“It’s amazing how much variety we can continue to get even as the temperatures drop!”–Shared Harvest CSA shareholder for 4 years
What is Shared Harvest?
Shared Harvest CSA is a multiple farm Winter CSA that connects local, small-scale farmers with people who wish to eat well while supporting local family farms. In 2012 our primary vegetable growers are Picadilly Farm and Riverland Farm, both are certified organic. Cider Hill Farm grows our apples and Charley Baer provides our dried beans. Each of these farms conducts its own summer season sales; Shared Harvest then pools produce from all of them to provide shareholders with fresh food for the late fall and winter months. Check out the farm website links for more information on their summer offerings.
How do I sign up for the 2012 Shared Harvest CSA? Send me an e-mail and I’ll send you CSA details and a subscription form – Jane@sharedharvestcsa.com
What’s in the share?
Our CSA share plans includes apples, beets, broccoli, bok choi, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (green, red and napa varieties), cauliflower, carrots, celery, celeriac, collard greens, dried beans, escarole, fennel, garlic, kale, lettuce, leeks, onions (red and yellow varieties), parsley root, parsnips, pie pumpkins, peppers (green and red), potatoes, popcorn, rutabagas, salad turnips, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, shallots, spinach, two kinds of winter radishes and winter squash including delicata, kabocha and butternut. Of course, Mother Nature has a hand in what actually ends up in the share.
Here’s a summary of the 2010 2- and 3-month winter CSA. You can read about what was in past Shared Harvest shares by looking through the blog archives for the months of October, November and December. Here’s a link to the October 2009 share to get you started.
How much does a CSA share cost? When and where is it distributed?
Arlington Pick-up Site: St. Paul Lutheran Church, 929 Concord Turnpike, Arlington, MA
Arlington 3-month option, $240. Oct 20, Nov 10, Dec 8, 10 AM-1 PM
Arlington 2-month option, $160. Nov 10 & Dec 8, 1-4 PM pick-up
Canton Pick-up Site: Bradley Estate, 2468B Washington Street (Route 138)
Canton 3-month option, $240. Oct 27, Nov 17, Dec 15, 9 AM-Noon pick-up
Canton 2-month option, $160. Nov 17 & Dec 15, 9 AM-Noon pick-up
popcorn still on the stalk
How many people will one Winter Share feed? Can I really eat my farm fresh produce through the winter?
Each monthly share weighs, on average, 43 pounds. If your goal is to completely eat all the food in each distribution within a month, that’s about 10 pounds of produce per week. Much of the produce stores well – winter squash, potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, turnips, beets, and cabbage can last months if stored at the right temperature and humidity. See the Storage Tips page for helpful info about storing and preserving your produce. Shareholders often make the produce last even longer by cooking and freezing it (soups are great for this), pickling it (pickled beets – yum!) and fermenting it (cabbage). Other shareholders use the share up more quickly by juicing some of the produce (carrots, beets, apples) or use it to feed family and friends at holiday meals and parties. See what past shareholders have to say by reading their reviews of the 2008 and 2009 Winter CSAs.
Do you sell half shares?
No, there’s just one size. Some people like to split a share with someone else.
I am interested in a winter share but am concerned that I may be away on a distribution day. Is there any provision for picking up during the week?
CSA shares must be picked up on distribution days and during the regular distribution hours. We don’t have any place to store shares that people don’t pick up. We’ve arranged to use the distribution sites for a few hours each distribution day. Picadilly and Riverland farms store their crops in coolers, greenhouses, barns, etc. and pack them up the night before the share distribution. The share boxes get delivered in the mornings and taken home by shareholders the same day.
There are several options when shareholders aren’t able to get their shares. The option that’s been most successful in the past involves using the Ride Share map to find a neighbor who can bring the share home. Sometimes a nonshareholder friend or neighbor can be recruited with the promise of some vegetables.
Where are the distribution locations?
Our distribution location are in Arlington and Canton, Massachusetts.
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Do you offer a summer CSA?
No, we don’t offer a summer CSA, however, three of the Shared Harvest farms do. Contact Picadilly Farm for information about their Arlington, Belmont and Bedford delivered summer shares. Summer CSA shares go on sale early in the year and these farms are usually sell out in April.
Why do Shared Harvest Winter Shares go on sale so early?
The multi-farm Winter CSA is a fairly traditional CSA. The primary farmers really do count on supporters to prepay for CSA shares. This prepayment allows seeds, supplies, tools, labor to be bought or lined up. A good number of winter CSA crops are begun in the greenhouses in February (celery, celeriac, leeks, onions) and most supplies have been purchased by then. Labor has been arranged and in some cases farm workers are already being paid. Equipment and tools are in the process of being bought or fixed so they will be ready to go the first of April. The CSA model, with it’s prepayment and shared risk/bounty elements, allows these farmers to focus on growing healthy food and tend to soil health rather than worrying marketing and administrative chores in the middle of the farming season.
This year we are offering an installment payment option to make it possible to sign up early but spread the cost of the share out over time. For this option, shareholders write out two checks, one covering a down payment of $80 and the other covering the remainder. The first check is dated for the day that you are signing up and sending in your checks; the second check is postdated for any date up to Sept. 1. Both checks are sent in with the sign-up, but we won’t deposit the second check until the date specified on it.
