How to Become a CSA Master
Master CSA members know how to “whip up” quiches like this — using just a basic formula in their head. How do you get to this place as a CSA rookie?
What are “Master” CSA members?
Well, it’s a term I’ve coined. In 2016, I worked on a BIG project, interviewing the long-time members of our CSA who I would categorize as “Masters.”
This means they are really good at using the whole box of veggies each week. They instinctively know how to cook fresh food, how to start with the basic veggie ingredients, and turn it into a meal in 30 minutes every day. They have successfully inserted fresh cooking into their lifestyle, and makes it look fairly effortless.
I have always been intrigued by these “Masters.”
Every year, I watch a certain percentage of our clients non-renew, and their reason is often the same: “I just wasted too much of the food.” And yet, there are a large number of people who swear by CSA, and want MORE food each week.
Why the disconnect? What wasn’t happening for this sub-set of rookie customers? And was there a way I could help them?
I was on a mission to figure out how I could help these CSA Newbies get better at using the box. What were the shortcuts and tricks the Masters had learned over time (and they did have to learn them) to help them make meal planning and fresh eating a natural part of their lifestyle?
I interviewed over 35 Master members. And what’s even more exciting is that there IS a pattern. There are indeed similar things these customers do that help them succeed at CSA. And many of them are NOT rocket science.
The thing is, the first year for CSA customers is always challenging. There are so many things to learn.
- For example, you don’t know what the “season” holds or when things grow or how much of a certain item is considered a portion.
- You don’t know that you are always barraged with greens in the early part of the year (or what to do with them all!).
- You don’t know that it’s normal to get eggplant fatigue in August.
- You don’t know why you aren’t getting lettuce in the dead of summer.
But more than the seasonality and rhythm of veggies, there are also storage guidelines to learn…. Like how you need to eat those greens first thing in the week no matter what or they’ll likely rot. Or that you absolutely must take the tops off those gorgeous carrots or they’ll turn rubbery.
And then there’s the overwhelm of vegetable variety. “Help! I can’t identify this strange vegetable in my box! What do I do with it?” When you don’t instinctively know how to use garlic scapes, they languish in your crisper for weeks on end, and it’s just too time-consuming to figure out what to do with them.
Yes, there are several what I call “pain points” of the CSA newbie’s journey, and they are very predictable. I can name them on one hand (especially after my research project confirmed them). There is also a natural learning curve for those who are willing to stick it out a couple seasons and commit to learning a few new skill sets.
But as the farmer’s wife and businesswoman, I want to help my CSA newbies speed up this learning curve. What if our farm could come into the journey more intentionally, and act as a master guide to these rookies in a very systematic way, and show them the ropes? What if I could with confidence tell them:
- Learn this skill first. Learn this skill next…
- The 5 step process to using your whole box
- Common rookie mistakes to avoid that will save you months and hundreds of dollars in produce
- Exit strategies for hard to use veggies
- What tools you need to have in your kitchen (and which ones are nice but optional)
- The essential pantry ingredients
- How Masters plan their meals – tips and tricks they almost all use
My goal was to synthesize all this research data and create a blueprint for our CSA rookies – a guide to help them get to “Master” status sooner.
And I can confidently say that it worked.
After a season of teaching the skills I learned through these interviews to our rookie members, our CSA jumped from a 66% retention rate to 78% in one year. That’s pretty incredible.
It’s not enough to just grow your vegetables anymore. We want to teach you how to use them.