Community Supported Agriculture is a seasonal contract between the farmer and the members. You purchase a share of the seasons harvest in advance. Your investment helps the farmers pay for the seeds, soil amendments, and tools at the beginning of the farming season, when a majority of the spending happens all at once. We commit to providing you with a weekly box of healthy, locally grown food throughout the growing season. This interdependence helps to ensure the longevity of small farms, while also reconnecting people to the land that helps to sustains them.
The Risk
There are risks to participating in a CSA. You experience our hardships as well as our bounty. There are many factors to producing a single crop from start to finish with out failing. Seed, weather, workers, timing - all of these things could be bad. One of the benefits of how we farm is the wide variety of vegetables that we grow. Consider it crop insurance. Because of this diversity, the ratio of crop failure is low, and only a few crops ultimately suffer through the year (i.e. ground hogs ate it, pest infestation, poor germination, to name a few). There are natural occurrences such as hail, floods, and drought that can have a greater impact on the availability of all the crops, as a whole. Yes, a flooded field would strongly affect your share. This is ultimately the risk that you agree to take with us, as a CSA member of a small vegetable farm.
Your Investment
The 2010 CSA season is 20 weeks. The share price for the season is $525.
The Details
We offer one size share, which we call a full share. A full share is enough for two people who eat most of their meals at home. If you are new to CSA’s or eat out frequently throughout the week you may be better off splitting a share with some friends, or neighbors. The contents of your box will vary depending on the season but will consistently have 7-11 different items. Your boxes will be ready around the second or third week in May and end the beginning of October. The CSA season will be 20 weeks regardless of when the actual start date is.
Pick-Up Times
Pick-up times will be during our Wednesday French Broad Co-op market, located in the parking lot of the French Broad Food Co-op, or on Saturday at the Asheville City Market, located at the Public Works building on Charlotte St. We intend to split the number of shares between the markets. Early bird sign ups will have a choice between the two days. Once we fill up for a particular day, you will be assigned the day that is left. This year we are doing 20 shares. If you anticipate that you will miss a week (i.e. vacation) please encourage a friend to pick up your share. You cannot double your box up the next week if you miss a pick up.
To Join
We take shares on a first come first serve basis. The best way to secure your share, and be able to choose your pick up day, is to pay in full once we confirm there is space available. We strongly encourage those folks who can pay in full to do so. However, if you need some time to gather your funds, please pay a $250 deposit to reserve a spot. The remaining $275 will be due one month from the initial payment. All payments need to be received by May 1st. We do not offer refunds once the CSA share season begins.
Please respond to keepinitrural@gmail.com or call 828.236.1822 if you are interested in joining. We will confirm space availability and provide information on how to make payment.
Here are some examples of what our CSA shares contained in 2009 throughout the season
May 29 - bunch of kale and chard, bok choi, spring onions, radishes, spinach, salad turnips, two heads of lettuce, broccoli
July 2 - head of lettuce, onions, cauliflower, beans, squash, zucchini, basil, cabbage, broccoli
Aug 13 - cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash and zucchini, onions, carrots, peppers, melons, parsley
Oct 1 - winter squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, turnips, lettuce, kale, napa cabbage, carrots, spinach
We also try to rotate some of the items, so that you aren’t getting exactly the same things every week. For example, you will get tomatoes or squash every week, but the greens and herbs will vary.
