What is it about writing contracts that just begs formality? In our case, it’s probably the weight of knowing that you’re making an investment in this season’s food, and you’re trusting us to grow it for you. But the larger challenge with the contract was brevity, never my strong point. I’ve just finished the contract, and there’s so much we want to tell you that we’re adding the leftovers here.
If there’s something I’ve omitted that you need to know to help you make a decision, please email me at katie@komta.com.
(If you haven’t been on the site before,going to the home page and working your way up might be helpful.
The contract says you’re going to pick up your share on time or it’s forfeit. That sounds awfully harsh, but the reality is that the quality of your basket cannot be guaranteed outside of that window. You can contact us to make other arrangements if you get a flat tire on the way to pickup your order, or something along those lines. But if Fridays aren’t going to work for you, let us recommend another CSA program that might better fit your schedule.
We’re going to have optional social events as part of your CSA membership, but we haven’t figured out all of the details yet. The first one will be early enough so that you can get oriented and see both farms and know exactly where to park and pick up your share when it’s time to do so.
We’ll have a farm stand at each of our farms this summer. Both will be open on Saturday mornings for a few hours, and one other time during the week, to be determined later. You’ll be able to stop and get extra goodies if you want them, and our Cool Beans will get a 5% discount from the posted price.
What exactly are you getting? Well, Mother Nature bats last, so we’re not making promises about the exact contents of the basket in any given week. We’re aiming to give you produce valued 10% higher than the cost of your membership over the season. The earliest weeks will be heavy on salad ingredients – lettuces, spinach, arugula, radishes, scallions, because in mid May that’s what’s available. Asparagus, strawberries, peas, new potatoes, baby squash – everything comes in season in its own good time. We’re doing what we can to extend the window of availability by using low tunnels and the greenhouse, and by staggering our plantings, and choosing varieties with different maturation dates.
We’re really encouraging pickup at the farms because if you do so, we’ll be able to occasionally offer you the option of a buffet-style pickup, where you can customize your week’s produce to some degree. For instance, we might offer bagged lettuce, spinach, kale, and mixed greens, and a full share member can mix and match any four bags. If you opt for the West Shore pickup, which is in a safe, shaded location, we’ll be packing your box for you every week.
There will occasionally be the opportunity to pick your own produce or to cut your own flowers at one or both farms. We’ll let you know in advance, and will give you some choices of available times.
You’ll always be able to contact us (by Thursday morning) to add, if possible, additional amounts to your Friday order at the discounted-farm-stand cost. So if you’re hosting the Little League picnic on the weekend and you’ll want a lot of corn on the cob, we can help you out. If you want to can tomatoes and need three bushels in the third week of August, we’ve got your back. Just let us know.
The East Shore pickup site would be in a parking lot at the intersection of Progress Ave and 81. Here’s the problem: unlike the West Shore site, we can’t drop boxes there and leave – we’d have to deliver from the back of the truck. Which means no one’s at the farm to oversee the weekly pickups there, so the East Shore delivery would need to be between 3-4 pm, and shares not picked up would be taken to the Dauphin farm for possible pickup that evening. I’ll make the East Shore parking lot option available if we get a minimum of six members who want it – but I won’t promise it until I get those six. Email me if you’re interested, and I can put your application on hold until we know how that’s going to work out.
There is no deadline for signing up but we do have a maximum number of shares available. When we’ve sold 75% of them, we’ll update the website so you know.
We’ve asked for either full payment with your application or three roughly equal payments before April 30. We need at least that one-third deposit with your application to hold your spot. We are open to other arrangements as long as one third is paid when we receive your application and the amount is paid in full by April 30.
Refunds will only be issued under the most extreme of circumstances, so extreme that we don’t wish that kind of misfortune on anyone and fervently hope it does not become necessary. We will not give you a refund if you decide you don’t want to be in a CSA for reasons that make it clear that you didn’t read the website to see what a CSA was in the first place. For instance, things are ripe when they’re ripe. There will not be tomatoes in May. You’ll get a share of what we have each week, which might mean unfamiliar things (we’ll always include recipes and tips, though.) We also will not issue refunds if you’re dissatisfied because a tornado wiped out one of our farms and we lost everything planted there. Sharing the risk as well as the benefits is an integral part of belonging to a CSA. Do I sound grouchy? I just wish to make sure you’re very clear about what a CSA is and what it is not before you sign up.
For further information, here’s the Farmer’s Agreement – you’ll get a signed copy of it when you join Cool Beans.
The Farmer’s Agreement – Cool Beans CSA 2010
We will do our best. We will work hard to make your Cool Beans membership a success for you and your family.
We cannot control everything. Drought, flooding, hail, tornadoes, locusts or assorted other plagues are beyond our sphere of influence. Therefore, we can not make exact quantitative promises.
We will strive to make sure that you will receive value equal to 110% of your share’s purchase price over the course of one season. Please understand that there is an upward slope to the harvest, and the first few weeks will be lighter than later ones.
We will raise our produce sustainably and organically with the least possible impact on the environment. Your produce will be harvested as close to pickup time as possible.
We will communicate with you weekly so you know what to expect and you have information about how to prepare the items in your share. We’ll post pictures often so you can see how things are coming along.
We will not overwhelm you with more food than you can use. If you opt for on-farm pickup, you’ll always have the option of removing items from your share that you will not be able to use.
If you would like larger amounts of produce at any time, you’ll get a 5% discount at our farmstands. If you’d like, additional amounts can be included in your weekly delivery if available.
We will be as accommodating as we can, but we are running a business. We may not be able to stop and socialize when you pick up your share. (We’ll always want to, you understand, but sometimes we just can’t.)
katie and judi