HOW IT WORKS

C S A

What is Community Supported Agriculture?

A CSA is a farm membership that allows families to have direct access to high quality, fresh, healthy produce that is locally grown. When you join our CSA you will own a share of the farm and receive either fruits or vegetables (or both!) weekly from early July through mid November. We will do our best to give our members a bountiful harvest of the freshest and healthiest vegetables that you and your families will feel good about eating.  By signing up and buying into our CSA between October and December you allow us to forecast the needs we have to meet for next year's season.  You also provide the resources to allow us to appropriately plan and fullfill our promise to provide our members with a quality, high yielding product.  We do allow members to join right up until season start however we encourage you to join as early as possible so we can plan accordingly as a majority of the crops are planted well in advance and we want to be able to provide you with a high volume bounty.

• How does our CSA work?
  • We consider our CSA free choice farm market style. We lay out all the produce in the market for YOU to pick from!
  • Members come and pick up the vegetables or fruit from our farm market, there is NO pre-packaged box.
  • A list of items is written on our 'CSA Board' and members hand select the produce for their share. We feel members enjoy selecting the produce themselves rather than us just handing them a box when they arrive. Example shares are shown on the pages that follow.
  • We offer a substitution list to allow everyone's weekly pickup to fit there families needs. We are hoping that this will help eliminate waste by people not taking produce they know they will never use. We still encourage people to try new items, however we want people to go home and use their produce so they return year after year and feel the CSA worked for them. 
  • CSA members recieve a reusable tote and are encouraged to use it throughout the year.
  • Please bring whatever you want to carry your produce in.  Our boxes are for additional customers and we rely on our CSA members to be aware of this and to plan ahead by bringing your own, thank you!

• What do you do if you can't pick up your share this week?

1. Send a neighbor or friend to pick it up for you.
2. Donate it to the food bank. We make donations to the Food Bank of WNY through St. Pauls Church in Eggertsville. Let us know and we will include your share in our donation and it will go directly to a family in need.      

• What do you do if you have to pickup on a different day than your scheduled for?
  • Just ask us in advance! Try to stick to your scheduled pickup 90% of the time. This allows us to have an accurate amount of produce picked for our members. Some items have to be tilled up in quarts or pints and we try to have the appropriate number set up for the given day's volume of members
  • Weekly pickups are available Monday - Thursday from 3pm until 7pm.
  • We have designated pickup days and encourge members to stick to their selected day as we pick the daily share based on the number of customers scheduled for that day.  
  • We allow some flexibility if you can't make your pickup day a few times throughout the season and encourage you to email us or let us know in advance.

• Weekly Newsletter?
  • Every Weekend you will recieve a newsletter via email explaining thge crops in the upcoming weeks share and what is goining on at the farm and a quick simple recipe to try!
  • Yes, we realize most people want the newsletter sent as early as possible so they can meal plan for the coming week.  We do our very best to get it out by Saturday evening or Sunday morning regularly.  However there a few occasions every season where work on the farm doesn't allow this to always happen! Forgive us in advance! :)

• When is the best time to join?
  • We encourage existing members to rejoin between the last weeks of the current season and the beginning of the new year as this give us the most time to plan accordingly during the Winter months for next year's season and prepare the farm for the best yielding shares.
  • We allow new members to join as late as the beginning of the season but also encourage them to join as early as possible in the Winter months.
  • There is a ton of planning and preparing that goes into the rest of the farm to ensure a bountiful harvest for not only our CSA members, but the rest of our patrons and the community that partake in our farm market.  To guaruntee the very best, high yielding harvest, the earlier you join our CSA, the better the overall health of the farm will be going into the early Spring planting season.

• How much does it cost?
  • There are several CSA Share options available so the price ranges.
    • The breakdown of every share is over the length of weeks.  This equates to roughly the same price you would be spending at the grocery store only you will be getting fresher, healthier product that was picked only a few hours before you pick it up.
  • We have a deposit option available for members to reserve their share.
  • We allow the rest of the balance to be paid after initial depost up to the beginning of June.
  • In early Spring we send invoices for any remaining balances and allow these to be paid in payments until completed.
  • We encourage you to take advantage of the website to pay via Paypal/Credit/Debit Card as this allows you to enter all of your information and helps us stay organzied.
  • We accept paper checks mailed in with our registration form or paid in person with cash or check at the farm during our Open Hours.