Planning how much to plant for the Farm Share Program has its own particular challenges. We keep data from previous years so we have some idea what 1lb of beans for 75 people over 5 weeks looks like, but in order to allow for the unexpected, we often plant double just to be sure.
In the case of beans, this spring, pretty much all the early beans went into the boxes as we had HUGE problems with germination in the cold soil. The weeds on the other hand did not seem to mind the cold so totally smothered the beans in some beds. This meant very few beans left over for the market or for us. Whenever anyone asked for beans we had to say ‘they are in the boxes’.
By August the beans were performing very nicely so we had plenty for the boxes plus some extras. Now some people might argue that we should have given the extra beans to the Farm Share Members, but those people definitely would not have any experience of picking beans in the rain, blazing heat or while being eaten alive by mosquitoes! Its a laborious task which is exceptionally hard on the back and we feel that we should receive some compensation for the work we do. If the beans would just fly off the plants into Farm Share Members mouths that would be just great, but we’re still working on that!
So, those extra beans go off to the Shediac, Moncton and Dieppe Markets where we make them available to those people who are still on the Farm Share Program waiting list, or who, for whatever reason, prefer to offer their support by buying from us regularly at the markets.
In general, highly popular items such as sugar snap peas, tomatoes, potatoes, melons etc ALWAYS get allocated to the Farm Share Members first. The only times that doesn’t happen are when a) if there is a deadline for harvest and consumption i.e. melons which need to be picked and eaten promptly. If picked ripe on Friday, they won’t make it as far as the following Wednesday.
or b) we don’t have enough to go round. For example, this week we brought peppers to the market because we only had enough for 25 people. The alternative would have meant putting 1/3 of a pepper in each of the boxes, which I think would have just been annoying! Next week there will be enough for everyone so the Farm Share members will get first option on the nicest peppers of the bunch.
There are also some popular items that we bring to the market that have not made it into the boxes at all. Basil for example. This is because I did not do very well with my basil this year so typically have only had about 4 bags of basil available each week. That would be a very tiny bunch for each member… Next year I plan to plant A LOT more and be more organised so that everyone can make at least one batch of pesto.
Another reason for not putting certain items in the boxes it that while I’m sure some people would love it, I know that others wouldn’t. Herbs are the classic example. Some people would be thrilled to get parsley while others don’t really consider herbs to be ‘food’. They would rather have carrots or beans. If we were to put the herbs in the boxes we would then either have to put them in instead of a more filling item (while might upset some people) or in addition to the regular items. This would mean all the work of growing, weeding, harvesting and bagging enough herbs for 75 people and then just giving them away. That is essentially what we did with the mint, dill seed and vine leaves this year. We just didn’t feel that we could charge people for them BUT we wanted to include them because they were important for the recipes that week.
We hope that over time we will have a solid group of Farm Share Members who really enjoy the same things that we do, so that we can place items in the boxes with confidence, knowing that they will enjoy them as much as us.
As one of our supporters said today ‘Rowena, you can’t please everyone’. Well, I guess we can try!
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