Ramsjö Gård is none of these typical farms that sell their products through a shop or a dealer. They sell their products directly to the end consumer and so they achieve immediate production chain and freshest quality. This is done by the so called CSA-Baskets.
CSA means 'Community Supported Aggriculture'. This is a partnership between farmers and people who eat their food. The customers purchase a share of the harvest at the beginning of the season, and the farm delivers vegetable baskets to a local drop-off every week. CSA also provides that the customer get fresh, local and certified organic vegetables, by creting a direct connection to the farmer. CSA farmers can be found around the world!
Each basket contains a variety of 8 to 10 different vegetables, all grown on the farm. The vegetables that are includet to the baskets vary in the course of the season, depending on what grows straight.
At Ramsjö Gård these baskets get freshly prepared and delivered every Thursday and every Friday.
What does this mean to us wwoofer, a lot of work, because almost everything has to be freshly harvested on the same day. Only the potatoes are harvested and washed the day before, so they only need to be weighed and packed at the baskets days. For the rest of the harvest teams are formed in the morning. Two helpers roap together a sort of vegetable, for simple jobs one person is enough. After everything has been harvested, the vegetables will be cleaned and if necessary with a string put together into bundles.
small paperbags with tomatoes and portlack, other vegetables in the back
When everything is ready prepared and complete, the packing of the baskets can be started! There are baskets in two sizes, whole and half. The baskets are also divided into several groups and each group has a different color, which considerably facilitates the classification of the baskets and therefore also the delivery.
what the baskets look like
At the end are the baskets quite full, which makes stacking a bit difficult. But once this hurdle is overcome and everything is in the correct order, the boxes can be loaded onto the pick up and delivered after lunch break.
As the owners of the farm are not the youngest anymore and are not allowed to lift heavy things, one of the volunteers has to join them during the drive.
Currently it's always me, because with the extra work I want to earn a ticket to Karins astrological course, which I'm very intrested in.
Each group has its own baskets-delivery-spot, these are usually empty garages, under some stairs, or in the summer unused saunas, which are provided by some customers. To these spots we deliver all boxes of the respective group, from where they are picked up by the related customers. For each route 4 to 5 of such spots are driven. And then also other spots of past deliveries to collect the empty baskets, so we can refill them in the following week again.
So the delivery takes about 2 to 4 hours in total.
