Hello everyone,

I am in my solo professional growing experience after working for other small market gardeners and livestock farmers for a few years. I have managed a small urban property (zone 9b) for a non-profit for the past 6 months. I built the site from the ground up - from a blighted trash-filled lot to a garden. The idea is to offer low-cost produce to people who live in food deserts. We also do garden and wellness classes.

A homeless shelter owns the property and we are giving them 30% of the yield for rent. The lot is shady (nice in the summer but a problem now). There are several citrus trees and a flock of 9 chickens who are not laying at the moment. We are using donated sandy loam with a poor structure that I am slowly amending with vermicompost and horse manure. We have access to a kitchen but no infrastructure on site for processing and packing. The water is barely potable and there is no electricity right now.

We got our first seed donations at the beginning of October. After all of the fall crops were in, my employer made a huge decision about distribution without consulting me. They want to do 5 shares of a generously portioned "CSA" box selling for $15 to be distributed by a 3rd party. This 3rd party wants to pick up produce on Thursday for Friday and Saturday delivery (so we will be giving people 3-day-old wilted greens). They usually deal with wholesale produce big-box distributors (red flag).

How can I guarantee a "Cisco quality" box worth $15 on one-hundredth of an acre every week? I am a new grower so maybe I can't tell the difference between something that is challenging and something unreasonable. Am I being overly negative? I am willing to give it a shot and have said nothing against the idea so far. Its all been jolly farmer smiles over here.

If I were to craft a logical, fact-based, non-defensive, non-desperate email explaining why this is not a fantastic idea for the organization right now what should I say? If I seem a little panicky its because I am. Anyone been in similar situations?

Also with the shade and poor soil how can I estimate yield and days to maturity based on listed crop standards? Is this just something I have to keep track of and plan better next year?

Thanks in advance everyone.