A community supported agriculture farm or  a“csa” is a concept of a farmer (who uses organic farming methods) that pre-sells shares or subscriptions of their crops ahead of time to the community.   The community members who pre-purchase a subscription  of the diverse crops receive either a weekly or biweekly amount of produce.  The produce that is distributed on pick up days for the shareholders is from what the farmer has grown and harvested at the csa farm.  In addition to the shareholders receiving the freshest, most nutritionally sound produce harvest that morning of pick up, the shareholders can put a face on the farmer, knowing that their food comes from a safe place.  Distance of food miles for such food is at a minimum, and the local agricultural community thrives by this example of  "local food system" support.   

 By pre-purchasing a share you are investing in the farmer to commence the subscription year’s crop planning.  This includes purchasing of seeds, plants, soil amendments, necessary tools/supplies, fertilizers, and other  items to grow your food for you.   When the farmer has a number of subscriptions reserved by the subscribers, they are able to plan accordingly.  Shares are limited to the number of acres the farmer can plan to use for any given year, the size of the shares, deadlines and other factors.  Most csa’s will overgrow their crops to ensure a strong supply of produce due to mother nature’s ways or unforeseen low yields of a particular crop, as a result some csa’s will open up more shares later in the year, but this does not guarantee that if you wait until after the production starts that you would have an opportunity to join.  Waiting for a share later in the season almost always ends up costing more as well.

 

 Many csa farmers diversify their production and may also  depend on other venues to supplement their farming income. Farmers markets, grocery stores, restaurants,  are  examples of other outlets a farmer may choose to grow for in addition to shareholders.  Some have outside jobs away from the farm as well.  Lastly, there are other csa’s who involve the shareholders from the very beginning   It includes working shares, sharing the farmers cost of living, and other details.  We do not operate in this latter model of a csa.  We prefer the flexibility of networking with other venues, to diversify our farm products that we grow in addition to the CSA shareholders.

 We consider this vast array of warm season veggies our peak of the season example for a full subscription!