2021 CSA - a letter to our Founding Members

Dear 2021 Farm Sol CSA Members,

A resounding THANK YOU! As our first season growing under the CSA model, you took a risk investing in our dream, and we are so thankful for it. We know it sounds a bit NPRish, but we’re calling you our “Founding Members.” It’s difficult to believe that we were just moving to this area a mere 12 months ago. After a full four seasons, we feel like we know the land and each of you a little more intimately now, and we feel nourished by these connections and the food that has brought us together.

The conditions this growing season weren’t easy on us – several frosts in June, followed by heat waves, hailstorm, drought, and more late-season hail – but we’ve worked hard this year, from pounding stakes into the frozen ground for greenhouses in January, moving over 140 yards of soil into planting beds (much of it by shovel and cart), hand watering field crops until mid-August, and adjusting to the new “Absolutely No Sleeping In Ever Again” policy established by our very considerate chickens. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in just one year and we hope that you are too, because your support has been a crucial part in getting all of this done! And oh boy, there’s so much more to come.

EXCITING NEWS

Next year, we plan to grow our business to a point that will allow us to both live and work on farm during the entire growing season. In transitioning from one to two full-time dedicated farmers, here are some of the exciting things ahead:

• More variety! We have plans for several new delights tucked up our sleeves, including plans for melons, garlic, eggplant, cabbages, more herbs, and flowers. We’re also looking forward to integrating other heirloom varietals for a broader flavor palette.

• Even more plants! This spring, we plan to invest in a test-batch of several perennial varieties, like apples, honeyberries, pears, and plums. We will observe pilot-scale trials for insight into larger orchard investments to come, with the goal of fruit integration into future CSAs.

• Regeneratively-raised meat! We consider animals to play crucial roles in the health of our vegetable fields and ourselves and are following regenerative practices to raise our animals in a way that honors and improves the landscape for ecosystem function, biodiversity, and climate resilience. This winter we will be processing our first lambs on farm. We plan to begin raising forest-grazed pigs and pasture-raised meat poultry in Spring 2022. We want to be hyper-intentional in developing best practices focused on animal health and happiness, which means scaling responsibly and limited availability for purchase in 2022. We will likely offer meat sales to Founding Members only.

• Farm Sol is working on getting a Food License! As a CSA add-on or a-la-carte ordering/farm stand shopping, we’ll be providing options for ready-to-eat preservations like canned, fermented, and pickled produce grown and prepared on farm (think hot sauces, salad dressings, kimchi, etc.), and maybe some bakery items.

• Community building! We won’t sugarcoat it – this summer was a tough one with Kelly trying to finish her graduate degree and John trying to stay awake past 8pm on a 7-day workweek schedule. But with plans for an extra farmer on deck next year, we’re dedicated to hosting a few on-farm gatherings next year! We’re currently planning food preservation workshops, the implementation of a newsletter, and a member-recipe share.

OUR GOALS

We see our management practices as an integral part to a food system that can reform ecosystems in a beautiful and responsible way for our environment, our community, and ourselves. As a CSA member, you are likely already aware that local food also reduces food transportation emissions, connects us to our regional habitat and communities, provides security and resiliency to a paramount supply chain (remember store shelves in 2020?), and connects us in a way that is nutritionally and spiritually fulfilling.

Our long-term end goal is to be able to provide a small number of families with the highest quality and environmentally regenerative nutrition to service most of their grocery needs, including meat, dairy, vegetables, and fruit. We believe that bringing our “grocery shopping” back to a farm setting promotes eating seasonally and intentionally, encouraging responsible dietary choices for our bodies and for the planet. We have a lot to learn and much more to sweat before this dream becomes reality, but as we’re thinking about the long-term, we’re evaluating the development process with these end goals in mind.

We are committed to doing our best by our health, our animals, and the planet. To grow carefully and intentionally in these areas, we will focus scaling the practices with which we are most familiar to support our growth in other areas until diversity can support both itself and us at a more finely tuned scale. So, we’ll start by feeding more families more vegetables next year! To meet this goal, we’ve done some creative restructuring to the CSA. Things will look different in 2022, and since you’ve played an important role in our farm as business partners this year, we want to explain to you how and why.

PLANS FOR 2022 CSA

Earlier anticipated start date

 2022 CSA will begin earlier this coming year. With a lot of the heavy lifting in field prep under our belts, we’re ready to hit the ground running and even do some 2021 fall planting for early season harvests. If you recall, this year was a shortened season, beginning the first week in July. This year’s prices reflected a 15-week goal, which we will meet by October 7. Next year, we expect to have the ability to begin CSA shares in early June, allowing a few weeks of extended produce availability and an 18-week goal. Depending on how this year’s trial goes (aaaand the weather forecast next year), we may also implement a 2022 Fall Share.

Expanding our reach

Northern Minnesota is our home and priority for growing community, however we are expanding our 2022 availability to our city-folk friends while we continue to grow the support necessary to keep our produce most-local. Our hope is to return to serving solely the Northern Minnesota region when we have the interest to keep this option sustainable, so Northerners, your word-of-mouth advertising is especially appreciated!

More options for Share pick-up sites

In addition to continuing to host an on-farm pick-up, we are adding the option for 3 drop-sites: Duluth and two Twin Cities locations. Exact locations of these drop sites will be shared closer to implementation, but for your planning purposes they are in the areas of West Duluth, Mendota Heights, and Northeast Minneapolis. With this year’s “on-farm only” pick-up, we have really enjoyed having you all out to visit every week. We believe it’s important to foster connection to the place from which our food comes and hope to still have takers on the weekly visits! However, we understand that good food and convenience are continuously at odds and wanted to provide an alternative for customers who are more limited in time and mobility. To support this convenience there will be an additional transportation fee charged for opting into non-farm drop site options for CSA Shares.

Re-envisioning our Shares

This year we offered “Farm” and “Half” shares. We want to continue providing options to meet varying needs and vegetable intake, and through chatting with many of you, we’ve come up with what we hope will meet the most needs. Next year, our Full and Half Shares will be the same sized portion, however Half Shares will be on an every other week schedule for pick-up (9 week goal vs. 18 week goal for the Full Share). Since our produce is harvested right before it gets to you, and since we’ve seen what this means for veg longevity first hand, we feel confident in the viability of a two-week freshness for those pursuing this option. Full Shares (the weekly option) will continue be available to local Northern Minnesota friends only and are NOT available as an option to folks in the Twin Cities. In summary, BOTH Full and Half Shares will be available for on-farm pick up OR weekly delivery to the Duluth for Northern MN customers. ONLY Half Shares will be available by drop-site for Twin Cities customers. Pasture-raised eggs and flower bouquet add-ons will also be available to all customers, but our eggs will be in limited supply so be sure to order soon!

Produce Amounts and Pricing Adjustments

This Year:
In 2021, our Farm Shares were 2x the Half Shares in produce volume plus a few extra perks and designed to feed a family or a couple of dedicated veg eaters. Our Half Shares were structured to feed a vegetable-interested couple or single person for a week. Our weekly boxes were put together with an averaged price-point in mind. To demonstrate our structure, divide the price of the 2021 Half Share ($300) by the minimum time length goal (15 weeks) to give an averaged weekly box price of $20. We then filled boxes with $20 market value of produce PLUS $2-7 worth of extras, which we consider repayment for interest due from the pre-season up-front payment. This year, we also promised to continue into the season as long as we have enough vegetables available, making any weeks longer than the 15 week minimum a bonus value also considered to be repayment of member’s accrued interest. Refer to the Fall CSA letter for a partial tally of this added value as of week 14 of the 2021 CSA.

To illustrate an averaged price-point box from early-season (in general, box values continued to increase later in the season), we’ll use the Half Share box from Week #6 of the 2021 CSA as an example:

Item	Market Value	Total Box Value
Kale	$3	$23
Zucchini	$4
Broccoli	$4
Cherry Tomatoes (pint)	$3
Cucumbers	$3
Onions	$2
Pickling Dill	$1
Cauliflower	$2
Hot Wax Peppers	$1

Next Year:
In doing some market research on other CSAs locally available, we’re restructuring both our prices and produce allotments. As a brand spankin’ new farm with little street cred, we were SO happy to be able to offer our 2021 prices which reflected the shortened season (15 weeks) and risky bet on newbies and are pleased to say that our pricing methods hold up in their ability to fairly pay ourselves, ensuring we can continue to provide you healthy food for years to come.

So, our averaged price-point box configuration will continue this coming season, but updated prices will reflect an 18 week minimum goal AND an adjustment to produce amounts. As the “Farm Share” is retired, it will be replaced by the “Full Share” which will look to be about 1+1/3x of the 2021 Half Shares. Why? Well, we heard that getting into the swing of eating fresh took a bit of re-orienting at first, but people were ready for MORE veg mid-season. To address this, the new Full Share is now projected to feed a vegetable-dedicated couple with flexibility for preserving more food to prolong the perks of good food more year-round (remember - the farm can be your grocery store outside of the growing season too, if we plan appropriately!). If you purchased the Half Share this year, imagine eating +1/3 more of your weekly box this coming season or pickling/freezing/canning excess for off-season eating – if this seems within reason, we hope you will consider the 2022 Full Share option. If you purchased the 2021 “Farm Share” and were hungry for more, we (are impressed and) hope you will consider a 2022 Full Share + a 2022 Half Share to meet your voracious veggie needs. If this year’s Half Share was a lot for you to keep up with, and if you’re not interested in taking on more food preservation this next year (we’re happy to provide resources!), we recommend opting for weekly Farm Stand a-la-carte ordering, grocery shopping at farmers markets, or supporting a local CSA designed with smaller portion sizes in mind (we’re happy to give recommendations!).

We feel our prices are competitive for the value of produce undertaken in an average growing season and encourage you to explore other CSAs available for your own market analysis and selection comparison. Below is a breakdown of how we construed the 2021 pay-structure with comparison to our plans for 2022 prices. In 2022, there is a slightly better return on investment for Full Shares over Half Shares considering the updated goal for averaged-box value (not including weekly interest-extras), which we feel reflects interest accrual and bulk-pricing discounts fairly.

CSA	Duration Goal	Share Price	Target Box Value
2021 Farm	15 weeks	600	40
2021 Half	15 weeks	300	20
2022 Full	18 weeks	600	35
2022 Half	9 weeks	325	35

Founding Member Discount

Finally, in appreciation for supporting our first-ever CSA season, we’d like to give our Founding Members the opportunity to register for next year’s CSA at a thank-you’d rate. If ordering from our website, please use the code SOLFOUNDER at check-out for a $25 discount. If you’re willing to help us recruit new customers, please have them mention you sent them - we’d love to thank you via some food license recipe trials!

STAY IN TOUCH

Do you have a particular vegetable or fruit you want to see in the CSA boxes next year? Do you have ideas for on-farm events or skill-sharing? Please let us know and we’ll see what we can do together! Are you planning to not return to the CSA next year? We understand this purchasing model isn’t for everyone, but we’d love to know what didn’t work for you so we can better meet customer needs in the future.

Thanks again - your support helps keep good food on your table and on ours. We hope everyone has a restful, regenerative winter. Hope to see you next year!

Your Farmers,

John and Kelly