David and Barb Perkins bought their farm, Vermont Valley Community Farm, seven years ago, in August 1994. Since then, they’ve grown the 40-acre southern Wisconsin farm to a 500-member CSA, one of the largest in the nation.

“We knew we wanted to farm 15 years ago, but just didn’t know what to do on the farm,” Barb says. “After joining a CSA while living in Madison, we knew that we wanted to run a successful CSA.” David adds:”It was an instantaneous decision for me. If we weren’t doing a CSA, we wouldn’t be farming.” The Perkins’ seven year path to success continues to be based on a very strong set of core goals, followed by actions and purchases with those goals in mind.

Big picture goals
Once David and Barb decided on the type of farm, they verbalized their
family’s core goals for the farm: 100% of their family income from the farm,
with both of them working as full-time farmers. “We didn’t want to commute. We wanted to make the farm our life,” Barb says.

With the big picture established, it was a matter of doing the math. David spent 10 years working as a budget analyst, so this part was as much intuition as math. “It was a matter of looking at gross sales levels, assuming a net of 30% to 50%,” says David, admitting that those numbers were as much a guess as based on anything solid. “That meant 50 shares at $300 only grossed $15,000. We’re not going to live off that!”

Based on those projections, the Perkins set a goal of 500 members in five years. That meant all the purchases made for the farm were with the 500 members in mind. “We figured it would take roughly 20 acres to serve that many members and so we tried to make equipment purchases and build to meet those needs,” says David. He’s quick to add that while that was the goal, he was more than willing to purchase a smaller piece of equipment if the price was right, upgrading at a later time.

One big picture goal that still haunts the Perkins is land security. Their 40-acre farm has only 5 tillable acres, requiring land rental. “It’s a big investment to improve the soil, especially on a rented farm,” explains David. “It’s one area I wish we had better luck.”

Transition
Barb points out that when they started the farm, they weren’t starting from scratch. “David comes from a traditional farm background, so he has an excellent sense of the land and machinery.” Add to that Barb’s past work experience in sociology and her hobby of growing large vegetable gardens and you have a team with the people skills and agricultural background to get started. “While I know a lot about general agriculture, we grow 50 different vegetables and we’re still continually learning,” says David.

David and Barb started a transition plan to meet their goals. David made some very conscious career changes that would allow him to work for the state half time, providing a base income and benefits for the family during the transition period. Barb started cutting down on her work hours with a local non-profit, going from 35 hours a week down to 20 at the end of two years, when she came back to the farm full time. At the end of three years, David left his state job. Both were then relying on the farm for their livelihood.

The first investments the family made in the farm were:
•A greenhouse – 1,500 square feet – big enough to handle transplants for all 20 acres and 500 members;
•A 28-hp tractor with some basic tillage equipment;
•Simple hand tools
•$10,000 to restore the farm’s existing barn.

Each year since, David estimates, they’ve put $20,000 back into the farm. When David and Barb moved their three children out to the farm, it was a risk, but one that they hedged with owned rental property in Madison. “We kept our home in Madison and now rent it. It gave us financial security and something to fall back on,” says Barb. Part of their success is based on having working cash from the start. “You need money to start a business,” says David. “We worked for 15-20 years before starting this, so we had something in the bank.” That cash in the bank and owned property in Madison not only served as capital for the farm, but calmed the banker’s nerves. “Bankers don’t like lending money for a farm,” says David. The farm size (40 acres), owned property and two steady incomes made it easier for the bank to make the farm purchase loan to the Perkins.

Growing the CSA
The first year on the farm (1995), the Perkins had 93 standard shares. That allowed both to keep their jobs off the farm and still operate the 1 to 2 acres to fill those boxes. By Year 2(1996), share members had nearly doubled to 180. “But that was a tough year,” says David. “It’s really a no-man’s land, where it takes full-time labor on the farm, but doesn’t pay for that labor or the needed equipment. I was worried that if we stayed at that number, we wouldn’t be able to make a living at this.”

In Year 3, 1997, membership increased to 300 members and the Perkins’ confidence returned. It was during this time that David and Barb changed their share sizes. “For the first three years, we used the terms full and half shares,” says Barb. “Year 4, we changed the names to large and standard while the quantities stayed the same. More people chose the standard size.” While the terminology changed, the number of members remained constant at 300 for year four, 1998, as did the delivery season, 22 weeks, June through October. The Perkins say that it was a good year to refine their production systems and packing.

At the end of year four, Vermont Valley share prices took a leap. “This was the year we made a $50 jump in our annual share price,” says Barb. “The year-end surveys showed that a lot of members were upset with the price increase, but overall it didn’t affect our numbers the next year.”

Year five, 1999, the Perkins hit their goal of 500 members, and held it in 2000. In 1995, a standard Vermont Valley share was $235 and by 2000, it was $340.
“We’ve never tried to be the cheapest by any means, but then again we’re not the most expensive,” says David. “When we look at our prices, we find that we’re at about 80% of retail costs.”

Growing their membership was a process of improving the quality of produce along with getting the word out. “Most people don’t know what a CSA is,” says David. “So not only do we have to sell our product, but we have to educate our market about the philosophy behind the CSA.”

That’s where Barb’s people skills kicked into gear. She scheduled meetings, classroom talks, coffees with perspective members and any other public appearances she could manage. Barb has a passion about their customers. “I try to know all our members by name and make them feel a part of the farm.” But both David and Barb credit much of their growth to word of mouth. They say that members love to talk about the farm and the food. They love to tell their friends and neighbors about the CSA concept and the weekly produce boxes. “We thought about offering incentives for referrals or new members,” says David, “but decided against that kind of pyramid scheme.”

Instead, they’re enlarging their advertising budget ($1,500 in 2000), taking out more ads in neighborhood newsletters, printing more literature and making it more available. “If people don’t know we exist, they can’t buy from us,” adds David.

Increasing the number of drop-off sites (from three in 1995 to 13 in 2000) and hosting a number of on-farm festivals also expands the farm’s visibility. “Nearly 50% of our members make it out to the farm at least once a year for a festival or one of the you-pick days,” says Barb. “Members connect to ‘their’ farm more completely, in ways beyond the weekly box.” Those experiences increase the chances of members talking to others about the CSA.

Worker shares
Until last year, the Perkins didn’t have any hired labor, relying on themselves and worker shares to accomplish most of the harvesting, washing, bagging and bunching for weekly deliveries.
“Worker shares were critical to our development,” says Barb, who manages the members who trade out their share payment for work. “We went from 19 worker shares our first year (50 members total) to 30 worker shares last year.” Barb credits their success with worker shares to being very clear about obligations and requirements. “We try to discourage them, mentioning that it’s hard work, painful on the body and dirty,” says David. “We don’t want people coming out here thinking it’s a frolic in the vegetable patch.”

Members must commit to one 4-hour shift during the week for the entire 22-week season. They must show up each week at the same time on the same day. It’s treated like a job by David and Barbara, and members respond accordingly. In exchange, member/workers receive one standard CSA share for the season.

Barb prefers four to six worker shares during each 4-hour shift and schedules them in teams. “Any more than that is too many to manage. Plus we gain some real efficiencies with that number.” Worker shares begin work the first week of deliveries, so responsibilities are focused on harvesting and box preparation, with some weeding and transplanting.

During the last two years, the Perkins are experimenting with more hired labor to help better manage the worker shares. “Continuity from day to day and week to week helps us be more efficient with our worker shares,” explains Barb. “Having a crew leader/manager with each team of workers is just more efficient.” That also frees up more of Barb’s time to manage all the harvest instead of just one harvest team. Last year you could see Barb on one of three walkie talkies, communicating with the three full-time employees and David throughout the day.
Although Barb and David have reached their goal of 500 members and full-time employment on the farm, they’re not resting on their accomplishments. “We still have yearly member turnover, farm improvements and quality of life types of improvements,” says David as both he and Barb head out to clear out the tomato vines in their new hoop house.