Co-Op Woes

I joined a local farm co-op this year... it has been a disaster. While some things have inconsistently been good, there has typically been very little each week and what was there was often of poor quality. For example, as of August 1st, we still have zero greenbeans. My green beans were ready the first week of July and I have already started extra plantings. Also, we have had only two weeks of very small, rubbery, small quantity carrots. What especially makes me angry is that I bought a full share and I often pick up a friend's half share - NEVER have I gotten double what she got - as a full share, I would have been better off to have bought 2 half shares.

That being said, I think that we might be able to come up with a modified co-op concept amongst ourselves. I personally like growing almost everything I intend to eat. I think that if we co-oped, I would be most interested in co-oping only the big stuff - machine rentals, sharing of labor and time, etc. So, for example, I know that I am going to make my garden half again as big. I am growing for myself and my dad. I need to rent a sod cutter and rent/borrow a tiller in the fall. I will also need to till in the spring. Amanda said that the tiller rental is really expensive. I agree. Amanda owns a small tiller and Sarah's inlaw grandparents have a machine shop where we can borrow a bigger one. Does someone have a trailer? What if we had a cutting and tilling party one weekend. Each one of us marks off what we want cut and tilled. We start at one house and made the circuit going to each house cutting on one day and tilling the next. We could co-op the babysitting and have our hubbies do the heavy lifting.

After the dirt is cut, flip the sod over and let the grass die into the ground (acting as compost). We would scatter compost on top and then till everything together. Finally, lay newspaper over the entire space with leaves/grass clippings/mulch on top. The newspaper will act as a composting blanket causing everything below it to decompose and enrich the soil. The newspaper will break down over the winter and when we till again in spring, we will have great dirt for the next planting.

Additionally, Greg and I own almost 2 acres on hwy 10 in Manitowoc County right off of Hwy 43. It is virgin farm land. We intend to plant winter squash, melons, sweet corn, pumpkins, potatoes and possibly onions. It isn't ideal, but the stuff we intend to plant is low maintenance and can basically be neglected. We would glady share planting space with anyone who wanted to do it as an experiment.