Re: csa names
Allan, I guess you would know what works best for your local customers, I have trouble keeping up with you.have you moved again ? Where are you now ? g. - Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 2:16 PM Subject: Re: csa names sounds like your local supermarket ! (I guess this should read convenience store in Yankese.) Actually, Gideon, 'local' is what separates it from 'supermarket.' The phrase is one that has been picked like 'authentic food' as a way of indicating that if you buy Fresh (picked this morning) and Local (within 100 miles), you've pretty much moved to supporting small, value-driven farms. My gut feeling, though, is similar to your, or I would have embraced this one. The blockage here is the difficulty with the word CSA Let's face it, if this were 'really' CSA, there w.b. a core group pulling this together while I keep working on the artichoke and the ginger management plans. But, CSA has its meaning to people who want fresh and locally grown food. Good to hear from you, my man. I wish you'd find time to write more. -Allan
Re: csa names
Allan, I guess you would know what works best for your local customers, I have trouble keeping up with you.have you moved again ? Where are you now ? This is the way we get the preps on as much earth as possible, Gideon!! I'm in Middleburg, VA. (or THE PLAINS, VA) That's west of Washington DC and East of the Blue Ridge. It's horse country. It's Grass Country. It's the home of Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall and the home of the heirs of old school business founders. For example, members of the Mellon family are neighbors. And so on. A tornado took out 23 standard 100 year apple trees from my new garden last year. No one had seen a tornado here before. Know what? I've had twisters in my last two bd gardens. We've come to associate them with prep applications. I don't think that preps had anything to do with the apple killing tornado, though. Thanks for checking up
Re: csa names
Allan, You sure don't know your celebrities and where they live. Sissy Spacek lives outside of Charlottesville, VA. I know this because when we had Komondors 10-20 years ago her husband came up and bought a couple from a litter. As far as other actors and the ilk, this isn't great country for them. Liz Taylor lived near by when she was married to John Warner but she quickly bored of being a Senator's wife and the local horsey scene. Mostly. the large estates belong to old money, the sort of inbred person that was born with money and in turn never did a thing with their life except ride a horse after a pack of hounds that are yapping at a scrawny fox. I imagine your middleburg market won't be those people. They aren't competent enough to buy food to feed themselves, they need someone else to feed them. Your market will most likely be the hangers on and the near do well (is that the correct term?) The people who own the shops that service the landed gentry, and the people who have enough for 10 acres and can afford to build a house of questionable taste with large pillars, brick facades and designs that below in another country and another time. You know, retired football players, computer executives who got out when the getting was good, and white collar crooks of various descriptions. My what a fine county you have moved to.
Re: csa names
Mostly. the large estates belong to old money, the sort of inbred person that was born with money and in turn never did a thing with their life except ride a horse after a pack of hounds that are yapping at a scrawny fox. Last weekend my arrival to the farm was slowed while waiting for three horsemen with a pack of hounds running around them. They were certainly saving themselves for the chase, I guess! After about 10 minutes they actually moved into the rough and let me pass. I had not idea that packs of hounds could be so large! The previous farmer here told me 'It's a great place, but waiting for the horses to go by gets a bit tiring.' ;-)
Re: csa names
And, of course, Allan, I should tell you about our little adventure with 'the hunt' and how they burnt down the house we were living in (long term house sitting) while we were at work because I wouldn't let 'the hunt' cross the property.
Re: csa names
And, of course, Allan, I should tell you about our little adventure with 'the hunt' and how they burnt down the house we were living in (long term house sitting) while we were at work because I wouldn't let 'the hunt' cross the property. OK, Leigh. I really don't like bringing this list down to the squabbling of neighbors with each other, but, I actually read in the Washington Post, of all places, that you are a person who plane out doesn't like rich people!! To temper this, I should say that after my 'welcome aboard tour' in Middleburg, I told my host I hate to sound like a tourist, but do you ever see the star of Gods and Generals, actor Robert Duvall, around here? only to hear from my host Allan, you just steer clear of Bobby Duvall. He's really rather an asshole.
Re: csa names
sounds like your local supermarket ! (I guess this should read convenience store in Yankese.) Gideon. - Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 5:42 AM Subject: Re: csa names Vital Vittles Nurtu-R-Us Working Share Caring Shares Sharing-Crops Thanks, Manfred!! I like your stick-to-it-ness!!! I'm back to 'fresh and local CSA' which is freshandlocalcsa.com Did this name not work for you folks? -Allan
Re: csa names
sounds like your local supermarket ! (I guess this should read convenience store in Yankese.) Actually, Gideon, 'local' is what separates it from 'supermarket.' The phrase is one that has been picked like 'authentic food' as a way of indicating that if you buy Fresh (picked this morning) and Local (within 100 miles), you've pretty much moved to supporting small, value-driven farms. My gut feeling, though, is similar to your, or I would have embraced this one. The blockage here is the difficulty with the word CSA Let's face it, if this were 'really' CSA, there w.b. a core group pulling this together while I keep working on the artichoke and the ginger management plans. But, CSA has its meaning to people who want fresh and locally grown food. Good to hear from you, my man. I wish you'd find time to write more. -Allan
Re: csa names
Allan: You wrote: the difficulty with the word CSA. Yes and yes again. On the one hand, you say, CSA has meaning for the people in the niche you're appealing to ... on the other hand, the term is difficult. Consider dropping it. Let Fresh and Local become its own raison d'etre. As you say, it doesn't sound like a real CSA anyway, or you, the farmer, wouldn't be choosing the name, drawing up the promotional materials, and all the rest; the core group would be doing it during the winter while you're resting [imagine that!]. I say, dump the term. Requires too much explaining. If you have to explain, explain Fresh and explain Local ... the social technology of getting the food to the people [the CSA concept] becomes more appealing when we WANT the food for the food's sake. Fresh and Local decribes the qualities I want in my food supply... Woody Aurora Farm. the only unsubsidized, family-run seed farm in North America offering garden seeds grown using Rudolf Steiner's methods of spiritual agriculture. http://www.kootenay.com/~aurora -Original Message- From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Saturday, January 25, 2003 6:19 AM Subject: Re: csa names sounds like your local supermarket ! (I guess this should read convenience store in Yankese.) Actually, Gideon, 'local' is what separates it from 'supermarket.' The phrase is one that has been picked like 'authentic food' as a way of indicating that if you buy Fresh (picked this morning) and Local (within 100 miles), you've pretty much moved to supporting small, value-driven farms. My gut feeling, though, is similar to your, or I would have embraced this one. The blockage here is the difficulty with the word CSA Let's face it, if this were 'really' CSA, there w.b. a core group pulling this together while I keep working on the artichoke and the ginger management plans. But, CSA has its meaning to people who want fresh and locally grown food. Good to hear from you, my man. I wish you'd find time to write more. -Allan
Re: csa names
Woody - I don't think I've been clear on my 'nobody understands CSA' laments. Last year when our article ran in the post, we sold 160 shares in two days. I talked to a lot of people who called. They were DESPERATE to FIND A CSA! CSA **IS** the word that drew them in. Unfortunately, to most, CSA means 'a box of fresh groceries each week for the growing season.' So, what it means is that CSA is a good marketing term if you want to sell your crop, even in advance. What I'm lamenting is that CSA today is NOT the inspired associative economics that brought you and I into this realm. I'm Fresh and Local CSA this season. That url was available, Fresh and Local itself is not, nor is Freshnlocal. One thing I've run into a lot this past two years is people who are interested in lowering standards to appeal to more and more people. I guess that's what we call 'marketing,' pulling enough of the grit out of a topic to make it appealing to the masses. That's our job as BD growers: holding the standard, although it is difficult. On the social movement known as 'csa,' I have to say that I continue to feel that the BDA failed to give the support to this movement that it needed in the beginning and it waifed over into the conventional organics realm, stripped of most of its community building. I can't save CSA by myself. I can grow very healthy vegetables by myself, so, that's what I'm going to do: fill the demand known as CSA and try to stop feeling so sad for the opportunities that have been lost for both consumer and grower. Hence, no need to explain 'CSA' to my customers. They already 'know.' -Allan
Re: csa names
Allan, I disagree about that post article (of course I don't have it in front of me to quote) but I think the author defined CSA for his readers and he defined it as getting fresh vegetables straight from the farmer without going to a farmers' market. I agree, those people that called me from the article didn't mean what you mean by CSA. And without the article to 'define' the term for them they wouldn't have had a clue wether CSA meant Confederate Soldiers of America or Confectionairy Students Association. I use the term subscription vegetables because, while I think it is a bad term, I always assumed it was more intuitive. My wife, however says that I'm wrong. She says that only slightly more people understand subscription vegetables than understand CSA. She says we still need to find a better term or spend several hundred million on an ad campaign educating people about our definitions.
Re: csa names
Leigh - My point is that the people I talked to all said that they had been looking for a CSA and were afraid they wouldn't find one for this season (last year) They didn't say they were lookign for vegetables and saw an article about CSA and decided to buy vegetables. all the ones I talked to had already internalized some definition of 'CSA' and had either been in one or wanted to join one. That's my point. I didn't have the article in frong of me, either. Here's the first paragraph from your webpage: BULL RUN MOUNTAIN VEGETABLE FARM A Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, providing fresh, subscription vegetables and flowers grown on our farm without chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Our vegetables and flowers are chemical and gmo free. I think you sort of cover all the bases there, www.bullrunfarm.com -Allan I disagree about that post article (of course I don't have it in front of me to quote) but I think the author defined CSA for his readers and he defined it as getting fresh vegetables straight from the farmer without going to a farmers' market.
Re: csa names
My concern about CSA is the Community part. We all agree that community (whatever that means) is a major part of what we are striving for. It is just my practical, hands-on experience, that a lot of the community that is talked about in the csa literature is pie in the sky. It doesn't work, at least around here, on the ground. We need to be thinking of different ways of creating community besides a core group and work shares. (I'm sorry, having a justice department lawyer on a core group trying to do my planning for me is insulting and a waste of my time. I don't advise him with his briefs and anyway, he wouldn't take my advise).
Re: csa names
When I started the Westchester County drop off site for Roxbury Farms two seasons ago, only ONE member in 25 knew what a csa was and was relieved to know about us. She is the one who has now taken over the drop off site for the farm, instead of our garage. Thanks, Jane. Yours is the other way that demand is spread, word of mouth, teaching face-to-face. The article brought in people who probably read about CSA in PARADE a year back, and several people who missed their old CSA from Ann Arbor or Amherst, but our CSA deliveries this season brought in many neighbors of last year's shareholders. It's the way it happens. I have a woman in Arlington right now who is promising me THIRTY new names this season. Her husband and she are going DOOR TO DOOR this weekend, trying to get their neighbors excited! This is, of course, a core group, but it has arisen on its own.
Re: csa names
Leigh, Where is yoiur farm located? I live in Takoma Park. Jane Parker
Re: csa names
Leigh, Where is yoiur farm located? I live in Takoma Park. Jane Parker Jane - Check out his webpage www.bullrunfarm.com Otherwise, he's in THE PLAINS, VA. I'm also in THE PLAINS this season. Leigh's, what? The highest farm in the county(?) and Im down in the rolling 'horse country' below. (Seems like there must be some sort of season shifting symbiosis in that (and I bet there is) Leigh is a really good man. Not just a successful farmer bringing lots of toxin free food to lots of families for a very long time, but also a man with a strong social conscience and a history of effective activism...why just the other day...Oh, hell, I'll leave the stories to Leigh. He's also a famous story teller.
Re: csa names
.I have to add one more suggestion: You could feature Hugh's testimonial and call it AgriViagra. Lurkin' Lance
csa names
Vital Vittles Nurtu-R-Us Working Share Caring Shares Sharing-Crops
Re: csa names
Vital Vittles Nurtu-R-Us Working Share Caring Shares Sharing-Crops Thanks, Manfred!! I like your stick-to-it-ness!!! I'm back to 'fresh and local CSA' which is freshandlocalcsa.com Did this name not work for you folks? -Allan
CSA Names
Wealth o' Health Human Salivations Salivations!
RE: CSA names
Allan or anyone please give me some of the best bd sites I want to link them up with mine rex tyler -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Allan Balliett Sent: 06 January 2003 00:54 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: CSA names Martha - The USDA operates a CSA database that can be accessed at their page, at the BDA's page and at the Robyn Van En pages, to name just a few of the portals. that's the place to look for CSAs. I don't know if it would make me happier if they added a 'subscription farming' section. -Allan
CSA names
When I ran a Google search on CSA in Texas, I got one only. (And I know the person running it, and I wouldn't trust her as far as I could heave her.) But, instead they're calling it subscription farms. I'd think even contract farming would have a good ring, nicer than 'subscribers'. Especially since some (like yourself, Allan) will grow a good deal of what the client wants on their table. Asking the members what they want to see harvested seems like a good idea.
Re: CSA names
Martha - The USDA operates a CSA database that can be accessed at their page, at the BDA's page and at the Robyn Van En pages, to name just a few of the portals. that's the place to look for CSAs. I don't know if it would make me happier if they added a 'subscription farming' section. -Allan
