Farmer Story · Carlotta, CA

Oxen-powered, pasture-raised. 21 weeks of CSA, seven pickup sites.Her soil gets studied. Her spreadsheet got retired.

Farmer Melanie used to grow at the speed of one spreadsheet. Now renewals bring in over $40,000 in under two weeks and 90%+ of members come back season after season — while she's out in the field.

The only thing she scaled back was the admin.

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Shakefork Community Farm logo
Melanie CunninghamShakefork Community Farm · Carlotta, CA
$40K+in renewals in under two weeks
160members
90%+retention, near 100% at the sites she works
<2 hrsof admin a week, down from 12+

In her words

"I was aligning my work to my spreadsheet — limiting the number of memberships and pickup locations based on what it could handle."

Melanie Cunningham · Shakefork Community Farm · Carlotta, CA

Read her playbook →

How it actually works

"Hey farmhand,
can you…"

Melanie texts what she needs. Someone on the Farmhand team does it and texts back, usually before the truck's unloaded.

Anything that would otherwise mean opening a laptop fits in a sentence.

So here's a season of it — and everything it built.

See what she runs ↓
FH
FarmhandText message
Monday 6:12 AM
Hey farmhand — we've got extra broilers. Put 3 whole chickens for $100 in the shop, members only, and text them it's 10% off.
Live in your shop, and the text is queued for 7 AM. Used the photo from the last batch — want it in this week's newsletter too?
Tuesday 8:47 PM
Open turkey pre-orders. $50 deposit now, $9 a pound charged at pickup, fresh from the farm November 24.
Pre-orders are live — everyone will receive reminders a week before pickup via SMS and Email.
Saturday 5:31 AM
Renewals open today. Pay in full gets a free week and last year's price — email, text, and a flyer for the boxes.
Done — did you want me to send the flyers to your local printer for pickup tomorrow?
Monday 5:58 AM
Anyone on the waitlist? And is there room at Evergreen Lodge for one more?
Four waiting, and Evergreen Lodge has room for two. Want me to offer those in order and move them over?
Yes please 🙏
Scroll the thread
01 — Marketing

Melanie used to run renewals out of three places at once. Now she doesn't run them at all.

Renewal campaigns used to be an email in one tool, an announcement on Instagram, follow-ups from her phone. Now it's one campaign, scheduled weeks before the last boxes drop. Over $40,000 lands inside two weeks. For a seasonal CSA, that's seed money.

Scheduled while the season's still runningThe renewal campaign goes out mid-harvest, not after the season ends — while members are still getting boxes and remember why they signed up.
Tiered follow-ups for the early birdsPay-in-full opens first, deposits a week later, then a nudge to everyone still deciding.
Every channel, one deadlineEmail, SMS, flyers at pickup, posts on Saturday. Members who see it more than once get a nudge, not a contradiction.
Print that rides along in the boxQR renewal flyers, pickup-site signage and business cards, in members' hands with the last shares of the season.
Visit her site →Read her renewal email →
shakeforkcommunityfarm.com/csa
Shakefork's CSA page at shakeforkcommunityfarm.com/csa
Shakefork's printed CSA renewal flyer: Secure your spot for the 2026 CSA, renew by 10/19 before the waitlist opens, with the local-rewards list and a QR code
She textsLet's get this season's renewal campaign launched.
02 — Subscriptions

Add-ons were the one thing they could never offer. Now there are three.

Melanie's spreadsheet was already tracking two share sizes, seven pickup sites, and every payment date. Adding eggs meant tracking who wanted them, at which site, on which schedule — so she didn't. Now members add them at signup and the billing sorts itself.

Three add-on shares, billed with the boxFree-range eggs, a Greens Lover share, coffee from Humboldt Bay Coffee Company. Members pick them at signup or add them mid-season as available.
Seven pickup sites, eleven pickup windowsTuesday - Saturday, from the pack shed in Carlotta to a front stoop in Fortuna. Each site carries its own day, time window, pickup instructions, and capacities.
Holds members set themselvesGoing away for a week? Members pause it from their account, and Melanie hears about it from the pack list.
Capacity caps and a waitlistEvery site has a cap. Members renew into their spot first, then the remainder opens to the waitlist in order.
See her plans →
gofarmhand.com/csa/shakefork-community-farm/plans
Signup offering three 2026 add-on shares — Free-Range Eggs, Greens Lover and Humboldt Bay Coffee — each with a Subscribe button
The member-facing pickup location list — Evergreen Lodge on Fridays, Fortuna Farmers' Market on Tuesdays with a Join waitlist button, and Fortuna Vicarage at Grandpa and Nana's home
A member's account showing past and upcoming Tuesday deliveries, a Shop add-ons button and a delivery calendar
She textsCap the Fortuna Vicarage site at 50, then start a waitlist.
03 — Retail Shop

November's turkeys, sold in July.

Melanie sells ahead of the harvest. A deposit in July holds a November turkey; beef by the ten-pound box, broilers three for $100 and seasonal items fill the rest of the year. Members get first look and their own pricing, and every balance charges before pickup.

$50 down in July, $9 a pound in NovemberShe knows by midsummer how many birds are spoken for and plans the harvest around it. The balance charges by the pound before the November 24 pickup — nobody's writing invoices the week of Thanksgiving.
Sold by text, picked up with the shareShe texts members when there's extra beef. They reply, the card on file charges, and it's at their pickup site Tuesday — no cart, no second trip.
Members-only listings and pricingA listing can be hidden from the public or priced two ways. Members see the turkey pre-order open a week before anyone else does.
Shop the farm →
The Shakefork storefront with the Thanksgiving turkey pre-order banner across the top
The Thanksgiving Turkeys pre-order listing showing the $50 deposit and $9 a pound charged at pickup
Melanie in a Shakefork cap holding a dressed pasture-raised turkey in the processing room
She textsOpen turkey pre-orders — $50 deposit now, $9 a pound at pickup, fresh November 24.
04 — Member Support

Melanie kept the relationships and handed off the questions.

Where a pickup site is, whether a box is ready, a missing item. A team that knows Shakefork answers them seven days a week, in the farm's voice — and she can read every thread.

Seven days a week, in Shakefork's voiceChat, email and SMS, answered by people who know the farm. Pickup times, address changes, a hold someone forgot to set — handled before her phone lights up.
Credits in one clickFull or partial. The member gets confirmation in the same thread and the credit lands on their account.
Declined cards retry themselvesThe card retries on its own. If it fails again the member gets a branded notice with a link to fix it. Melanie never has to ask.

90%+ of members come back season after season.

Melanie and Kevin together at a porch pickup site, produce boxes and egg cartons stacked on the table beside them
She textsA member missed the Wednesday Redway pickup — can you sort her out and let the site hosts know?
05 — Fulfillment

Eleven pickup windows, four days, one pack list.

Carlotta out to Garberville, Tuesday through Saturday. The crew packs from one list, drives one route, and members hear from the farm twice — once when the box is packed, once when it's out.

Labels and sign-out sheets, printed in route orderSorted by packing station, ordered by stop, on a thermal or office printer.
Harvest reports before anyone walks the fieldWhat to pick and how much, broken out by item, weight or site. The crew starts the morning with a number instead of an estimate.
Routes that reorder themselvesStops sequence for the shortest run out from the farm. When Melanie adds one the morning of, the route rebuilds around it.
A photo at every drop, a text when the van's lateGPS-tagged proof of delivery, and members hear about a delay from the farm before they even have to ask.
Pack day, September 2024: nine clipboards spread across a table — a sign-out sheet for each pickup site, wholesale order, load lists, harvest list, crew list and CSA breakdown
Before Pack day, Sept 2024
Pack day, July 2025: one basket of clipboards with the Farmhand order summary on top
Now Pack day, July 2025
A Shakefork delivery route with its stops listed in order
The Send delay notification dialog, reading 'This will notify 15 customers across 7 stops'
She textsRunning late to Harvest Hub — tell everyone picking up in North Arcata I'll be there by four.

More from Melanie

Automate, delegate, or keep.

Melanie sorts every job on the farm into three piles: the work that was never the point, the work someone else can do better, and the work that is the point.

A Shakefork pickup site set up: produce boxes, egg cartons, named paper bags, two sign-in clipboards and the printed final-week share list carrying the early-renewal offer
She wrote it

How she decides

What she automated, what she handed off, and the one thing she'll never give up.

Read her playbook →
Melanie laughing behind the Shakefork market stall — flats of really good eggs, greens, delicata squash and pie pumpkins, with the branded farm van behind her
She taught it

$40,000 in renewals in under two weeks

Melanie on the offer structure, the deadlines and the perks that moved 70%+ of her members to renew early.

Watch her workshop →

Your turn

What would you hand off first?

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