I'm so embarrassed. I didn't see that you posted this, Rahim, until now. I'll answer now in the hopes that you'll see this tardy reply.

Vegetable gardening, rather the love of it, was what got me started. The little literature that I've read on the subject states that you should either start out small or market garden for a while before starting to give you a good knowledge base. The things you need to know ahead are things like how much space does it take to grow each crop, how much to charge for the overall share/week. I know what you mean about the $$ aspect, but please consider that there are others in the business that want to make a living, so you should charge what it's worth.

I guess one has to be prepared to increase your garden space quite a bit with the growth of #s. I started out planting for 10 families and increased my garden a couple times now. My husband and I playfully argue over pasture for his horses and garden space for me. I think I might have to cap the # of families I grow for at 30. this year, we're looking at 20 families. We have both 1/2 and full shares. The full share amounts to enough veggies for a family of 4 (but they often state their relief when different seasons are over, because of the amounts of veggies they have to wash and store and eat in a week. beans come to mind).

I ask for a work commitment of 12 hours/ season. This is the same for 1/2 or full for 2 reasons. 1, I don't think anyone would get the full understanding of what is involved on 6 hours (only 2 visits) and 2, I couldn't possibly grow that many veggies by myself. Those 12 hours are broken down into 4 visits of 3 hours each. All of them in the evening. I do the scheduling and try to book with their choice of dates in mind and with the community mindedness in mind. So, more than one family can come out in an evening. This is my favourite part, seeing all that enthusiasm! 2 of those 4 evenings are dedicated to weeding, done on Fridays (so that we can have a bonfire after) and 2 of them to prepick nights, which happen the night before delivery day. Delivery day is Tuesday. On prepick evenings, members help pick all that is ready, except the stuff that wouldn't last the night in our milkhouse like lettuce. We give everything a cursary rinse, divvy it up into the shares, and put it into rubbermaid totes. VERY early the next moring, I finish picking, load 'em up and truck them into the city. One of the members is good enough to donate her back yard (I'm pleased to say it's win-win situation, she LOVEs running out to her back yard to "shop"). I buy 2 totes for each family and number them. One gets dropped off on week 1, they bring bins or bags and fill out of their tote. Those get left there, and on week 2, I drop off the second tote and pick up the first.

I write a weekly newsletter filled with farm news (the focus is reconnection to the land), recipes and storeage tips and event news. The last event of the year is our harvest day. This is voluntary but highly recommended as we have so much fun with everyone there, and we pull the last of the veggies out and share them and clean the garden up, pulling pea fences and putting away hoses etc.

You caught me at a good time, Rahim. I'm starting my seeding today. With dreams of a good season. Enough rain to collect for the dry times and enough heat for excellent tomatoes.