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Happy Birthday LPO...7 years

You know what time of year it is amigos? That’s right. Time to break out the party hats, kazoos and birthday cake, because LPO turns another year older the first week of March. 7 years old to be precise. And I don’t think we look a day over 6.

Birthdays, I always feel, are a great time to take a breath and reflect back a bit. A time to be critical on ourselves, but also a time to celebrate the good that we have done. To be honest on both sides of the ledger. So let’s reflect over our years.

LPO started in 2003. It was the worst growing season that I have seen in my 10 years as a grower. Our last frost date came on May 11th that year (almost a month later than usual). And then our summer was filled with 30 straight days in the 100’s. And let me tell you, nothing likes growing in the 100’s. Not farmers or plants. Well maybe okra, eggplant, and watermelons. Not much else though. Too intense for things to grow.

Somehow we made a go of it and fortunately I was too young or stubborn to let that first year turn me away. Our CSA started with 17 members (only one family member) and doubled after our first week to 34. It was then when I learned the incredible power of “word of mouth” advertising. Consumers take this power lightly, and small businesses cherish it like it is gold.

LPO is as reliant on word of mouth advertising today as we were in our first weeks of the CSA. When I tell someone of the CSA, I sound like any other snake-oil salesman. We, as consumers, are skeptical of the salesman. But when your neighbor or sister tells you about the CSA, people react differently. They listen and drop their guard.

So on to the second season we went. And maybe I had built up enough good karma that first season because 2004 was a divine growing season. Last frost in March. First frost was not until late October. I remember the box from the first week of November had melons, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes in it. We have not had a fall like that since then. With the help of an amazing growing season, our membership broke into the 100’s.

The word was out and spreading, local produce does not have to cost you an arm and a leg, and you did not need to get up at 6 am on your Saturday to go get it. There was a new paradigm for distributing farm fresh items, and it made sense to members as well as farmers.

Here is the gig folks, as good as the farmers’ markets are, as much as grocery stores support local goods, they do not hold a candle to the CSA model in terms of actually helping growers out. You see, the hardest thing for a grower to do is plant a crop not knowing where it will be sold. Grocery stores can buy 20 dozen radishes from you one week, then 2 the next. A farmers’ market can get rained on and your sales will get cut by 75%. The CSA is the answer.

I can tell you right now that we will sell about 1,300 bunches of radishes the first or second week of May. 700 lbs of baby spinach the week after that. I go to sleep easy knowing that all the work we put into our fields will not be composted. Because you all make us so efficient, we cut the cost to you since there is no loss. If you look up symbiosis, all it says is, CSA.

So here we go, breaking ground on our 8th season. So much learned, so much of the magic still to discover. At least I can honestly say that it is never boring.

But here is the thing that I like most about the journey over the last 7 years, we have never had to force it. “It” being all of it—getting members, growing enough food, finding amazing employees, searching out new farm land. We have just stayed focused on the needs of our members, and things fall into place for LPO.

A great birthday week it was seeing all of the baby plants head into the warm confines of our solar greenhouses. But with those 2 new houses wrapping up, we are looking at building 2 more this summer. If you are interested in investing to help us build new greenhouses, please let me know. They are the cutting edge of growing.

Go Lobos! Farmer Monte