A friend came by today and complimented me on the garden. Our conversation went something like this:
Her: Did you plant a lot of tomatoes?
Me: Oh, yes. I have thirteen out there so far.
Her: Are you planning to sell tomatoes?
Me: I don't know. It depends on how many I get.
Her: Well, if you do, I want to be the first on the list. I love tomatoes!
And that got me thinking... should we offer a microCSA? It seems rather premature to make plans like that. I have no idea how the garden will produce this year. We've already lost half the carrot and beet crops. On the other hand, the potatoes are performing way above my expectations. The corn is growing like gangbusters, as are the squash and pumpkins. What will we do with a bumper crop? Can it? Freeze it? Give it away? Sell it?
My friend may have hit upon a simple solution: a list. We could make a list of people who'd be interested in our excess produce. We could even make a list of what excess produce, in particular, they'd want. And then, when excess produce makes itself available, we can email those folks and offer it to them.
Also, we don't necessarily need to sell it. I'd be happy to exchange foods. For example, if we get tons of tomatoes but our zucchini crop fails, I'd happily swap. I don't know how to can food, though I'd love to learn. If you're planning to can this season, I could give you food in exchange for getting some canned food back or for some lessons or help canning. Like making pesto? I'll give you basil to get some pesto back. Sweat equity works, too; come weed the garden one afternoon and walk away with fresh produce.
If any of these possibilities interests you, let me know. And if you'd rather just pay money, let me know how much you'd expect to pay so that I can price things accordingly. Please send your responses and inquiries to info@highgroundmicrofarm.org.
A few days ago thinking about this problem I came up with the tag line "High Ground Microfarm: A Non-Monetary Enterprise". Basically if you start comparing vegetables to money you realize A) that they are both green, in the USA, and B) its a bit silly how little of the one you get for the other. So my solution is to not have that enter the picture.
ReplyDeleteBut the details remain to be worked out. "Come trade your labor for our food". Do we have to schedule this? Or a weekly thing, like every Saturday morning? Do you have to work every time you come pick up food or can you do all your labor in one day? People invented money as a way to allocate labor. So without money we have to re-invent news ways of allocating labor.
Sigh. I'm sure someone has already thought through all of this and has a viable model. But maybe not.
> when excess produce makes itself available
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love the passive voice? I can just see those tomatoes leaping off the vines and neatly arranging themselves in baskets crying "eat me! eat me!"
> tomatoes leaping off the vines....
Deleteif only! makes me think of old-time embroidered linens, with anthropomorphized vegetables on them doing wacky things like dancing. well, anything they do would be wacky, yes.
I am interested in exchanging some labor of the food-processing / preserving / transforming variety for some excesses of food.
ReplyDeleteAs long as it's not in August.
I'm not too picky about what food it is. I have learned to think of stuff to do with whatever vegetable is coming in in huge excesses after 10 years of Brookfield Farm. :)
If you have an excess that is not immediately spoken for 10x over, talk to me.
(Also : info@highgroundmicrofarm.org failed, with a : Relay access denied (state 13)
message. So I am posting a comment here.)