Moving On

We have been a CSA farm since we planted our first 3-acre plot in 1997. The support we got from our early CSA members (some of you are still with us!) helped our farm get off the ground and beat the odds to survive for over two decades.

For us, CSA provided the farm with a measure of stability and predictability. More importantly, it gave us a sense of community, and personalized the act of growing vegetables. 

It’s been a long and interesting journey for sure. From the early days when we were delivering 30 or so boxes out of the back of a pickup, to the Two Small Farms days when we delivered over 1500 boxes a week from San Francisco to Carmel. We have loved being a CSA farm and sharing our farming experiences with you and it has been such a central part of our identity as a farm that it is hard to imagine life without it.

But all good things must come to an end. This will be our final year operating the CSA. There are many reasons for us to bring it to an end, both from a business and a personal perspective. The changing consumer culture and the myriad ways people can now order “fresh from the farm” to their door means we have to compete against big corporate giants to get our message out there. Increasing labor costs disadvantage small organic farmers, who use labor instead of chemicals. Raising our prices as much as we need to cover our increasing costs would make growing our membership that much harder. The “fixed” costs involved with the CSA –administration, packing and delivery— are high and remain virtually the same whether we pack for 1000 members or 100. As our numbers declined, the CSA, unfortunately, became less and less financially viable.

The good news is that we will continue to farm and make our produce available in a number of ways. We will be at the Mountain View Farmers Market on Sundays and are planning to have up to eight summer u-picks where our vegetables will also be available. We plan to keep in touch with updates about our farm and farm events via this newsletter.

We are aware that many members have paid well in advance, and we will refund any unused credit after the final delivery, which will be December 18^th. The weekly deliveries will end as usual the week before Thanksgiving (November 20) and we will do two winter deliveries December 4^th and 18^th.

With gratitude,

Jeanne and Steve