Free tool
What your CSA share price actually has to cover
Enter the share price, the member count, the season length, your fixed costs, and the crew minutes each box takes, and see the cost per box and the break even member count.
Free tool, no sign up
How long your CSA harvest morning really takes
Enter the boxes, the items in each one, and the seconds a single item takes to harvest and pack, and see whether the crew you have finishes before the first member arrives.
Harvest morning fails in a predictable way. The crop plan was fine, the availability list was right, the box looks good on paper, and then the day runs ninety minutes long because nobody counted what nine items across a hundred and fifty boxes asks of five people. The arithmetic is simple and almost nobody does it before adding a tenth item to the box.
This calculator counts item pulls, which is one crop line for one box. Harvesting, washing, bunching, and packing one bunch of kale for one member is one pull. Multiply by the boxes and you get the real unit of work in a CSA week. Time a few crops with a stopwatch on a normal Thursday and you will have a seconds per item figure that is far better than any published benchmark.
Your result
Item pulls this week
1,350
Each one is a single crop harvested, washed, and packed for one box.
Total crew hours needed
35.2
Paid hours across everyone, including setup and cleanup.
Clock hours with your crew
7.0
How long the day runs with the people you actually have.
People needed to hit pickup
6
Crew size that finishes before the first member arrives.
If the people needed figure sits above your crew size, the day either starts earlier or a crop moves to a Wednesday pre harvest.
The tenth item in the box is not free
Adding one crop line to a hundred and fifty box share adds a hundred and fifty item pulls. At ninety seconds each that is nearly four crew hours, every week you run it. A bunch of dill that fills a gap on the pack table can quietly cost you a Thursday afternoon, which is why the honest way to build a generous box is to weigh items by minutes and not just by retail value.
The reverse is a real tool. When a week runs long, the fastest lever is not more people, it is one fewer crop line or one crop moved to a Wednesday pre harvest that holds well in the cooler. Roots, cabbage, and winter squash forgive a day in the cooler. Salad mix, bunched greens, and basil do not, so those are the ones that keep their spot on the morning schedule.
Using this to size the crew you hire in April
Run the calculator with your peak week: the highest box count, the fullest share, the longest item list. That is the week that determines how many people you need on payroll, and hiring for the average week is how farms end up borrowing neighbors on the third Thursday in July. Peak week crew hours divided by the pickup window is your real answer.
Then run it again for the shoulder weeks in May and October. The gap between those two numbers tells you how much of your crew should be seasonal or part time rather than full season. A farm that knows it needs six people for eight weeks and four for the other fourteen can write that into hiring conversations in April instead of improvising in June.
Questions about this calculator
What seconds per item figure should we start with?
Ninety seconds is a fair average for a mixed vegetable share where some items are bunched and washed and others are counted into the box. Bunched and washed greens run well above it, and storage crops scooped from a bin run well below. Time three crops on a normal harvest day and replace the default with your own number.
Does this include delivery and drop site time?
No, and that is deliberate. This tool covers the pack out from cooler check to the last box on the table. Driving to drop sites, unloading, and getting empty totes back is a separate block of hours that belongs on a route sheet rather than in the pack line estimate.
Our crew works while the pickup is running. Does that change the reading?
It does, and it usually hides a problem. If the last boxes are being packed while members are already at the table, the day is over its window and someone is stressed. Set the hours until pickup field to the moment the first member arrives and treat any shortfall as real, because that hour is coming out of somebody.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The weekly CSA box plan and member note template
One page per week that carries your availability list, the box plan for every variant, the substitution you made, and the note that goes to members before harvest starts.
Now put that figure against twenty two weeks
A calculator gives you one result for one set of inputs. A season hands you a new set every Sunday, each with its own availability walk and its own substitution to explain. Ask for a demo and we will show you how CropShareBox carries this number forward week after week, so the pack out that works in May still lands before pickup in the middle of August.