We recently spoke to Brittany Overshiner of Upswing Farm, a small vegetable farm in Pepperell, Massachusetts that offers a variety of CSA (community supported agriculture) farm shares. Brittany’s goal is to increase accessibility to fresh, local food.

Read on to see how Local Food Marketplace (LFM) helps Upswing Farm offer more flexible CSA payment options, as well as keep a personal connection with a growing customer base.

LFM Customer Profile: Upswing Farm

Upswing Farm, Pepperell, MA
Farming Since: 2016
LFM Customer Since: 2020

Farm Facts:

• Certified Organic, Locally Grown
• Owned by Brittany and Kevin Overshiner
• Four seasons of farm shares
• Sliding scale CSAs with monthly payment options
• Over 400 Summer CSA members
• Moved locations twice in the past two years, yet still increased sales

How does LFM help you grow?

• Saving hours on admin time
• Modern, professional website
• Easy and flexible monthly payments from CSA members
• Customers feel connected through personal accounts—and keep coming back to order

 

Want to learn if LFM is right for your business? Schedule a free consultation with us!

Interview with Brittany Overshiner

LFM: Thank you so much for speaking with us. Would you be able to give me a little background about your farm?

Brittany: Of course. We’ve been in business since 2016. Right after leaving a job as a farm manager with a nonprofit, I was offered the opportunity to lease land in Ashland, Massachusetts. That’s where we got our start in a year long partnership with White Barn Farm. We started small, with a 50 member CSA. Now, we have 4 seasons of vegetable shares, with 220 members in the winter, and we’re expecting 450 members for this season’s summer share.

In that time, we’ve had some land access challenges. We lost that first lease at the end of 2019, and during the start of the pandemic we were farming at three different sites, until we finally in January of 2021 secured farmland about an hour from our original site. So we’ve moved twice in the past two years, yet still managed to increase sales.

We’ve moved twice in the past two years, yet still managed to increase sales.

LFM: I’d like to hear more about your farm shares. Could you talk about your subscriptions and tiered pricing system?

Brittany: We offer our CSA on a sliding scale at three price points: standard, reduced, and “community supporter.” This way, if price point is a barrier, someone can opt for the lower tier and that’s supported by others who opt in for the higher level. I think this brings awareness to the fact that everyone deserves access to fresh food. And if the total isn’t in balance at the end of the year, we use funds from the community support tier to donate extra CSAs to food pantries. This way we are deliberately donating high-quality, varied produce that we could have sold for a profit—not just the stuff we grew too much of.

LFM: How does LFM help support your mission?

Brittany: It’s a really great feature to have a payment plan that I don’t have to manage. My goal is to make participating in a CSA more accessible. There are so many barriers to that, not everyone has the cash access to pay a seven hundred dollars in January for all their fresh food in the spring and summer. So to be able to offer customers the option of paying $80-100 a month, that’s way more manageable. I really enjoyed last year just logging in to LFM once a month and processing all the cash. It makes cash flow steadier for me, and payments more accessible to the customer. Being able to stagger the payment plans for each share is great—and I spend so much less time invoicing.

I really enjoyed last year just logging in to LFM once a month and processing all the cash—and I spend so much less time invoicing.

LFM: What was this process like before LFM?

Brittany: When I first started selling CSA shares, it was just a Google Form, and then I would enter that info into QuickBooks and send out invoices. The only way people could pay was with check. But I live in a modern world, and lots of people want to be able to point and click and be done. Being able to have people shop online is key, but part of why I chose LFM was because customers also have personal accounts. This makes it easy for customers who’ve ordered from us before to also pop into their account and preorder for our seedling sale or other popup sales. They already have that personal account [on LFM], so there’s more of a feeling of membership.

LFM: How have your customers reacted to purchasing your shares through LFM?

Brittany: Having an online site [through LFM] feels so much more professional than a Google Form. It’s a more modern way to interact. And containing that online ordering in a personal membership feels good to consumers.

Want to learn more about using LFM’s subscription module to sell your CSA shares more effectively? Schedule a free consultation with us!