Farm Message for Saturday, September 26, 2009

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Hi folks,
It's been a big week for us so far, and it's just Wednesday morning. I hurt my back several weeks ago, right before the start of the main potato and squash harvest season. We've been trying to figure out how we could get tons of potatoes and squash out of the ground when I can't lift more than 5 or 8 pounds. The obvious answer – hire some help – is one that I always put off as long as possible. I always overestimate my abilities, but this time it was obvious I couldn't do it myself. So we put an ad in the paper last Friday for help picking. In the past when we've run ads for farm help, we were lucky to get one call. This time we've probably had 50 calls, perhaps as our listing was one of only about 10 in the local paper under “help wanted.”
Monday morning at nine o'clock we had three people here, ready to work. In the first two days of the week they harvested 128 boxes of winter squash, or approximately 5,100 lbs. Also harvested were 10 rows of German Butterball potatoes, 36 boxes or approximately 1200 lbs. Only 60 more rows of potatoes to go! The irony is that we actually have a reduced offering of potatoes and squash in the store this week, as managing this crew is a full-time job for me, thus we don't have the usual amount of time to wash, sort, prep and pack produce. If the store offerings look a little light, that's why.... lack of time!
Price discussion: Those of you that have been with us for awhile know that about once a year or so we delve into this price discussion. It's probably something that most businesses don't want to talk about with their customers, but we actually think of you more like part-owners, so we're going to share (!)
Price calculations: One of the big challenges of doing this business is knowing the right price to charge for our produce. Our method for calculating prices is not hard-and-fast, but consists of several factors:
what our Co-op is selling the same items for – wholesale – in the DC market, as they research price lists from 4 or 5 produce distributors around DC, factor in any premium for organic, and relative amounts available: very little means prices are higher, lots available and prices are lower.
what I pay for produce I get from other farmers. (I always pay them what they ask, then set the price accordingly, as opposed to telling them what I'll pay and then going from there.)
My sense of propriety based on doing this for 18 years, which means that I generally feel that things shouldn't cost so much, since I'm remembering how much I charged for an item 15 years ago, and today's prices sound high! (Just part of getting older, I know, as we listen to my mother talk about loaves of bread for a nickel, and I think about the Firehook Bakery breads we're selling for $4.50 at the farm stand!)
Price comparisons with local stores: I was talking about these price issues with Alice -- one of our long-time helpers and friends at the farm stand – two weeks ago, and she offered to take our price list for that week – September 12th – and do some comparisons with three local stores: Safeway, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods. She put together a spreadsheet of the results, accounting for whether the produce was organic or not, on sale or not. Alice looked at about 60 items total: 40+ vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, and fruit. I looked over the spreadsheet to see what could clearly be gleaned from it and will attempt to summarize below. Note that I was looking at all three stores together, and if I had only looked at one, my results would have been a bit clearer – probably.
Price summary: On about half of the items the results were muddled, meaning we were higher than some, lower than some. On the other half, the following statements can be made:
On about 40% we were cheaper than any of the three stores
(beets, baby potatoes, fingerling potatoes, cauliflower, English cucumbers, leeks, crimini and portabella mushrooms, regular and special (i.e., Honey Crisp) apples, peaches and pears)
On about 35% we were higher than any
(arugula, bok choi, celery, corn, garlic, scallions, winter squash, all berries)
And about 25% of what we offer is not available at any of the three
(braising greens, microgreens, cippolini onions, purple potatoes, Lima beans, mini orange sweet peppers, rhubarb)
Of course, this was from one particular day's prices. The stores' or our prices and availability may be different this week, as we've moved into or out of a main season for any particular crop or item. Supply, demand, all of that, you know. But one thing we try to do is be more consistent with prices, whenever possible, not changing them from one week to the next, although maybe we should do that more, to reflect current status.
Why would we be higher on some items? One thing comes to mind – scale. When I see something like scallions or radishes on sale in the grocery store for $.79 or $.99 it makes me shake my head, because I think of how much work it is to grow those items, weed them, try to keep the bugs away, harvest, wash, sort, bunch, and how can you possibly do that, then get them to market, AND MAKE MONEY, at $.99/bunch? Garlic is one of my prize crops; I love it and care for it and try to provide a really good product, in this case the tastier hardneck varieties. I think most of what is in the stores is softneck, and much of that now comes from China, where labor is cheaper, as garlic is another very labor intensive crop. I just can't do it for less. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Produce Quality: One thing Alice pointed out was that the numbers say nothing about produce quality. At two of the stores she thought the produce looked, well, really not very nice (actually she said it “smelled”). At the third it was very nice. And if we ran the above comparison only with the store where the quality was very nice (providing a more realistic comparison with our own produce – in my opinion) the results would have been different, with at least 50% of our prices being cheaper. I won't name that store, but their CEO is in pretty hot water right now over some health care comments he recently made.
Comments/suggestions: If you have any regarding this topic, we'll listen. (Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut!)
Star Hollow Farm blog: The blog is located at www.starhollowfarmcsa.blogspot.com.
CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week the plan is for a head of the season's first cauliflower, a bunch of collard greens, some red beets, a garlic, some purple potatoes, shallots (a mild member of the onion family), a sprig of sage, some fuji apples and a bosc pear. Enjoy!
Adams Morgan CSA volunteers: Thanks to Susan and Patty for their help handing out orders last weekend. We appreciate your help!

Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
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