In their turn the farmers must trust that after their initial financial contribution, the consumers
will continue picking up the vegetables and pay the agreed sum per share. During the vegetables
deliveries we observed that not all consumers arrived in time, and the farmers had to call them
to find out the reasons for the absence. However, cases in which people fail to arrive to pickup their vegetables without informing the farmer on the phone or without providing a good
explanation are very rare.
This lack of reliability with some consumers is apparently feared by Farmer 1 who instituted a
guarantee payment signaling his lower level of trust in the consumers’ ability to keep their
part of the agreement throughout the season. The guarantee payment is a fixed sum charged
from all members one month before the end of the season, to avoid the tendency of the consumers
to be less reliable in picking up of the last shares. This was instituted as a consequence of a
few disappointing cases of consumer drop-out towards the end of the season. Only three
announced absences that are thoroughly registered are allowed in this CSA. For absentees,
their share is divided among the rest of the consumers for Farmer 1. In the case of Farmer 2
and Farmer 3 there is an agreement according to which the shares not picked up are donated
to a local care centre for the elderly. Nevertheless, the consumers still have to pay for them.