crowd funded co-operative farmers

buildersdaughter

Hello, I used to be a regular on this forum, but have just lurked a bit for the last year, for various reasons. Although this might not be quite the right board for my question, the folk on here are very sensible! Possibly because of our championing of fair / ethical trade, DH & I get a lot of ads for farmers saying they are looking to sell boxes of their produce. This is usually a box of lemons, oranges or avocados, or 5 litres of olive oil. By sharing with neighbours (we do this with local co-operative stuff, within current guidelines) we could buy some of this. We would love to support these farmers, but can't help feeling that it looks a bit dodgy. Possibly unfair, but if anyone has any experience I'd love to know.
Thank you so much, and for everyone who contributes to this board.

maxsteam

Every time I hear a news story about supermarkets doing something ethical, like selling wonky vegetables, I think it's a good idea until I go shopping and discover it's just another ploy to push prices up. I would guess that the farmers in the schemes that you are looking at are wanting you to sell their produce for them in return for a couple of free apples. Without knowing the pricing, it's difficult to know who, if anyone, gets the good deal. Certainly, if a neighbour knocked on my door and tried to sell me produce, I would not open the door to them again.

buildersdaughter

I may not have made myself clear. I'm not intending to 'sell' these to my neighbours, or take any commission myself. I just know that some friends & neighbours would happily chip in to share some produce between us IF these schemes are fair. We do this with some local stuff already. With only one reply (no specific experience, just the reasonable wariness) I think I shall be steering clear!

Floss

Maybe look for feedback on Facebook, Insta or Twitter...small businesses usually live by social media.
I've bought from a couple of local producers, and to be honest, I check them out, read feedback & consider a purchase. 

buildersdaughter

That's a very good idea!

thriftwizard

We've been buying boxes of organic oranges direct from Spain for a couple of years now & they've been superb, like little bits of pure Spanish sunshine. A real tonic on a grey winter's day, and they have mostly kept very well too. We started off sharing a box with our neighbours, but they've now actually "adopted" a whole tree & receive a box every couple of weeks right through until the end of March. We've lost the odd one to mould, but by & large I think it's been well worthwhile.

goldfinches

thriftwizard said:

We've been buying boxes of organic oranges direct from Spain for a couple of years now & they've been superb, like little bits of pure Spanish sunshine. A real tonic on a grey winter's day, and they have mostly kept very well too. We started off sharing a box with our neighbours, but they've now actually "adopted" a whole tree & receive a box every couple of weeks right through until the end of March. We've lost the odd one to mould, but by & large I think it's been well worthwhile.

That sounds interesting, could I ask for more details please. Our local market has been closed for months now and there was only one greengrocer's and fruiterers stall when it was open so something like that might work for me if I could get a box of lemons/limes/clementines a month for instance.