CSA Farm Preservation Share- HELP!

[Monica Sherman]

Know anything about doing a CSA food preservation share?? My husband and I have an organic farm business called Ithaca Organics which offers a CSA. Every year I do a fair share of preserving since using as much of our own produce and food is very important to us (and it's the yummiest). We now have a newborn and are building a house this harvest season while running the farm, so I want to offer a preservation share or two where a member would receive a CSA farm share in exchange for preserving our food for us. One problem- I just don't know how to set up the terms. I have a few people who are interested, but I don't know how to make it fair or how to avoid a slippery slope. Any advice? Any experience? Interested?  IthacaOrganics.com   THANKS!

[crowjoy]

That's a great idea for a trade! Do you have a figure for how much a single share works out to in labor hours for you? If one weekly share represents, say, 10 hours of labor for you then I'd think 10 hours of preservation should be asked in exchange for it, maybe with some allowance to compensate for supplies/energy/water use, etc.