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Since 2004, John and Christine Deck have managed Deck Family Farm in Oregon alongside their five children. Their farm includes laying hens, broilers, a market garden, raw milk dairy, and a bustling CSA program, Full Farm CSA, with 300 members.
Initially, they operated their CSA through custom-built software, but John sought a platform that didn’t require constant in-house tech support as they scaled up. “When custom orders come in, I didn’t want to worry about servers or software. I just wanted it to work,” John explained.
In early 2023, Deck Family Farm transitioned its CSA to the Local Line platform, enabling John and his team to integrate key features for automation and efficiency, especially for their growing order volumes. Today, Local Line allows them to fulfill 300+ orders with 20 hours saved weekly while focusing on serving their members and delivering quality rather than being bogged down with logistical issues.
John and his wife took over the already popular CSA, Full Farm CSA, from their daughter and son-in-law. When starting their new enterprise, they faced several challenges common to rapidly growing CSAs: keeping track of inventory, coordinating with external vendors, managing subscriptions, and handling a high volume of orders–all while maintaining the quality their members expected.
The homegrown software they inherited demanded continuous attention, which became overwhelming as the CSA grew. “If the server went down or something happened with the code, it would be me on the hook to fix things.” shares John.
The farm also needed a flexible system to support their unique CSA model.
They combine monthly subscriptions with flexible ordering options, allowing members to build their boxes from a broad selection of farm-fresh products. Rather than the traditional farmer’s choice box, this model gives members control, allowing them to apply their monthly credits toward exactly what they want.
John explained, “We wanted to keep something in the spirit of people belonging to the farm, where they’re investing with their farmer.” This approach provides the farm with consistent monthly income, especially in winter, when sales might typically dip, supporting steady operations year-round. "We wanted to be able to support the farm even in January and February," John shared, “so we can continue to deliver as many products as possible to our members.”
Deck Family Farm chose Local Line after evaluating several e-commerce platforms. Key features, like inventory management, customer communication, store credit, subscriptions, and customized reports, addressed their specific needs.
The biggest thing on John’s wishlist was making their order cycles as hands-off as possible. With Local Line, Full Farm CSA members can log into their account, shop what’s available, and pay using their store credit. The inventory is then deducted from their back office, and order summaries are created for each customer. Besides updating inventory before the order cycle, the entire ordering process is self-operating.
The system ensures that inventory for in-house and vendor products is accurately tracked and updated. With Local Line, they control when the order cycle opens and closes, allowing them to manage harvests precisely and reduce waste.
To add even more complexity, they also offer a range of products from other local suppliers and producers. To support this, their team uses a mix of Local Line's vendor management features and manual processes to manage shared inventory. Some of their suppliers log into Local Line themselves to update product availability directly.
For other vendors, John's team checks in weekly through calls or emails to confirm stock, especially for items with limited availability. This blend of automated and manual inventory updates helps keep everything accurate for CSA members.
Local Line’s pick and pack exports allows John to generate customized reports for the packing process, saving time and increasing accuracy. The reports detail “setup instructions” by specifying the order in which products are packed based on weight, vendor, and product type. This system prevents staff from walking back and forth, saving significant time.
Local Line data is also exported to Optima Route, the farm’s delivery software. John described the streamlined delivery setup: “We generate a spreadsheet from everything that comes from Local Line, and from there, the route gets put into the driver’s phone. Optima Route sends a text message to the member when it’s on the way, and when we deliver to the doorstep, it also sends them a photo.”
The platform also makes it easy to communicate with CSA members. John emphasized the importance of accurate product descriptions, delivery notifications, and customer updates through Local Line, stating, “It’s a means to communicate, ‘Hey, this is what you can expect, and this is how we’re going to deliver it.’” This transparency has been vital in building trust and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Deck Family Farm has been impressed by Local Line’s support and adaptability. As their CSA grows, they strive to automate more and more tasks.
“I really appreciate the responsiveness of the tech team. We’ve made feature requests that Local Line has adopted. During our biweekly meetings with the support team, they give us updates on progress.” explains John, “This is great. This is exactly what I wanted because I didn't want to be coding these things myself. And there's a team of engineers working through and implementing this and trying to figure out how they can get this feature out.” This collaboration has allowed them to tailor the platform to their needs.
Since adopting Local Line, Deck Family Farm has achieved substantial time savings and improved accuracy. John estimated, “It probably saves us 10 hours of work for every order cycle, so 20 hours a week.” This extra time has allowed John to focus on refining the customer experience.
Accuracy and communication have also improved, enabling the farm to handle nearly 300 orders weekly. John shared, “We’re really trying to reduce the number of mistakes we make. It’s really important to run an excellent program that is efficient, and people are happy with the products.”
With Local Line, Deck Family Farm successfully scaled their CSA while maintaining a high level of quality and customer satisfaction. By automating core functions and leveraging Local Line’s support, John has streamlined operations, freeing up 20 hours a week that would have otherwise been spent on manual tasks. “I don’t have to think about all the members putting in their orders and how that information is going to get translated,” John reflected.
As they continue to grow, Deck Family Farm’s experience highlights the power of customized automation for modern and efficient CSA operations, making Local Line an invaluable partner.
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