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2013 Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in our 2013 Survey- it was extremely helpful. We had an all-time high for survey responses this year. 67% of survey respondents had a vegetable share last year, 33% did not.

People mostly joined the CSA for high quality foods, locally sourced foods and to support local farmers (in that order).  Less important were organic produce, supporting an alternative food economy and economic value.

The Veggie Share
People rated last season’s vegetables highly in taste and freshness, slightly lower in appearance and weekly quantity, and lower in both weekly and season long variety.

Members were slightly less satisfied with the winter vegetables overall, mostly because of variety (but that’s the nature of a root veggie share!)

Several members found the variety in the fruit share to be lacking, with too many peaches and apples.

Of the people who had vegetable shares last year, 9% did not plan to sign up this year.  For almost all of them, it was just too much food.

Subsidy Program
Almost all members (94%) thought it was important or very important that the CSA be accessible to all income levels and 93% knew we offered subsidized shares.  65% thought subsidized shares should be expanded to include dairy, fruit or eggs while 34% had no opinion.

The subsidized share members who responded the survey wanted an increase in their subsidized share options.

Expanding the Food We Offer
On the question of adding additional products to the weekly vegetable share, interest was high.  33% have never participated in special products but would be interested depending on details, 34% have participated and would like more and 18% want to do all their food shopping at the CSA.

Every single proposed special product got at least 20 votes.  The top vote getters were:
egg share – 71%
weekly a la carte vegetables – 62%
winter citrus – 62%

Respondents were more cautious on the question of adding more delivery dates in the winter.  54% were interested in more delivery dates but not necessarily weekly.  25% might be interested but were satisfied with our current delivery schedule.  14% wanted year round weekly pick-ups.

If we go ahead with the year round model, 57% did not want an increase in fees, 24% were either mildly or strongly against fee or volunteer hour increases, 22% did not want an increase in volunteer hours and 18% would be willing to increase both fees and volunteer hours.

Dairy Share
The biggest reason people didn’t get a MNJ dairy share was that they didn’t consume enough dairy on a weekly basis (54%).  17% thought it cost too much and 16% preferred to buy their dairy elsewhere.

The dairy rated high for freshness and taste but lower for value and delivery reliability.

Fish Share
People rated the fish share high in freshness, taste and appearance, less high for variety, ease of ordering and customer support and a lot lower in value.

The biggest reasons for not getting the fish share were not eating enough fish to justify it (56%) and the expense (35%).

Lewis Waite
35% of respondents have purchased from Lewis Waite within the past year, 65% have not.  People who did not order from Lewis Waite said that they intended to order but didn’t get around to it (44%), found the ordering system intimidating or confusing (23%) or didn’t know about Lewis Waite (16%).  People who ordered from Lewis Waite were happy with the product and the customer support but less satisfied with the ease of ordering and value.

Events
On the question of events, 63% of respondents did not attend any CSA event last year, 26% attended the town hall and 12% attended the summer bbq.  People who didn’t attend any events said it was because the timing was bad (35%) and they weren’t members last year (35%).  Some 15% just weren’t interested in the events.

For future events, people were most interested in:
Farm tours – 56%
U-pick outings – 53%
Brewing or canning lessons – 48%
Food/cooking demos – 42%
Picnic/BBQ – 38%
Potluck – 34%

Social Media
Facebook and the website continue to be the primary way people get their information.  People don’t know about the twitter feed and if they do know, haven’t checked it out.  People who check weekly use facebook and the website about equally but more casual users go to the website.

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*In the box Lewis Waite Farms

Winter Shares, Week 3

Join us on Tuesday, February 4th from 7pm-9pm for our first annual Open House at Sunnyside Community Services.

Bring your checkbook to sign up for your 2014 share, bring some mad money for a raffle ticket to win a fruit share courtesy of Briermere Farms, and bring your taste buds to sample offerings from our expanded list of vendors–including beer, wine, kombucha, fish, milk, a la carte veggies, and, of course, our dearly beloved Lewis Waite and Golden Earthworm Farm.

And if you haven’t already, please fill out our annual survey by 1/31. We’ll be discussing the results at the Open House on Tuesday night.

GEOF-beets
Beets! Image via Golden Earthworm

Golden Earthworm Share
Watermelon Radish
White or Yellow Potatoes
Carrots
Rutabaga
Beets
Sweet Potatoes

Winter Sun Share
Sweet Corn
Blueberries
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Butternut Squash Puree
Pea Shoots
Tomato Puree

Village Fishmonger Fish Share
Porgy

Big aLICe Beer Share
Bremiere Apple Share
Bremiere Cider Share

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Events

Sunnyside CSA Annual Open House

Happy 2014 Sunnyside CSA! Tune in and get ready for the 2014 Summer/Autumn season!

CSA News, Food & Sign-Ups

Our new 2014 Open House is not your average share sign-up soiree. It’s a news, food and sign-ups happening! Plus, a great opportunity to really get to know your CSA:

News: Share your feedback about the season, hear from the core group about the work we did this year, and help determine the direction for next season.

Food: We are excited to host our special product vendors with samples of things you could sign up for this year (if the demand is there)…  and… drumroll please…

Sign-Ups for 2014 Summer/Autumn season! This will be the only in-person sign-up this year- check out our 2014 Summer Share contract here. Sign-ups are on a first-come-first-serve basis, but if you can’t make it to the Open House, we will have online sign-ups soon. Plus, we have more special products coming this summer, like dairy, fish and more— those will be conducted in a separate sign-up later on.

Sunnyside CSA 2014 Open House

Date: Tuesday, February 4th
Time: 7-9 pm
Location: Sunnyside Community Services

With the following vendors confirmed (and others still TBA):

Golden Earthworm Farm
No open house would be complete without our beloved veggie farmers who provide us with amazing vegetables all year round. Hear about their 2013 adventures, give them feedback, and find out what’s in store for 2014!

Enlightenment Wine
Check out wine samples for a potential wine share in 2014!

Big Alice Brewing
If you missed out on our winter beer share, here’s your chance to taste what you missed!

Village Fishmonger
Try their ceviche samples and consider a fish share for 2014!

Booch
Local kombucha and pickles in your CSA? That’s right!

Lewis Waite
Our wonderful partners will have a selection of cheese, bread, raspberry jam, hummus, brittle, ruby sauerkraut, apple bubbly and beef kielbasa, all available through the CSA.

Farmigo
Their year-round, a la carte webstore would give Sunnyside CSA’ers access to year-round veggies and more!

Milk Not Jails
Try their dairy samples and find out about their shares!

A few topics to be covered at the meeting:
– Golden Earthworm Organic Farm update
– Special products update and Lewis Waite product tasting
– Share your thoughts on the CSA and ideas for next season
– Learn about the Subsidized Share Program
– Year-end recap about the CSA’s finances, programs, and policies

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you for your feedback!

The results of the 2013 survey—and the future of our CSA—will be discussed at our big Open House meeting on Tuesday, February 4, from 7-9 pm (see above).

 

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Annual Survey for Sunnyside CSA’ers

We want to hear from you! Really, everyone interested in participating in the Sunnyside CSA—long-time and new members, folks who buy special products or folk who might order food through us next year. Please take our survey and tell us what you want to see! Help shape this CSA by providing feedback!

Ready? Take our annual survey!

You might have noticed that, over the years, we’ve evolved from offering 26 weeks’ worth of vegetables to offering a variety of foods all year round. The more food we’ve introduced into our rotation, the less dependent we’ve become on shopping at traditional supermarkets… and we seem to be headed towards a time when we can meet all of our basic food needs through food deliveries every week, all year round—and almost never need to use a supermarket again.

For some of us, that’s a really exciting goal—but we need to figure out how many of you agree. Are you just interested in getting some summer vegetables and no more? Or do you dream of picking up all sorts of basic and exotic items, all locally-sourced and sustainably-raised, every week of the year?

Whatever your level of interest, tell us via our end-of-the-year survey, which is open to everyone, from seasoned members to folks who have yet to order anything from the CSA. The survey is designed to feed you only the questions that are relevant to your situation, so please, everyone, read it and fill it out asap. Feel free to pass it on to anyone in the neighborhood who is seriously interested in this kind of eating—we want to hear from you all!

Help shape Sunnyside CSA. Take our annual survey!

The results of this survey- and the future of our CSA- will be discussed at our big Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, February 4, from 7-9 pm.

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2011 Season End Survey

Happy New Year, CSAers!

Hope you all enjoyed a great holiday.

Although the new year has begun, we are still wrapping up the 2011 season and making plans with our farm for the 2012 season.
Please help us out by taking our annual season-end survey. The survey is open until Sunday January 15, but we would love to hear from you sooner.

We will announce the results at our annual town hall meeting on Wednesday January 18th.

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Archives

2010 Season Year-End Survey

Happy New Year, CSAers!

Hope you all enjoyed a great holiday.

Although the new year has begun, we are still wrapping up the 2010 season and making plans with our farm for the 2011 season.
Please help us out by taking our annual season-end survey. The survey is open until Thursday, January 13, but we would love to hear from you sooner.

We will announce the results at our annual town hall meeting on Tuesday January 18th.