The weekly CSA box plan and member note template

Sunday: walk the beds and build the availability list

• Walk every bed that could feed this week.Take the sheet and a pen into the field rather than working from the crop plan. What good looks like is a list written standing in the row, because the crop plan says the beans are ready and the row says the Mexican bean beetles found them first.
• Write availability in harvest units, not bed feet.Record one hundred and forty bunches of kale or eleven crates of zucchini, in the units the pack line will count. Converting from bed feet on Wednesday under time pressure is where the miscounts come from.
• Give every crop a hold date.Note the last day each crop can stay in the ground before quality drops: the broccoli that goes by Thursday, the lettuce that bolts by Friday. This column is what tells you which crop has to be in this box rather than next week box.
• Flag the two crops most likely to fail by pack day.Circle them and name the substitute right there. If it rains three inches on Tuesday, you will not be in any state to invent a plan, and a circled backup written on Sunday takes ten seconds to act on.
• Check the cooler for last week carryover.Count what is still holding from the previous harvest before you plan a single new item. Good looks like carryover placed in the box first, because it is already paid for and it is not going to get better sitting there.

Monday: build the box and name the substitution

• Set the two anchor items first.Pick the crops that define the week, usually the heaviest or the most seasonal, and build around them. Members describe a box by its anchors, so a week without one reads as thin no matter how many items it holds.
• Fill to a target retail value and write that number down.Price each line at what it would sell for at your market booth and total it. Good looks like a value that lands within a few dollars of the same target every week, because members feel week to week swings more than they feel the average.
• Balance the box by kitchen effort.Count how many items need real cooking versus how many can be eaten raw or roasted in one pan. Five bunching crops in one box is the week that fills compost buckets and generates the too much produce email.
• Write the plan for every variant you sell.Small share, large share, no allium, egg add on, bread share: each gets its own column with its own counts. The pack line works from these columns, so a variant that only exists in your head is a variant that gets packed wrong.
• Name the standing substitution for each line.Write what replaces each item if the harvest comes up short, before harvest morning. Good looks like a swap the crew can execute at six in the morning without calling you.

Tuesday: write the member note before anyone cuts

• Lead with what is in the box, in plain names.List the items the way members say them, so lacinato kale rather than a variety code. The first three lines are what most members read, so put the anchors there.
• Explain any swap in one sentence with the reason.Say the fennel came out because the planting bolted in the heat and escarole took its place. Naming the cause is what turns a disappointment into a farm story, and it is the single habit that most protects renewals.
• Name the one item that will not keep.Tell members which crop to eat first, whether it is the salad mix or the basil. Good looks like one specific instruction, not a general reminder that vegetables are perishable.
• Give one storage instruction that is worth reading.One line: carrot tops off before the fridge, basil on the counter and never in the cold, kale in a bag with a damp towel. One useful line a week beats a storage guide nobody opens.
• Close with the pickup window and the hold deadline.State the exact hours, the location, and the cutoff for asking that a box be held or donated. Restating it every week is what cuts the Thursday afternoon phone calls.

Thursday: close the week on the same page

• Record what actually went in each box.Write the real counts next to the planned ones as the line runs, including the moment you ran out of chard at box one hundred and twelve. This column is the only honest record of the season.
• Log the boxes not picked up.Note how many were left, which members, and where they went: donation, second chance pickup, or compost. A member who misses twice in a row is a renewal conversation waiting to happen.
• Write down crew count and finish time.Two numbers, ten seconds. Over a season they tell you which box builds run long and how many people your peak weeks actually need, which is the input for next April hiring.
• Write one line about what to change next week.The single sentence you would tell yourself on Sunday: pre harvest the roots Wednesday, drop the dill, order more tote liners. Good looks like a sentence you can act on without remembering the context.