A Fresh and Local CSA

This reviewer is not being truthful.

At this time, I would like to respond to this review. First, there seems to be a misunderstanding that we changed pick up locations. This is blatantly untrue. We have seven different drop sites in the metropolitan area. I discovered that this reviewer was a 16th Street Heights participant. We added the 16th Heights location three years ago when a group from that area approached us and asked if we would consider dropping vegetables shares to that location. This site is very much out of our way but a very awesome family volunteered their home as a pick up location and we decided to give it a try. We all figured out at that time that Thursday was the only day that we could fit driving there into our schedule. So, Thursday was the day decided on and it has always been Thursday. It has never changed. If this reviewer (who, by the way, has NEVER contacted us whatsoever) was not able to pick up there on Thursday, he or she could have changed to a Tuesday location or just not join the CSA and we would have gladly refunded her money. But she NEVER contacted us and so we did not know of her dissatisfaction. Keep in mind that people are able to pick up on Thursday from 3:00 in the afternoon until 10:00 at night and if they cannot make it during those hours, their vegetables will be refrigerated and put out the next day. All they need to do is contact the host and let them know that they can't pick up until Friday or whenever and their vegetables will be kept for them. This is made very clear on our web site and in the CSA contract. The accusation that we skipped a week is only partially true. We had a week during the CSA season where we had an emergency and we were unable to deliver. We contacted everyone ahead of time about this and we assured everyone that we would add a week on to the end. And we did just that. We extended our deliveries by one week. We never "berated" people for not picking up their shares, however, we did let people know that we would like to be contacted if they were unable to pick up their share so that we would not harvest, prepare and deliver a bag to them that would be left to rot on someone's porch. It is only common decency to let us know when a shareholder is unable to pick up their share. We totally understand that people go on vacation, have emergencies etc. We work with that. We just ask that we be notified as soon as possible so that their share can be donated to the homeless shelter or redistributed among the other CSA members and not left to rot.. Finally, we sent a newsletter at the very beginning of the season asking for those who wanted to be informed of volunteer opportunities at the farm or at the pick up locations. We started a separate list of those names and let ONLY them know when we needed help. Occasionally we mentioned in the weekly newsletter that there were some weekend activities if people wanted to come out. This included an onion planting party and also a garlic planting party where we provided a delicious lunch for everyone. The people who did come out to help were just wonderful and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Many of our shareholders like to see the farm where their food is being grown and we absolutely appreciate it when a shareholder can spend an hour or two helping us with some small task. We love to meet the CSA members and we have formed many lasting friendships over the years with people who have joined our CSA who we might not have ever gotten the opportunity to meet otherwise. We had many wonderful and positive comments this past season which is very gratifying because we really want to make people happy by providing them with delicious, nutritious, organic vegetables. We work long hours and we never cut corners. This was a challenging summer because of the drought but we still managed to grow a lot of great food. We are more than willing to provide references or forward some of the many positive comments and thank you letters we received last season and many seasons before that. Please go to our web site freshandlocal csa and email or call us with any concerns or questions you may have. I am only sorry that this reviewer did not contact us and allow us to help him/her with any problems or disappointments he or she may have had. Thank you. Maura Balliett, Fresh and Local CSA

The rating is inappropriate. One star with hardly any comment on vegetable quality? I don't remember receiving emails from Allan that were critical of anyone's lack of farm involvement. I have loved the shares the last few years and I just think that this individual was irritated and made an irrational review. They must not have known what to expect from their share. The review is full of fallacies. The day of the site delivery has been the same for years and the "change" was most likely a misunderstanding on the reviewer's part.