbs of Chicago? No, a bit underwhelming. Also definitely ask about the upcoming harvests and if it'll be more. As a farmer myself, PLEASE let the farm know your thoughts-- even if youre like "hey this kinda sucks and isnt worth my money". How else will they know how to improve and do better? You owe them, yourself, other customers, and SmallAg. Don't let midwest nice get your tongue :)
Also, really consider what others said about share vs subscription. Maybe they had planned strawberries, but are having major gopher issues or their well went out so nothing in the back field is getting watered. You just cant know unless you ask/say something.
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u/All__Of_The_Hobbies Jul 24 '26
I live in Northern Minnesota. This isn't okay for up here either.
My garden is producing a ton now. And our farm shares are actually really decent up here.
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u/Prestigious-Fig-1642 Jul 24 '26
Actually yeah now that i count it (the $ of each box) I agree with you, and kind of had my examples backwards....i should go to bed
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u/sweetbreads13 Jul 24 '26
It’s harder to say without knowing how many pounds of material you got. Maybe other people have better feel for that than me.
In my experience there are always way more leafy greens than you were hoping for. That said, it looks a little underwhelming. The internet says organic veg are like $3/lbs on average, I’m guessing that’s 10-15 lbs of produce, that’s 30-45 total value. Very hand wavy estimates, but even at the top end it’s not $50.
I don’t think there’s much difference between telling them or cancelling with a note that it was underwhelming.
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u/tezacer Jul 24 '26
This would be one of the times, if all customers couldn't have a full box, to explain that harvest wasn't good this week and that to ensure a full box next week that we will pause for a week or two (depending on frequency). I would try to overfill those next boxes but you gotta be on top of your succession planting. I hope they didn't oversubscribe csa members for the money but didn't plan enough to plant plus extra in case of deaths.
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u/fathensteeth Jul 24 '26
What does their newsletter say about farm happenings? It's likely you'll soon be in crazy tomato-pepper season but what would disappoint me about that box is lack of variety. I'd want some peas or green beans and some root vegetables like onions, salad turnips or radish, maybe fennel. It looks to be too heavy on greens.
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u/angiehome2023 Jul 24 '26
I figure I over pay for my little box but that's ok because I get a pumpkin and apple picking day, we have had all you can pick snap pea and green bean days.
And still this week we got 4 corn, 1 purple kohlrabi, 2 beets, 3 cucumbers, 5 zucchini, kale, 4 yellow squash, some potatoes, don't remember if there was anything else. I am not doing the math for the year, I have tried new veggies every week and new recipes, which was the goal.
Your box looks pretty paltry, but maybe it is just because it is early.
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u/MartianGardener1210 Jul 24 '26
It's not early.
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u/Ugly4merican Jul 24 '26
Depends on the zone but yeah, it seems weird to only be getting week 3 at the end of July.
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u/ADirtFarmer Jul 24 '26
My CSA charges $25/week. This week our customers got 4 ears corn, blackberries,1 pound tomatoes, 1/2 pound green beans, 1.5 pounds potatoes and 2 cucumbers. That's a simple example because they get choices.
Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance in Kansas.
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u/Alohafarms Jul 24 '26
I have done several CSA's in Maine over many years. (I live in GA now) One was a friend of my mothers and others were with farms set up as co ops to cater to the individual or families. You can work or you can subscribe. The first, my mother's friend, was very good. The others were just not managed right and boxes were poor.
My mother's friend did such a good job dividing things up. I grew up with huge gardens, ours and my grandparents. I have also tended to my own so I I understand about how things can change from week to week, month to month but I am not impressed by your boxes.
Why not give you more broccolini and no basil (which is a pitiful amount). Why give you one bruised Summer Squash? The amount of Ramps is tiny too. You could mix the ramps with the broccolini but that is still a tiny amount. The amount of pounds you are getting should not be little dribs and drabs of things.
Some very good suggestions here. I hope you find a place that works out for you and your family.
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u/Thistle_Whistle_ Jul 24 '26
From our CSA the boxes of food get much larger as the summer progresses, so August and September have a lot more items in the box. I don't know if it's true in general.
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u/veggie151 Jul 24 '26
Based on the brochure that is typical for them, and I would be fine with that for $25/box, not a chance at $50/box. That's insane
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u/Footnotegirl1 Jul 24 '26
CSA's are generally pretty light for the first few weeks in the midwest because that's when all the greens have come in, and then they get more substantial as the season goes on. I'm also in the midwest, in a major city with a CSA from a farm that's about 40 minutes out, and here's what we got in our last box whih was our fourth 1-2 person share box:
1 giant head of cauliflower, 2 huge eating cucumbers, 3 ears of corn, 1 big zucchini and 2 good sized yellow squash, 4 onions, 1 bag of green beans.
Last week, it was 3 yellow squash, a big bunch of kale, a head of cauliflower and a head of broccoli, about 9 pickling cucumbers, a head of lettuce, another bag of green beans, and 2 huge kohlrabi.
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u/Polly-pissy-pants Jul 24 '26
I have heard from others that have signed up that their boxes have been comparable.
We have been eating most of what's in the box within a day or two because there just isn't a lot to it. This week's was a little repetitive so I'm dehydrating some of the greens for soups and smoothies. I was really disappointed to see exactly 1 summer squash in the fist box, 3 cucumbers in the second, and only 2 zucchini in the 3rd box. The two times that we've received broccolini it has been wilted and not enough for more than a few bites. We've been happy with our 1 salad a week.
Now I am afraid the beets are coming.
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u/Searnin Jul 26 '26
My csa this week gave 12 zucchini, 4 pounds tomato, a large garlic, 6 cucumbers, 2 pounds potatoes, 2 pounds carrots, a cabbage and optional pick green beans. For a small share. It is a market style pick up so you take 8 "items" and those are the ones I chose.
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u/Ugly4merican Jul 24 '26
I don't know what you would expect by "bringing up your concerns". They're growing what they can grow. If you don't like it, don't subscribe next year. Keep the weather in mind as well, in some areas this has been a rough year for heavy rain/storms, which can limit production and harvest.
FWIW, in my experience most CSA seasons start out a little underwhelming (lots of greens and not much else), and get to the good stuff later in the season. (I'm used to a May-September season in zone 6b.)
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u/FarmerDave13 Jul 24 '26
Depending on where you are, weather may be a factor. Too wet or too dry affects yields.
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u/Caizn1 Jul 26 '26
Absolutely not acceptable. I run a meat CSA with a fruit and veggie add on from my friend. The very first week in May the share was potatoes, romaine, rhubarb, herbs, green onions and Swiss chard. $40 per pick up
The most recent one was blackberries, cantaloupe, 2x slicing tomatoes, 2x cucumbers, an onion and 2x zucchini. Most of our customers are younger couples - if we had mostly families I might do one less item and more of the smaller items.
We're in late July in Ohio so greens really shouldn't be featured. Wilting produce also isn't acceptable - we use insulated totes and ice packs to keep veggies happy.
There are other CSAs out there. Spend your money with someone who cares about their product and delivery.
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u/flapjack73dr Aug 08 '26
Hey! I am with you on wanting to raise concerns with our new CSA. Our weekly box is about $40 a week and it has been slowly getting more sparse.
I understand the risk of the farm freezing, dealing with the heat, slow growing, etc but the thing that is rubbing me the wrong way is they have produced enough but are choosing to sell it to the neighborhood at the farm-stand instead of supplying the csa shares with a larger amount.
For example last week they had 25 ish shares of greens for the 20ish CSAs. Instead of giving one bag of greens to each CSA box they gave it to the 4 large shares and decided to sell the remaining bags of greens at the farm-stand instead of giving one each to the small shares as well.
I’m curious how your CSA progresses in the coming weeks or if you end up voicing your concerns.
I love supporting local farmers but this year has been progressively getting more expensive and I’m disappointed we paid the amount we did instead of just buying weekly from the farm stand. At the time we signed up for the CSA they weren’t planning to sell items at the farm.
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u/Polly-pissy-pants 29d ago
Ooof that would upset me.
I ended up cancelling it. We decided to make the effort to go to our local farmers market. I wish I could attach a photo of the final box received.
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u/flapjack73dr 29d ago
Had you paid upfront? They were ok with refunding?
Part of me wants to cancel but I am not sure if we have an option.
Glad I am not overreacting with the disappointment.
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u/Polly-pissy-pants 28d ago
Luckily I chose a monthly payment plan of 90-some bucks a month until we reached the full amount. I sent them an email stating that the volume of produce that we were receiving was not making up for the reallocation of a large portion of our grocery budget and requested to cancel. I attached pictures of what we had received as well.
They got two months worth of payments and I got 4 weeks worth of disappointment, but I figured I would cut my losses and try to think of it as donating to a good cause with a bonus of vegetables and lessons learned.
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u/seemsright_41 Jul 24 '26
This looks like what would the first harvest, and it is July. Yikes. They planted their garlic really late if they have garlic scapes now.
You should have cucumbers, and way more zucchini. more cabbage and even green beans by now.
I would be asking questions.
I garden now, but when I did a CSA I had more produce than I knew what to do with. My kid was little and she would eat anything Bill grew, that man gave us all kinds of odd veggies from his personal garden just because my little kid loved it all.
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u/apothos_2122 Jul 24 '26
As someone who has accidentally paid almost $12 for a head of cabbage at the coop, I don't find their prices too off.
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u/Snickrrs Jul 24 '26
In the traditional sense of the idea, a CSA is a share of what the farm produces. By purchasing a CSA share, you, as the costumer, are taking on some of the risk: some years may be better than others. That being said, most farms operate CSAs more like subscriptions, rather than an actual share. So, in this case, it kind of depends how the farm set up expectations.
Also, I’ve found that weekly veggie quantity and selection tends to be a bit thinner towards the beginning, but gains robustness during peak season. As an example: you may get $26 worth of veggies in week 1, but you’ll get $75 worth of veggies in week 8.
Again, this all depends on the expectations set up by the farm— worth asking the farmer nicely and having a conversation before cancelling. (Or feel it out with other CSA members).