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Wood Duck Farm
January 16th, 2012
Last week the farm received about 5 1/2 inches of rain. While good for our aquifers, it was a little much as some of our greenhouses and barn received some minor flooding. Overall the winter growing season has been fairly warm compared to last year. We're hoping that this is not a preview of the summer to come though.
 Shown above our smaller pond flooding our barn. Thank goodness we thought to elevate our irrigation pumps (horizontal sloping white pipe.)
Recent Survey Results Are Complete About two weeks ago we sent out an online survey to members of our 2011 Fall CSA program. We like to receive input, both the good and bad, so we try to do this at the completion of our seasonal programs. To summarize, most respondents joined our Fall CSA program seeking fresher produce. Over 93% found our veggie/fruit shares to be either good and/or excellent quality. We received good marks in the "value area" as well with a combined 97% score of our produce being "good and/or okay." On the disappointing side, we did have one vote cast that our shares were "bloody awful." Yikes! Guessing this is an example of that adage .... "you can't please all of the people, all of the time." Concerning communicating with everyone about the farm, recipes, and pick up reminders, we had one respondent select that we provided too many emails. Well we too can relate to "email overload syndrome," but promise our intentions are genuine. We have published the results down near the bottom of this update for those of you interested.
Winter/Spring CSA Shares: Our next CSA program is scheduled to begin the first week of February. Our anticipated winter harvest will include cold hardy crops such as cauliflower, spinach, brussells sprouts, carrots, beets, collards, onions, kale, purple kohlrabi, cilantro, radishes, mustard greens, salad mix, broccoli, potatoes, stored winter squash etc. Winter fruit? Hopefully we'll have citrus and strawberries too. Visit this link to learn more Winter/Sprng CSA, 2012 So how much comes in a share? Visit this link Fall Share Photos and scroll down to get an idea as to what our Full shares received this past Fall. FYI partial shares received approximately 1/3 less (so for example perhaps 5 beets vs. 8) than the full share.
What's Growing? We began sowing tomato seeds a few weeks ago and some of them are already a few inches high. The tomato seedlings will grow in hour greenhouses until they are ready to be transplanted into the fields in March. What Else? Over the past month, we have planted about 27,000 onion sets along with more carrots, garlic, beets, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Days are still short, but plants should begin growing faster come the end of January.
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Constant Contact Survey Results
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| | Survey Name: Fall 2011 CSA Survey |
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| | Response Status: Partial & Completed |
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| | Filter: None |
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| | 1/16/2012 4:44 AM CST |
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| | 1. Why did you join a CSA? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Desire to know where/how my food is grown | 42 | 31.1% | | Seeking Good Value | 2 | 1.4% | | Desire fresh veggies | 76 | 56.2% | | Other | 14 | 10.3% | | No Responses | 1 | <1% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 32 Comment(s) |
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| | 2. How would you rate the quality of the veggies/fruit you received in our Fall 2011 CSA program? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Outstanding | 66 | 48.8% | | Good | 61 | 45.1% | | Okay | 7 | 5.1% | | Disappointing | 0 | 0.0% | | Bloody Awful | 0 | 0.0% | | Other | 1 | <1% | | No Responses | 0 | 0.0% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 35 Comment(s) |
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| | 3. What about value? Did you receive what was conveyed to you when you signed up? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Good Value | 94 | 69.6% | | Okay Value | 37 | 27.4% | | DIsappointing | 3 | 2.2% | | Bloody Awful | 1 | <1% | | Other | 0 | 0.0% | | No Responses | 0 | 0.0% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 19 Comment(s) |
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| | 4. How would you rate the amount/quality/timing of communications received from Wood Duck Farm? i.e. recipes, farm updates, pick up reminders etc. | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Excellent | 100 | 74.0% | | Good | 28 | 20.7% | | Average | 7 | 5.1% | | Poor | 0 | 0.0% | | Too Much | 1 | <1% | | Not Enough | 0 | 0.0% | | Other | 0 | 0.0% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 28 Comment(s) |
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| | 5. How would you rate the way your shares were delivered? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Great | 92 | 68.1% | | Good | 37 | 27.4% | | Satisfactory | 3 | 2.2% | | Below Satisfactory | 1 | <1% | | Poor | 1 | <1% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 25 Comment(s) |
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| | 6. Will you participate in future Wood Duck Farm CSA programs and/or refer this program to a friend? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Yes | 119 | 88.1% | | Maybe | 10 | 7.4% | | Probably Not | 6 | 4.4% | | Heck No! This Program Bites!!! | 0 | 0.0% | | Other | 0 | 0.0% | | No Responses | 0 | 0.0% | | Total | 135 | 100% | | 24 Comment(s) |
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| | 7. What suggestions do have that might improve your future experience with our CSA program? Please provide your input. | | 62 Response(s) |
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| | 8. Have you been part of other CSAs previously? What differentiates , good and/or bad, WDF apart from the others? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | fresher produce | 8 | 11.2% | | better variety | 14 | 19.7% | | closer location | 13 | 18.3% | | Other | 20 | 28.1% | | Total | 71 | 100% | | 45 Comment(s) |
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| | 9. At what location do you pick up your shares? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | Heights | 15 | 11.1% | | Upper Kirby/West Montrose 4208 McDuffie Street | 8 | 5.9% | | Clear Lake Cullen's American Grill | 9 | 6.7% | | Energy Corridor/West Houston Bean Coffee | 11 | 8.2% | | Greenway Plaza Dunn's Coffee | 10 | 7.4% | | Humble Fall Creek | 2 | 1.4% | | Kingwood | 18 | 13.4% | | Museum District St. Paul's Methodist | 10 | 7.4% | | Seabrook Coffee Oasis | 15 | 11.1% | | West University Water2Wine | 7 | 5.2% | | The Woodlands | 19 | 14.1% | | West Central Houston The Moveable Feast | 8 | 5.9% | | The Farm | 4 | 2.9% | | Total | 134 | 100% |
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| | 10. What can we do to improve your share pickup process? | | | | Number of Response(s) | Response Ratio | | longer pickup hours | 22 | 16.6% | | a closer pickup location | 17 | 12.8% | | better packing | 3 | 2.2% | | better host | 1 | <1% | | nothing | 76 | 57.5% | | Other | 12 | 9.0% | | Total | 132 | 100% | | 33 Comment(s) |
Until Next Time, Van Cell 713 876 8645 www.woodduckfarm.com csa@woodduckfarm.com 
PS If you have moved or not interested in receiving our updates, please click the "unsubscribe" link above to "option out" of any future emails.
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