By:
(Dec 1, 2008)
This was my first year getting a CSA, so I am definantly not an expert, but I did my research and wanted to do the right thing for myself and the environment, so I bought a CSA share with this farm. The contract stated that each pickup should have enough to feed a family of four, but seldom did. Many of the first pickups and later pickups consisted of 50% turnip greens, 25% mustard greens, and 25% lettuce/spinach. Seriously, there are only so many greens a person can eat. The produce was not good enough for me to even consider buying another CSA share from this farm.
Comment on this Review
I also purchased a meat share from NV ranch. Again, their contract promised chicken, pork, and beef enough to feed a family of four. I eat a lot of chicken and I only received chicken 1 time in the form of skinned chicken legs (which are nearly impossible to cook well). One of the steaks I grilled and had to throw away because it tasted like the meat was bad.
Overall, I was very dissapointed with this CSA. I know it was their first year, but I expected them to at least live up to their contract. Next year I will take the money I spent on this and buy the things I really want from the farmer's market.
Comment
We appreciate the comment and always strive to live up to our customers expectations and would have liked to have known about any dissatisfaction during the season rather than after the season ended. We indicate in our program information that the early and late months will be mostly leafy greens, as that is what grows in this area during the spring and fall. We try to provide a good variety across our 6 month CSA season. The summer months we did provide many tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, etc. As for the meat share, we had a serious problem with predators this year that destroyed nearly 85% of our flock so our supply of chicken was very low. We communicated this to our shareholders and made sure they received additional pork and beef instead. As far as having 'bad' meat, this should have been brought to our attention IMMEDIATELY. There should be no reason for this as all of our meat is immediately quick frozen after butchering. This problem would have been investigated and resolved; this is the first such complaint we've heard about any of our meat products. We have many repeat customers that come back to us over and over again because of the quality of our meats. Part of joining a CSA is partnering with the farmer and sharing in both the bounties and the problems that occur. With flooding knocking out much of the early harvests and other challenges this year, we did our best to make up for it and tried to always be sure our customers knew what was going on. We're very sorry to hear that someone was less than satisfied. 2008 may have been our first year running a CSA but not our first year farming and hope that this reviewers first experience will not sway them from trying a CSA again in the future. We believe CSAs are a viable way to support local farmers as well as providing your family with healthy foods grown in a sustainable manner.