What Is CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a partnership between a farm and a community of responsible consumers. It puts consumers in a direct relationship with the production of their food. There are no unknown middlemen. You, the consumer, are searching for a good, healthy product at a good price. The farmer is seeking the financial benefit of offering their product direct to the consumer. The farmer also benefits by receiving payments when he needs them most to buy seeds and supplies to produce the food. This reduces the interest costs of loans to begin the season. The consumer is known as a “shareholder” as they are in essence a holder of a share of the harvest. They have bought “shares” in the year’s planting. Their dividends are their weekly produce “shares” which may vary depending on the weather of that growing season.
How the CSA Works.
Knowing how many shareholders he must provide for, Farmer Dave accordingly plants a wide variety of vegetables in successive plantings to ensure an extended harvest. By growing a wide range of crops that prefer and withstand different weather conditions, Farmer Dave ensures that the harvest will provide abundant flavors and colors for a full season. Common favorites include heirloom tomatoes, many types of lettuce, and sweet corn. Less known favorites include brussel sprouts, kousa squash, and rosita eggplant. On the day of the CSA distribution, many different crops are picked in the morning before the peak heat of the day. The items are gently rinsed and then arranged in an individual box for each shareholder. Just before distribution time begins, the boxes are brought to the distribution site and kept in the cool of the shade. In the next three hours the shareholders arrive (often on their way home from work) and receive their box. They then bring home their box to enjoy a natural gastronomic adventure of the local season. We believe that the only thing better than the CSA to get more direct and fresh produce is to grow it in your own backyard, which we encourage you to do in addition to the CSA.
Why Join Farmer Daves CSA?
- Enjoy locally grown produce.
- Connect to the local agricultural cycle by eating what is in season.
- Help the local economy. Farmer Dave provides many jobs and recycles money by purchasing supplies from local businesses.
- It makes it convenient for busy people to develop foodways that make for healthier, happier, and more connected families.
- Enjoy varieties selected for flavor rather than for shelf life and shippability.
- It reduces the amount of fossil fuel required of my food in reduced packaging and transportation. The average food item at the grocery store traveled about 1000 miles.
- How I decide to eat greatly impacts the local and global environment.
- Save money. To buy the same quality product received in the CSA, you would have to spend 20-50% more money than the cost of the share.
- Help Others. Over the past 10 years Farmer Dave has donated well over 100,000 pounds of produce to area food banks and pantries including: Open Door/Cape Ann Food Pantry, Merrimack Valley Food Bank, Catholic Charities Food Pantry of the Merrimack Valley, and Lazarus House of Lawrence.
- We have to eat and it just makes sense.
- Why not! It is better for my health, my wealth, and my world.
