Manorina Box Subscription sign up
Welcome to Manorina Farm’s first subscription box season.
The first season will run from Sat 4th July to Sat 19th Dec (25 weeks) with only 20 slots available while I test and fine tune this model.
Fill out the form below to register your interest in a weekly box of delicious seasonal vegetables.
The main reason for moving to a subscription model is to create more certainty for the farm.
Over the past year, weekly sales have fluctuated quite a lot. Some weeks I might sell only a few vegetable boxes, while other weeks demand is much higher. Growing a finite amount of produce directly affects how much is also available from the Saturday stall. Not knowing if I will be able to sell everything I’ve grown makes it impossible to forecast income and invest in the farm.
A subscription model allows me to know in advance how many households I’m growing for. That means I can plan crops more accurately, reduce waste, and spend less time trying to predict what customers may or may not order from one week to the next.
Having a clear idea of what needs to be harvested each week has made the nursery, planting schedule and use of growing space much more efficient. It’s also given me the freedom to grow a wider range of vegetables that I haven’t been able to justify growing in the past.
This means a more diverse and seasonal selection of produce including crops such as leeks, fennel and cabbages, which have never previously been grown at Manorina Farm.
Subscriptions will run across two growing seasons each year. The first season runs from February through to mid-July, and the second from mid-July through to mid-December. Each season is approximately 24 weeks long.
When you subscribe, you’re making a commitment to support the farm for the duration of that season, and in return I’m committing to growing you the best range of fresh, seasonal vegetables I can throughout that period.
Each Thursday and Friday I’ll harvest a selection of produce from the farm and pack it into your weekly box. Your box will then be ready for collection on Saturday.
As this is the first season, there are still a few details being refined, but my goal is to make collection as simple and flexible as possible. Rather than having a limited pickup window, I’m aiming to offer all-day Saturday pickup from the farm. You’ll simply arrive, mark your name off the collection list, and collect your box directly from the cold room. A packing table will be available nearby so you can transfer your vegetables into your own shopping bags and leave the box behind to be reused the following week.
I understand that a subscription season is a fairly long commitment, and there will inevitably be times when you’re away for holidays, family events, work trips, or other commitments.
If you need to miss a week or take a short break, that’s completely fine. The main thing I ask is that you give me as much notice as possible. Because I’ll be growing produce specifically for the number of subscribed households each week, advance notice gives me the best chance of finding another home for your box rather than having vegetables left over.
Subscription payments will be managed through Stripe (see “How do I pay for my subscription?” below). Stripe allows you to log in to your account and pause your subscription payments when needed, making it easy to manage weeks when you won’t require a box.
The more notice I receive, the easier it is for me to adjust harvest plans and offer any spare boxes to other customers. My goal is to grow as close as possible to exactly what is needed each week, so that every vegetable harvested from the farm finds its way onto someone’s table.
There are two ways to pay for your weekly subscription.
The first option is to use Stripe, which allows payments to be managed automatically by direct debit or credit card. Once you’ve been added to the subscriber list, I’ll send you a link to create your account and authorise the weekly payments. Stripe also gives you the flexibility to log in and pause your subscription if you’re going away or need to skip a week.
Please note that a small surcharge will apply to payments processed through Stripe to cover the transaction fees charged by the platform.
The second option is to pay in person at the farm. If you prefer not to use online payments, you’re welcome to pay monthly by cash or card when collecting your first box of the month.
If you’ve purchased a vegetable box from the farm before, you’ll already have a good idea of what to expect. The contents change throughout the year as different crops come into season, and each box is packed to the agreed value using a selection of the freshest produce available that week.
Some vegetables are grown for most of the year and may include carrots, beetroot, spring onions, kale, turnips, cucumbers and radishes.
Other crops have shorter growing windows and appear when they’re at their best. Throughout the year you may receive vegetables such as leeks, fennel, broccoli, cabbage, capsicum and tomatoes, along with other seasonal favourites as they become available.
Leafy greens and salad ingredients are an important part of the farm’s production and may include a mix of lettuce varieties, rocket, mizuna, tatsoi, komatsuna and spinach.
A range of herbs and microgreens will also be available depending on the season, including parsley, coriander, dill, chives, thyme and rosemary.
The farm wouldn’t have been a success without the support of the Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious communities. Many of my regular customers come from the mountain, but I understand that the current pickup windows and stall opening times at the farm don’t suit everybody. Whether you have family commitments or simply want to enjoy a sleep-in, coming down the mountain every Saturday isn’t always practical.
With the launch of the subscription boxes, I’d like to offer a pickup option from the Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious community halls. The plan would be to pack the boxes on Saturday morning, then drive up the Goat Track and stop at both locations for a 30-minute collection window.
If you don’t make it to the pickup location, your box will travel back to the farm and be available for collection there at a later time.
Bringing the boxes up the mountain adds more than an hour of travel time to my Saturday, so this service will only be available if there is enough interest. If it goes ahead, there will be a $5 weekly surcharge to help cover the additional time and transport costs.
If a mountain pickup option is important to you, please let me know when completing the sign-up form. Your feedback will help determine whether this service is viable.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a note in the Additional Comments section of the form.
Your box will be packed early on Saturday morning and placed in the cold room ready for collection. To make pickup as convenient as possible, boxes will be available from 8:00am until 5:00pm.
To support this system, the cold room will be relocated from its current position at the top of the farm to a new location near the carpark. This will make collections much easier and allow subscribers to pick up their vegetables throughout the day rather than having to arrive during a specific collection window.
When you arrive, grab a box out of the cold room, use the table outside to pack your vegetables (leave the crate behind) and mark your name off the collection list. The list helps me keep track of which boxes have been collected and whether any remain at the end of the day.
Please collect your box promptly, minimising time the cold room door is open. Always double-check that the door has closed securely before you leave. A camera will monitor the area for security and to ensure the door remains closed.
As an extra treat I would like to include the option to add bread from Riser Bakery or eggs from Belvedere Farm. Both of these local producers have supported me while growing the farm and I would like to return the favour.
Obviously the bread would need to be picked up fresh on Saturday morning, ready for your boxes. So this service would only be available if at least 70% of the subscribers took part in the offer. The bread variety would change each week depending on which specialty loaf Riser is baking (eg: lemon rind and poppy seed, olive and herbs, rye sandwhich loaf).
Eggs will be available in half or full dozen, delivered fresh each week from Belvedere Farm.
Prices for these items are estimates only until confirmed with these suppliers.
