CGA

 What is a CGA?  

 Here is the Range View vision of a CGA:

          a. Members select 10 vegetables they wish we would grow.  For instance, picklers or slicers for cucumbers, Patty pans or crookneck summer squash, heirloom beefsteaks or paste tomatoes, red sails lettuce or heads of Boston lettuce, green or yellow snap beans, or maybe French haricot.  Member selections, submitted in January, help Range View order seeds and plan the garden.

          b. Each week, starting June 1, Range View will post what's ready on our website page for members.  Members will select what they want on Tuesday and again on Friday.  Selections will offer a $5/day or $10/week choice of two or three products. For example, Customer A might ask for a bag of mesclun mix and a bunch of radishes ($5) while customer B might ask for a bunch of rhubarb and a bag of baby lettuce ($5). Extra selections will be charged market price and put on the member's tab.

          c. Each Tuesday, each Friday, Range View picks for members and stores member selections in labeled coolers. Members stop by the farm and pick up fresh foods, herbs, bouquets. 

          d. If a member goes on vacation for a week or two, she can use that credit when the family comes visiting later, charging up an extra $20 on a single harvest day.

          e. Because Range View will have preliminary investment by the CGA members, prices can be discounted. Every $5 harvest could offer a $6.00 value, a 20% advantage for the member.

 Range View CGA Rationale

 CSA, community supported agriculture, is wonderful. We know from our own experience that CSAs provide families with fabulous, fresh, locally grown foods. And CSAs promote the farm, the training of young gardeners, the longterm building of strong local farm enterprises.  But the CSA is not perfect. A single member or couple may find the weekly harvest too big. And, by the end of a week, the fresh beans may not be so fresh.  Who wants to eat a five-day-old bean, in summer?

 The beauty of the bean is that you pick it fresh that day.

 The farmers' market is also wonderful. But Range View has noticed several things about us and about our customers. Sometimes, even though the beans are ready for picking, we hoard them for ourselves.  Sometimes, when we pick them all for market, customers don't buy.  This last summer, as the recession tightened its grip on all of us, customers bought less. Many buyers spent $5 instead of $20 or $30, one bag of beans rather than a grocery cart of everything. Customers also tried to spread their money around, buying a little bit from each market vendor (thank you). And customers did not want to buy for a whole week, again dreading that five-day-old wasted bean.

 The CGA aims to address these problems. Why not grow the variety of vegetable you want? Range View can be your personal garden grower.

Why not pick twice a week? The vegetables require us to do that anyway. And why not pick just what you want?

 The internet makes this possible. Our new web pages are a powerful tool for communicating with you and for making easy work of the garden inventory and bookkeeping.  Let's see if we can make it grow a better garden!

 If you would like to be a CGA pioneer member:

          a. Email Range View Farm at rmcarlson@ncia.net.  We will send you a CGA packet, a simple agreement of how this will work, and a list of vegetables for you to select.

          b. Return the CGA, signed, with  your list.

Range View Farm will send you access to our member page where you will be able to pay the $225 season membership fee via PayPal. We'll be on our way to Summer.

Member Page