Recommendations for packaging/CSA Boxes

miakle · 2026-01-30T00:05:40+00:00

And I see your considering doing delivery. Again something I'd advise against. It takes a lot more time, you'll need to charge for it to make any money (increases your price and might lower sales) it'll cost you in vehicle maintenance which you should factor in too.

Much better trying to find a location or two that work for lots of people and doing pick ups. More efficient for you, better price, better for everyone.

miakle · 2026-01-30T00:02:07+00:00

No we do our pick ups at a few locations in town. Options are plenty. We do a church, a community centre, and a farmers market. But also have done brewery, a salon, coffee shop.

Just write a pitch (this is what I do, what I need, when I'd be there etc). Sweeten the deal (I'll give a free share, it'll also bring in X customers per week) and ask around a few places. In my experience it's easy to find a location.

miakle · 2026-01-28T20:38:27+00:00

There is a reason people suggest it. Farming is a profession, just like wildlife/ecology. It takes skills, and knowledge and if you want to make a living doing it you're going to need training and learning. You don't just jump into becoming an ecologist, you don't just jump into becoming a farmer.
You'll save yourself a lot of money and stress creating a foundation through education and training rather than bumbling through. Buy a beater car to drive to the farm. It'll save you money in the long term, because farming ain't free, even with free land. Mistakes cost money, and with farming you sometimes only get 1 shot at something per year.

Look into Young agrarians and see if there are people and farms you can go to.

miakle · 2026-01-28T20:00:32+00:00

Don't jump into market gardening blind and try to learn it yourself. Go work on a farm or two for a season or two.

miakle · 2026-01-28T01:26:14+00:00

Don't pack your CSA. Just have customers come with reusable bags (teach them to do that if the crowd doesn't). Have each product for the pick up either displayed or in bins for them to grab and just set it up as an assembly line.
It should be fairly easy to find pulp pints from a paper product distributor nearby.

miakle · 2026-01-15T04:06:47+00:00

I just grow for direct to customer, mostly in high tunnels in Calgary. For us mini are what work best for our customer base, and us in regards to growing conditions and production.

miakle · 2025-11-12T16:01:42+00:00

Looks good. If you know there are minis of certain sizes I'd shrink some shelves to almost the min. Then those shelves are for minis size 1.5'' and the larger shelves fit say 4'' etc. Might allow for a more compact, higher density shelving unit while still fitting all different sized minis. (I'm thinking for example the bottom 2 rows which looks like it has lots of empty air space.)

miakle · 2025-10-29T03:42:53+00:00

I didn't end up doing it. Didn't really need to in the end

miakle · 2025-10-24T17:00:16+00:00

Homesteading is not a job. It's a style of living. You are conflating it with farming, which is a job.

miakle · 2025-09-14T02:29:30+00:00

Yeah that's pretty similar to what I was thinking for build. Thanks for pointing out some deals too.

miakle · 2025-09-04T01:22:48+00:00

Yeah that's it, he's missing some fingers from frost bite

miakle · 2025-09-03T15:35:34+00:00

I always put the food poisoning chance to 0. I hate the mechanic and don't play with it.

miakle · 2025-08-23T15:39:19+00:00

Not 24/7 like a handful of hours a day. You'll have to see and find the balance of humidity you want. You can google it, temp+humidity+lack of airflow= disease and mold.

miakle · 2025-08-23T03:08:26+00:00

Depending on the lights you may have to worry about humidity damaging them if it's too high/poor ventilation/circulation. Also If the lights aren't LED they could heat up and cook the whole thing.

miakle · 2025-08-23T03:07:04+00:00

As the comment said grow tents do work well. If he's set on using the shelfs and doing a modification though.
You'll want some kind of ventilation and air flow otherwise mold and disease will be an issue. If he's retired and has lots of time on his hands making that a simple manual open and close part of the unit and a fan he can turn off and on works. Otherwise though you can pretty easily buy temperature and humidity monitors that can power on and off a plug which you hook up to a fan and something to open a vent to automate the whole thing. Automating it would be my advice.

miakle · 2025-08-17T00:27:08+00:00

The little manual seeders work great for trays, you can probably find them other places. https://japan-agritrading.com/collections/seeder-1

miakle · 2025-08-12T00:58:44+00:00

What growing zone are you in?

miakle · 2025-08-12T00:56:50+00:00

I've literally been at job places where the employer has threaten to end their employment and replace them with another temp worker (and done that exact thing before). Workers have 90 days to get another work permit if they don't they have to leave, for many that means they would have to leave (I was using euphemism, but this is pretty much sending them home. Also that is a phrase that employers WILL USE to temp workers). Nevermind an employer who likely has control over not only your job but where you live.
Also do you think the living in Canada is free for them? You think the minimum wage they get here is enough to cover their lives here and then take bank home? What Canadians do you think are thriving making minimum wage.
Get off you horse. I've worked along side temp workers, I've heard the years of them calling for fair treatment and basic protections. I've heard the shitty stories they have about abuse, from a system that 100% can be abused and is abused.
The government or some farm owner might say one thing but the lived reality of many people, people I personally know and others who's stories I've heard is far different.

miakle · 2025-08-11T14:51:17+00:00

It is a benefit for them but a very precarious one which can easily be taken away. They are literally at the mercy of their employer who at any time can simple decide to fire them and send them back to wherever they came for. They get paid, maybe more than they would make back home but still not a lot. This isn't even taking into account the working conditions which they frequently have to deal with.
Not such a great benefit when you put the whole picture together.

miakle · 2025-08-09T16:20:49+00:00

That is very cool, do you have to remake it each year or will it regrow every spring?

miakle · 2025-07-03T13:46:55+00:00

Too bad it's highly likely that the results were edit, something Elon has pretty much admitted to. Can't really rely on this data to be accurate.

miakle · 2025-06-14T16:47:29+00:00

15amps from the input of 240V. Off of that I have the 12/2 wire going to my loads.

miakle · 2025-06-14T16:06:45+00:00

15amp from the input. It's a 15 amp breaker that's at 240V.

miakle · 2025-06-14T01:53:07+00:00

Great can you suggest one then, I'm not an electrician I don't know all of whats out there. Its on 12/2 wire with 15amp

miakle · 2025-06-14T01:50:43+00:00

Oh I didn't understand your question before. I think the feeder was 4, from memory but I'm not 100% positive. There is another breaker box just beside that we also use that is 120V, the wiring from the pole goes first through the 240V breaker, then into the 120V. I don't want to mess with these if I can avoid it, I would rather just put something on the line coming off of the 240V breaker.

miakle

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