What is a Stoneboat Farm CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and that’s just what it is! We’re able to grow veggies, take care of the land, and feed our community because of this awesome model of farming. Want more info about CSAs, their impact in Oregon, or even get involved in the movement yourself? Check out the Pacific Northwest CSA Coalition.
What you get from your CSA:
In exchange for a commitment for the season, CSAs provide their members with veggies all season (or all year) long. Many CSAs, like ours, offer more than just veggies too. That means the very best veggies all season long.
But that’s just the start. You’re really part of the farm when you join a CSA. Besides knowing the sucesses and tribulations each week on the farm (talk about knowing where your food comes from) you get to meet the farmers, see the produce grow, and get your farming questions answered.
How you support a CSA:
Most CSAs ask you to pay part of your payment before you get your veggies. As farmers our costs are mostly up front - fertilizer, seeds, infrastructure - we often don’t start selling the seasons veggies in a significant quantity until July! By helping us out early you keep the farm running without interest costs or using up all the savings every spring. Besides the cost savings, it is really nice for we farmers to have the peace of mind - you get to know about your veggies and that they’ll be there for you, we get to know that our community is there for us and will make sure we can pay our bills to get them their veggies!
Heard enough and want to sign up. No need to scroll down - jump here.
There are so many reasons to join a CSA but I’ll go ahead and give you my top ten:
10.) You and your family get to try something new: Being part of a CSA is an experience. You get to see the farm, see other CSA members, eat food you know about each day. It’s something to do, something to talk about, and a way to be together doing something good.
9.) You learn about a farm. In many CSAs you meet at least one of the farmers each week and can learn about not just your share but the farm. One thing I love about our CSA is talking to people about how the farm works, day in and day out.
8.) You know where your food comes from: Go see your CSA farm when you get a chance. You’ll know not just the state or country of your produce but the row number! You can actually ask the farmer if you have concerns about how produce is grown and learn exactly how that broccoli got to your.
7.) You save money: Most CSAs aren’t the cheapest food you can buy but they are the best value. Because of the structure of support - you commit to the season and pay a bit up front - the farmer’s cost is reduced and her security is increased so you can get a better deal. Our CSA is about the average for CSA prices and I check every few months - a CSA basket is far cheaper than the same veggies from the Farmers’ market or even from the organic big scale produce sections in local supermarkets.
6.) It’s a real financial benefit to your local economy. When you buy right from the farm, the farmers get 100% of the money - we’re lucky to get 50% through a supermarket or distributor. But that’s not it. CSA farms are small scale and local - your money stays right in the community as we buy the things we need and hire the help we need from people right around us.
5.)You’ll rely a bit on the weather (cold wet springs mean late tomatoes for all of us - increasingly hot days mean a rough week for salad). It’s a reliance that connects you to the many generations that didn’t have supermarkets but also to the real changes we see each year in the climate. And sometimes it helps to know that that rainy June weekend helped out on the farm!
4.) You’ll eat more veggies and be healthier for it. There is nothing like having veggies in your fridge each week to get you eating them. Unless it’s having veggies, recipes, and folks you can talk to each week about the weeks share and how to prepare it!
3.) You help take care of the land: Small scale farms take care of the land - we have too. There’s no where else we can make our living (trust us, getting land in the first place was really hard!) and we need it to last. The difference between small scale, careful agriculture and big scale commercial agriculture is the difference between capturing carbon and erosion and adding to global warming and the loss of farmable land. You might just help take care of a tiny portion of the farmland with your CSA but it’s enough to feed you and your community and that really matters!
2.)The food is really good: We really do our very best to get you the best tasting, most nutritious varieties of veggies every week (we have meetings each year to talk just about that). Often that salad you have on Tuesday night was harvested that morning. Farm produce doesn’t get better than that. But it’s not just the veggies - our partners really care about their products and their practices and you can taste it!
1.) The community: I know I’m speaking as a farmer here but the community is really the biggest reason to join a CSA. You can get great veggies at the farmers’ market (even from us!) and you can save money in a lot of places but there isn’t really a way to connect to the land, your food, and the people who grow it like signing up for a CSA. And it’s more than connection - it’s interdependence. We rely on the land, the weather, our amazing crew, and a lot more to get the veggies to you each week and you’ll rely on them as well to get the actual food you eat. And we rely on you to be able to take care of that same land, pay that same crew, and bring you veggies year after year (though there’s not much we can do about the weather…). It makes a difference and you can put it on your table each week.
Our CSA is pretty great! We’ve had a CSA since 2015 so we’re pretty sure we’ll be able to deliver the veggies each year regardless of the weather or other challenges. We have a wide variety of veggies to choose from over the season and, yes, you get to choose your own veggies through the whole mainseason of the CSA. Throw in some shares from our amazing partners and you’ll hardly need to go to the grocery store.
But of course, that’s not it. We are primarily a CSA farm and we take that seriously. E-mail a picture of a veggie you got and we’ll identify it. Ask about cooking a veggie at the CSA and you’ll probably get a few answers - one from one of us but a number from other patrons! During the CSA you can Come out and pick some flowers, take pictures of the farm, eat a picnic, and talk to us. Read our e-mails and find out what’s going on on the farm, pet the dogs, talk to Aaron about the farm or kids (he likes talking about both!), come to the pumpkin patch, or just get your veggies each week. No matter what you’re part of the farm and you’ll feel like it!
