Value of your Share!

As we all know, there are many benefits to being a part of Henry Got Crops- fresh, local food, knowing where your food comes from, knowing and trusting your farmers, visiting a beautiful farm in the city, having access to the you-pick section, and knowing that you are financially supporting a worthy business with the purchase of your share. However, most of these benefits are hard to quantify. Another benefit of being a shareholder is that you partake in the bounty of the harvest, and (in a good year)  receive more vegetables than you pay for. Nancy Anderson, from our farm team, has been dutifully recording the share every week for the past two years and calculating the value of those vegetables, based on retail, organic, farmers market prices. Here is an overview of her record keeping (all totals are averages of weeks 1-12):

• 2012 (actually recieved, with you-pick)- Small: $318.65, Large: $616.29.
• 2013 (actually received, with you pick)- Small: $299.78, Large: $590. 65.
• 2013 (actually received, without you pick)- Small: $249.80, Large: $491.10.
• 2013 (what you paid)- Small: $212.50, Large: $375

**Note: Given that many you-pick items are unlimited, and you have to pick them yourself, we price them at a wholesale price instead of retail, and use an average bunch size, knowing that some people pick more, some people pick less.

2012 CSA Basket Share Values

Running a CSA farm entails a surprising amount of record keeping. Shareholders are our first priority as we make decisions about what to grow and how to sell it. If there is extra produce beyond the CSA baskets, we sell what is left to the co-op stores, local restaurants and Farmer’s Markets.  The price for a Henry Got Crops share has stayed the same for the four years it has been offered ($410 Small, $700 Large). We are grateful to returning shareholders for supporting the farm as the value of the baskets has fluctuated between year to year.

This year was excellent and shareholders were compensated generously for investing in the farm.  The baskets offered 53 produce types with 23 of 24 baskets calculated. The numbers are based on the average of the weekly basket value from each pickup’s 2:00 basket items. Great effort is made to substitute equal priced items as the day continues but this is how we start to value the weekly share.

The share value we calculate is based on averages between the pickup days and can include the average of the U-Pick item choices. We use one average retail price per produce item per season. U-Pick items are valued at wholesale prices.  Averages mean that the basket value may be slightly different from what your share actually was in a particular week but it is a close enough number to be useful  to evaluate our products from week to week and year to year.

We thank you for investing in HGC! and we hope you will return as 2013 shareholders! We had a great year and met our goals to start some longer term projects such as the tractor acquisition, planting of the fruit orchard, the perennial herbs, even new soil and raised beds in the greenhouses. Scott’s compost operation is in full swing and we will applying it to the beds in the next month allowing the manure from the Saul barn to be returned to Saul land as a safe soil amendment. We continue to work to improve the land and the products we grow at Henry Got Crops!
2012

What you paid

Share price/24 weeks in 2012 season

Small: $400/24 = $16.67

Large: $710/24 = $29.58

As of week #23, including the value of U-Pick, Total value you received:
           Small    $546.55

Large    $1,050.55

Week High/Low
            Small    $45.95, $16.80

Large    $89.90, $31.60

As of week #23, U-Pick separated, Total value you received:

Small

Items on table $473.72

U-Pick   $71.80

Large

Items on table $943.11

U-Pick   $107.45

 2011

What you paid

Share price/26 weeks in 2011 season

Small: $400/26 = $15.38

Large: $710/26 = $26.92

As of week #26, U-Pick included, Total value you received

Small     $400.03

Large     $790.32

Week High/Low

Small     $28.17, $7.68

Large     $56.34, $15.37

We do not have corresponding numbers for other years at this time.