If you like to cook, create meals around what's available in season and try different vegetables and herbs, a CSA may be a great option for you! With our CSA program, we strive to make access to fresh, local vegetables easy for you!
Read more about Santosha Farm, here.
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, where community members have an opportunity to support their local farms by purchasing seasonal shares in advance, and in return, their farmer commits to providing them with a weekly share of goods during that season. CSAs provide you with a direct relationship with your farmer, and they are a way for you to get incredibly fresh and local products each week. CSAs benefit farmers by providing them with customers prior to the season so they can better plan their growing and distribution, and the advance payment helps them purchase the supplies they need before crops are planted. By purchasing a CSA, you help reduce your carbon footprint, since the food you purchase comes from your own community and doesn’t have to travel very far. We love the CSA model for all of those reasons, and we really appreciate that we get to build a relationship with those that are purchasing our vegetables. We are also able to customize the CSA model as to how it best fits our farm. All of our farm practices are based in sustainability, and we’ve created a system that allows us to run our CSA without packaging everything in plastic, which helps us obtain our goal of growing and selling in the most ecologically sustainable manner that we can!
2023 CSA Details
Our CSA program runs for 19 weeks, beginning in June and ending in October. For 19 weeks, we provide you with vegetables that we have available for each of those weeks. We have both full and half shares available this season:
Full share - $665 ($35/week), suitable for a family of 4 or 2 veggie loving adults
Half share - $456 ($24/week), suitable for one to two people
We aim to have anywhere from 6 to 12 items in your share each week. The shares in June will have fewer items, but as we approach August, the number of vegetables in your share will grow.
CSA Pick Up Options
1 - At our farmgate (Stisted Road, between Sprucedale and Burk’s Falls)
- Fridays, 11am to 5pm
2 - Downtown Burk's Falls at 60 Ontario St
- Tuesdays, 4pm to 6pm
2 - Huntsville (approximately 10 minutes from downtown)
- Wednesdays, 4pm to 6pm
What Vegetables Can I Expect?
Early shares will be more heavily focused on greens and could include other earlier crops such as rhubarb, pea shoots, radishes and herbs. From mid-summer to late fall, the diversity of vegetables will grow, as more produce becomes available.
In 2023, we are growing peas, beans, salad mix, head lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, patty pans, winter squash, pie pumpkins, radish, green onions, beets, carrots, onions, cabbage, kohlrabi, turnip, fennel, garlic, herbs, edible flowers, kale, swiss chard, bok choy and mixes of hearty greens (arugula, spinach, beet greens, mustard greens).
CSA Payment Details
CSA shares are typically paid in full, when you reserve your spot, but we also offer flexible payment plans!
What If I Am Away?
Most CSA members will have a friend, neighbour, or family member who will pick up their CSA share during the weeks they are away.
What Are The Risks Associated With A CSA?
We will work incredibly hard to provide you with a full weekly share for the planned season, and we grow a diverse variety of crops to help offset any losses, but farming is risky business. Sometimes crops can fail from pests, diseases, or weather, and with your purchase, you are agreeing to take that risk on with us.
Help Us Keep A Low Environmental Footprint!
We try very hard to minimize our use of plastic. We will ask you to bring your own bags to pick up your CSA, which will reduce the amount of plastic we need to use.
Please contact Julia with any questions at santoshafarm@gmail.com. Shares are limited, so please get in touch with us soon if you would like to ensure your space is reserved. We can’t wait to grow your vegetables!