We have now offered veg boxes (and cut flowers) to communities between Killearn, Drymen, and Stirling for three consecutive seasons. Those three seasons offered the whole range of human emotions; at times it was delightful, super challenging, despairing, motivating, hopeful, fun. It was also successful in some areas and dreadful in others.
You will notice that right now we only offer cut flowers to our customers. We have stopped supplying vegetables via our CSA veg box scheme and to our wholesale customers. There are a range of reasons for us having taken that decision.
- The sales of our veg this year was disappointing. We did not manage to sell all the vegetables we had even though we aimed for modest numbers this year. The veg boxes were excellent variety, quality, and value for money this year and we still found it difficult to convince customers to sign up.
- On the wholesale side we have some lovely customers who understand the benefits of buying local and want to help change the food system towards health promoting diets and sustainable production. However, as we are a small part of their business order values are sometimes small and orders sporadic. Not enough to build a sustainable production around.
- Louise has, for various reasons, decided to step back from the business and right now we do not have the capacity to continue providing the service. Employing staff to replace the capacity is not a viable option as we are (see point 1 & 2 above) not in a financial position to do so.
The situation is obviously much more complex but the above gives a general introduction to why we have taken the decision to end our season early and why we are not able to replace lost capacity.
So, what is going to happen?
Over the coming three months we will review the business and, in particular, the viability of producing veg for the local community.
It is evident that continuing with the current model is not an option. Significant changes would be necessary to continue the production and distribution of locally and sustainably grown vegetables. Current and past members, as well as others interested locally, will be invited to participate in this process. Those who want to retain local vegetable production will have the opportunity to make it happen; however, after three years of pushing this agenda the onus cannot continue to be mainly with Louise and myself.
Make sure you receive our newsletter or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to be notified of next steps.
Meanwhile, feel free to get in touch with us to share your thoughts and ideas.
Re-working our business
We have now offered veg boxes (and cut flowers) to communities between Killearn, Drymen, and Stirling for three consecutive seasons. Those three seasons offered the whole range of human emotions; at times it was delightful, super challenging, despairing, motivating, hopeful, fun. It was also successful in some areas and dreadful in others.
You will notice that right now we only offer cut flowers to our customers. We have stopped supplying vegetables via our CSA veg box scheme and to our wholesale customers. There are a range of reasons for us having taken that decision.
The situation is obviously much more complex but the above gives a general introduction to why we have taken the decision to end our season early and why we are not able to replace lost capacity.
So, what is going to happen?
Over the coming three months we will review the business and, in particular, the viability of producing veg for the local community.
It is evident that continuing with the current model is not an option. Significant changes would be necessary to continue the production and distribution of locally and sustainably grown vegetables. Current and past members, as well as others interested locally, will be invited to participate in this process. Those who want to retain local vegetable production will have the opportunity to make it happen; however, after three years of pushing this agenda the onus cannot continue to be mainly with Louise and myself.
Make sure you receive our newsletter or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to be notified of next steps.
Meanwhile, feel free to get in touch with us to share your thoughts and ideas.