Gauteng Smallholder December 2015-January 2016 | Page 40

VEGETABLES
From page 36

smallholdings: Children’s
birthday parties or other
celebrations can, for a fee, be
hosted by the smallholder.
K Saves money: Most CSA
members will save money
over a similar amount of
quality produce bought at the
supermarket or from a
farmers' market.
K Saves time: What you give
up in choice you gain in

convenience. Picking up a
box simply takes less time that
going to the farmer's market
or supermarket - it's the
ultimate in one-stop shopping.
K Definite local eating: With
a CSA membership you know
the plot of land on which the
food was grown. If eating
local and supporting the local
food system is important to a
town dweller, joining a CSA is
an easy way to do it.
The first step in starting a CSA
is to think about how you
want to structure the shares.
How many weeks will be in
your season? (It's probably a
good idea to start with just the
summer season, and add
others as demand grows.)
What vegetables are popular
with your customers and grow
well on your smallholding?
Will you use a tunnel,
greenhouse or other season
extension methods to add
weeks to your shares?
Next, you'll want to consider

the logistics. Will you require
full payment up front or will
you consider offering the
option of spreading payment
over several months for a
slightly higher cost? Although
you don't get as much cash
flow benefit, this can make
the difference between selling
a share or not, so consider
carefully whether you can
handle the cash flow difference in exchange for
potentially more customers.
You'll also need to figure out
how customers will pick up
their shares. Will they come
to the plot? Perhaps they can
take it in turns to collect and
drop off within their own
suburb. Would you be able to
organize drop-off sites?
Who will pack the boxes or
bags, and when will that be
done? You will need to make
sure your produce is picked
as close to the pick-up time as
possible. You may need to
refrigerate your CSA boxes
until pickup.

38
www.sasmallholder.co.za

Think about whether you will
require shareholders to return
the previous week's empty
box to minimise your
investment in packaging, or
whether shareholders provide
their own bags and pack their
own shares when they arrive.
One good opportunity for
shareholders who want to
trade work for a discount on
their shares is to offer to have
them divide and package the
freshly picked produce into
the share boxes or bags.
Another way to add value
and creativity to your CSA is
to develop a repertoire of
recipes that you can include
with your CSA. For example,
when tomatoes might
dominate your share boxes,
print out and include (or
email to members) a sheet
with some popular recipes for
tomato jam, chutney, pickles,
sauces or explanations of how
to dry tomatoes.