What is a CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a simple relationship between a farm and its community. Families and individuals become members of the farm by purchasing a share of the harvest each year. This fee supports the costs of growing over 50 different crops, which the farm then distributes back to the shareholders in abundance each week from June through the end of October.
The CSA Experience at Crystal Spring Farm
While you will technically be picking up your “groceries” when you come to the farm each week, being part of our CSA offers a unique experience. Since you are committed to weekly pick ups, the farm visit becomes a ritual of sorts. Even the kids are excited to see what vegetables are harvested each week, and some parents have complained that the kale has disappeared in the back seat on the way home. Members love to visit with our ewes and lambs, chickens and pigs. In the Upic field members have fun creating flower bouquets while others search for bugs, all the while snacking on peas. We also offer events such as cooking demonstrations and field walks with the farmers to see the crops up close and in action. Like to weed? We can accommodate those who like to weed, and we also organize a few volunteer work days for bigger jobs like potato harvesting.
Value for Your Family and the Whole Community
When you join our CSA you get value for your investment in our farm. Your membership fee goes to buy seeds, pay farm help and heat the greenhouse months, among other costs, before we actually harvest a crop. Your investment and your trust in us to be your farmers is our livelihood. Every week we offer the best quality produce in amounts that will provide your family with incredible meals.
Healthy Field to Healthy Table
The support of CSA shareholders enables the farmers at Crystal Spring Community Farm to focus their efforts on producing organic vegetables that are often harvested and distributed to you on the same day. The most flavorful varieties are chosen each season knowing that they won’t need to be shipped or stored before they arrive on your table.
Linking Small Farms and their Communities
By becoming a shareholder of Crystal Spring Community Farm, you are supporting local agriculture and ensuring that a working farm will continue to be a part of your community landscape. Shareholders also have the opportunity to know who grows their food and how it is cultivated.
Shared Bounty, Shared Risk
Part of the pleasure (and sometimes frustration!) of farming lies within the season’s variability and uncontrollable forces of nature. Shareholders join the farmer in sharing the risk associated with food production. Every season some varieties may not yield as expected — but many others always exceed our goals. We plan every year to grow more than we need, ensuring a plentiful and diverse bounty to enjoy each week.