Community Supported Agriculture…

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) refers to a model of farming in which farmers sell harvest shares directly to people in the local community. The CSA represents a direct connection between consumers and farmers, and a shared commitment – shareholders commit to the farm for the season, providing farmers with a secure customer base, and farmers commit to doing their utmost to provide their shareholders with the best-quality, most nutritious food around.

The Brookwood Community Farm runs an approximately 200 member CSA Program. Members purchase a share of the farm’s harvest in advance of the growing season. During the harvest season, members come to the farm once a week to pick up a box of produce full of that week’s harvest and a newsletter featuring recipes and other updates from the farm. Pick up times for the CSA are Tuesdays and Thursdays between 1pm and 6pm and Saturdays between 10am and 2pm. Members are encouraged and welcomed to volunteer at the farm throughout the season and are invited to participate in community pot lucks and other events at the farm.

In 2012 we are once again offering separate spring, summer and fall CSA shares. You can sign up for one, two or all three shares. You even receive a discount if you sign up for all three shares!

What’s in a CSA Share?

Brookwood Community Farm grows a wide variety of crops, planted in succession to provide a continuous weekly supply of mixed vegetables. We enjoy planting many heirloom and specialty varieties that are beautiful to look at, taste especially yummy, and are hard to find in most grocery stores.

CSA shares are intended to provide sufficient produce for an average family. A CSA share is similar in size or slightly larger than than the 1/2 shares offered by many area CSAs.

The Spring CSA Share begins the first week of May and runs for 6 weeks. This share features early crops that can tolerate cool weather and grow quickly including many greens. Weather permitting, the share will include spinach, salad mix, broccoli, lettuce, chard, kale, scallions, kohlrabi, baby beets, baby carrots, peas, cilantro, radishes, and other vegetables. The cost of the 2012 Spring Share is $130.

The Summer CSA Share begins the third week in June and runs for 18 weeks through the middle of October. This share has the entire range of production. It begins with greens, early carrots, beets, peas, cucumbers, and summer squash. It continues through the middle of the summer with tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, watermelons and many other vegetables. The share finishes with early fall favorites including winter squash, carrots, kale, and more greens. Throughout the summer share we try to have continuous production of various greens and onions, as well as a range of produce every week. Depending on the season the crop mix may vary slightly. For example, in 2010 we had beautiful tomatoes throughout most of the summer, but very few greens due to the extremely hot weather. In 2009 we had beautiful greens every week, but lost our tomatoes to blight. The cost of the Summer Share is $430.

The Fall CSA Share begins the third week in October and runs for 6 weeks. This share features a mix of cool season crops including winter squash, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, spinach, kale, collards, salad mix and lettuce. This share also contains some storage crops such as onions and potatoes. Many crops including carrots and other roots, as well as brassicas (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale) are sweeter in the fall after experiencing a frost. The cost of the Fall Share is $130.

If you choose to sign up for all three shares, you will receive a reduced price of $670!

CSA Fruit Shares & Egg Shares

In addition to the vegetables grown at the Brookwood Community Farm, we offer CSA members the opportunity to purchase an additional fruit share, with fruits provided by a local orchard and an egg share with 1 dozen eggs from a local farm provided weekly. More information will be forthcoming as the season approaches.

CSA Volunteer Work

Because this a community farm that depends on volunteer labor to keep up with the chores and harvesting, and because we want our members to get involved, we encourage share-holders to volunteer 10 hours over the growing season (April through October). This work commitment can be done by attending one or more of our monthly weekend workdays, or by arrangement with the farm manager. Additionally, a limited number of work-shares are available to enable those who have more time than money to use”sweat equity” to purchase a share. A work-share requires the member to work at the farm a minimum of 3 hours per week during the CSA season (April-October). CSA members can volunteer at the farm or may help out with other jobs such as newsletter production, outreach, website design/maintenance, administrative tasks, etc.

How to Join the CSA

We will post the CSA sign-up form here at the beginning of February.

We invite you to become a member of Brookwood Community Farm for the opportunity to sign up early for 2011 CSA shares. With your membership you will receive a Brookwood T-shirt or tote-bag along with weekly newsletters and updates about the farm. Download a membership form and return it to us to become a member today!

We are slowly growing our CSA program to accommodate more families in response to the huge interest and demand for local food and farming connections, but we are limited by the amount of land we can cultivate. If you are not able to join the CSA in 2012, you will still be able to enjoy Brookwood Community Farm produce at area farmers markets or from the farm stand at Brookwood. More information about specific dates and times of the markets will be available this spring.

2012 CSA Waitlist

If you would like to add your name to the waitlist for the 2012 CSA, please fill out the form below. Waitlist members will receive the sign-up form via email as soon as the general sign-up period begins.