Welcome to the Waiheke Island CSA website!
This homepage is the place to come for latest news but first here are a few useful links to direct you where you might need to go first.
- “What is a CSA?”
- “Tell me about the Waiheke CSA model! How will it work?”
- “I want to join up to the Waiheke CSA and become a subscriber”
- “I want to know some other stuff please…” - well check out the links on the right my good friend although please be patient as there’s a fair bit under construction at the moment and its more of an indication of what will be here in the coming weeks.
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JANUARY 17 2010: NEWSLETTER #3:
Hurray, we’ve all been eating some CSA produce for a wee while now! Time to take a moment to reflect on the success of a number of Waiheke families eating unsprayed island-grown nutrient-dense organic produce that hasn’t travelled halfway round the world (or at least around New Zealand), all from a standing start not so very long ago.
So a big pat on the back to all of us - subscribers, volunteers, growers, organisers… everyone involved! It may seem a little bit casual and rough around the edges at the moment (maybe just a little bit Waihekean?!), but everyone is trying their damnedest to get this working on a limited budget. Here’s to this being the first step on the road to a reliable long-term Waiheke organic food supply.
Enough of that anyway. Some other stuff…
1. HELP NEEDED:
Until the Waiheke CSA is more mature its continued existence is going to rely on generous unpaid volunteers. The only person being paid a regular wage is the grower, Claire.
If you feel you could spare any time to help with the things listed here then please email info@waihekecsa.org.nz stating what you’d be interested in. Thanks in advance. It is the kind donation of time and expertise that will lead to the Waiheke CSA taking off.
- PICKING, WEEDING, SHARE OUT: Occasional or regular help needed for weeding sessions, harvesting, and logistics.
- NETTING AND POLE CONSTRUCTION: A one-off task that needs to be done out at Te Matuku asap to get additional space covered for more growing. Might be a half-day to one day task but would be a massive help in getting more crops in the ground.
- TRUSTEES AND STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS NEEDED: The Waiheke CSA Trust needs between two and four more trustees and the steering committee would also welcome more bodies and hands. If you’d like to get involved but want to find out more about what this would involve then just say so and a someone will give you a call.
- FUNDING APPLICATIONS ASSISTANCE: We are needing to make funding applications to be able to set up winter growing land and need help with the applications. If any of you are able to help with this process and especially if you have experience with wordsmithing such applications your help would be gladly accepted. It would be a role of helping one of the Trustees.
2. NEW PICTURES: Go to the gallery (actual pictures posted externally on Picassa) to take a look at some recent shots of the field and plants from late December.
3. CROPS, VALUE AND RECIPES: As you know, beans (aplenty), zuchinni, cucumber and beetroot have been coming off the land at a good rate giving a great start to the pilot season. The grower, Claire Mummery, is looking to put some more seedlings in as soon as there is more netted area at Te Matuku.
The harvests are being recorded each week with the aim of establishing the value of food given out to subscribers. How is that value being assessed? It’s not an exact science as you can imagine, but by recording the price of these different crops if purchased via a co-op bulk order, and by keeping an eye on the corresponding prices at smaller organic retailers (generally about 90% more), we can start to get an idea. At this point each full subscriber has received approximately $73 worth of food based on a halfway point between those two markets. Obviously it’s a bit hit and miss in ensuring that every subscriber gets exactly the same amount of everything every week but over the course of the season it should be a case of swings and roundabouts.
We’ll try to get the odd recipe up here soon. If you have a recipe you’d like to share on here with your fellow Waiheke CSA folks then email it to info@waihekecsa.org.nz and we’ll stick it on the site on the recipes page and highlight it next newsletter. There’s a few up there already so check them out.
Oh, and take a look at this page perhaps if you want tips on blanching and freezing beans!
4. FOOD COLLECTION: The plan is to continue with collection taking place from Flourish (8 Putiki Rd) on a Saturday morning between 10am-12pm. This time may occasionally vary so please continue to check the notifications that are coming via email on a Friday. Rob (a.k.a. the Collection King) has asked one big thing though - PLEASE BRING AS MANY PLASTIC BAGS AS YOU CAN TO THE COLLECTION AS THEY WILL CONTINUE TO RUN SHORT DUE TO RIPPING ETC and, of course, you can always bring your own bag and transfer the produce to that and leave the plastic bag.
If you are unable to collect your food on any given week then please let Rob (or the person who makes the Friday notification) know to arrange pick up by a friend or another arrangement.
5. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE: The CSA now has 19 full-subscriptions and 12 half-subscriptions. We really would like to get more new subscribers still, so if you know of anyone that you think would be interested then please direct them to the join up page or just tell them to email info@waihekecsa.org.nz
If you have any good ideas about how we can boost the membership of the CSA, whether for this season or later, then all thoughts welcome. And of course your personal recommendations will be crucial for word of mouth success.
6. THANKS: Mr Rob Fenwick. It somehow hadn’t come up before but the kind donor of the piece of land on which our veg is currently growing deserves the greatest thanks of all.
