CSA — Rattle Root Farm

What is a CSA?

Perhaps you have heard of a farm with a CSA (short for Community Supported Agriculture), but are a bit unsure of how it works. A CSA is a system where customers pick up farm fresh vegetables every week instead of going to the grocery store, where food is often shipped from halfway around the world. At its core, a CSA is a partnership between farms and their neighbors. The farmers provide “shares” to community members, who are guaranteed a weekly assortment of fresh and seasonal vegetables. As the customer, you commit to paying for part or all of your share before the season begins. This is really helpful for both the farmer and the consumer, as the farmer is supported during the lean times of the year and the customer is assured of 20 weeks of fresh vegetables, cut flowers, farm visits, and a direct relationship with where your food comes from! As a CSA member, you share the bounty of the season but also a small slice of the risk that goes into farming. With more unpredictable climate events and new pests emerging, there are occasionally times when things don’t go as planned and we might be without a desired vegetable for a brief period. With that said, we will never sacrifice our commitment to growing the highest quality, pesticide free, beyond-organic food that we can and will strive to provide as much healthy food to our community as possible.

A quick note about the history of the CSA model - it was first developed in the United States by Booker T. Whatley, a Black professor who was well known for his work in agriculture and developing regenerative farming techniques. His model provided Black farmers with operating capital when bank loans were hard to obtain. To learn more about this history, we recommend digging in to Leah Penniman’s book Farming While Black or information from this article: The CSA’s Roots in Black History.

What’s in a share?

When you sign up for a CSA share, you will select the size of your share and what day you would like to come for pick-ups. Every share will include access to pick-your-own flowers and herbs at a designated area of the farm.

Half Share - you can select any 6 items, every week from June-late October
Full Share - you can select any 12 items, every week from June-late October

Unlike some CSA programs, at Rattle Root Farm, your share will be free-choice style, which gives you a lot of flexibility to choose which vegetables you want to take home.

An “item” could be a bunch of Swiss Chard or 1 lb of carrots. During the peak of the season, there will be over 30 different items available to select from. You are free to take multiples of the same item, so for example, if you had a half share and wanted 6 pounds of carrots to fill your weekly share, that is fine by us!

FAQs

Half Share- 20 weeks (June - Oct)
6 items per week
This share is sized for 1-2 people and is perfect for a couple or small household.
$490 (comes out to $24.50 per week)
Full Share- 20 weeks (June - Oct)
12 items per week
This share is ideal for a family or household of 2-4 people (depending on how much you love veggies)
$800 (comes out to $40 per week)
One of our core values is increasing food access to our community. We are highly committed to making our CSA financially accessible and accept SNAP/EBT payments both at markets and for our CSA. We also offer payment plans if the up front cost of a CSA share is a barrier to you. Other welcomed options include setting up work-for-share or bartering arrangements. If you’d like to explore any of these options, please reach out to us at rattlerootfarm@gmail.com.
Payments can be made by cash (preferred) or check. See our sign up page for more details.
Our CSA runs every week - from the first week of June through the last week of October.
Pick-ups at the farm are:
Tuesdays from 1 to 6PM
OR
Fridays from 1 to 6PM
When signing up for your share, please choose a day that works best for you. You are free to come by anytime within the 1-6PM time period on that day. If you need to switch days on a given week, please just give a few days heads up!
We will send out weekly pick-up reminders via email with what crops we expect to be available, farm updates, and seasonal recipes.
By becoming a CSA member of Rattle Root Farm, you agree to pick up your share every week at the designated location and time. We carefully plan our harvests to account for all members to come and pick up their share and are saddened when that food sits in our walk-in cooler.
If you are unable to make your specified pick-up day, or face an unforeseen situation, we would appreciate at least one day’s notice to come up with an alternative pick-up time.
As we have mentioned, farming is often at mercy of weather, pests or other circumstances. Sometimes this means that we can’t guarantee having a certain crop at expected times.

**Above is a guide to what is typically available throughout the season.**

Why join our CSA?

We harvest your vegetables within hours of pickup, which ensures the best possible nutrition, flavor and shelf-life. While large growers mainly pick varieties based on yields and how well they can be packaged, we select varieties with a range of flavors and textures to be enjoyed in the kitchen at their peak ripeness.
Keep your money local while strengthening the resilience of the food system close to home. We also strive to buy locally whenever possible, recirculating funds to other small businesses.
We farm holistically, with a focus on soil health, avoiding harmful tillage, and creating habitats for non-human organisms. We will never use pesticides or synthetic fertilizers on our farm.
Cooking can be challenging! We are always trying out new recipes and are excited to share some in our weekly newsletters, so you can best utilize what's in season.