Community Supported Agriculture
Information about the 2012 CSA application process can be found on NCF’s home page. For information about NCF’s current CSA Policy, please click here.
About the CSA
CSA sharers receive fresh, delicious vegetables from early June through late October. In order to be able to offer as many CSA shares as possible Newton Community Farm supplements it’s CSA with potatoes and winter squash from a local partner farm. We also purchase non-organic sweet corn from Massachusetts farms for our CSA. These crops require more space than our modest site allows. CSA participants share in the bounty of the farm, and also the risk. While we have confidence that we will meet our production goals, growing vegetables always involves a certain amount of uncertainty, and quantities may vary week to week, season to season.
Weekly Share: $570. Shareholders come to the farm once a week to pick up vegetables. Shares include some pick-your-own (PYO) crops such as peas, bea:ns, cherry tomatoes, and herbs. Share size varies throughout the season. At the height of the season (Aug-Sept) a typically week might look like: 1 bunch roots crop (carrots or beets); 2 bunches of greens (changing selection); 1 bunch of herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, or parsley); 1 eggplant; 4 bell peppers; hot peppers; 3 pounds of potatoes; 2 summer squash or zucchini; 5 or more pounds of tomatoes; 1 pint PYO cherry tomatoes; 8 ears of corn; 1 quart PYO beans; PYO herbs (separate from bunched herbs listed above).
Alternate Week Share: $300. For people who find that our weekly shares are too much food to eat in a week. Participants pick up a full share of produce every other week during the season. When you enroll please carefully select a starting week, as this will put you on an alternating week schedule for the rest of the summer. We strive to give everyone their choice of starting dates, but need to balance the harvest week to week, so your assigned starting date will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Like the weekly share, this share includes some pick-your-own (PYO) items.
Work Commitment: All CSA participants have a work commitment, as a way to support the farm, foster education, and develop a sense of community and identification with the farm. For Weekly Shareholders the work commitment is 12 hours for the season. For Alternate Week Shareholders it is 6 hours for the season. Please consider working your hours early. If you know that you will not be able to complete your work requirement, you can “buy out” your hours when you enroll at a rate of $9/hour.
Pick Up Days and Times: CSA pick-ups take place at the farm on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2-7 pm. You do not need to sign up for a day. You can choose each week which day you come. If you can’t come, help bring new people to the farm by having a friend or neighbor pick up your share. If you don’t have time for the PYO options during the week you are welcome to come back on Saturdays before 3 pm for those items.
Sharing Your Share: If you would like to share a CSA share with friends or neighbors that is fine with us. Please be aware, however, that this is something you are doing on your own. The farm will have one person on record as the shareholder. That person will be financially responsible for payment and for completion of work hours (however you decide to divide this up). When picking up your share either have only one party come each week, or if both parties come please be sure to come together to avoid taking more than your share’s worth of vegetables.
In addition to our CSA program, we also offer a separate Apple Share and Flower Share. Information on these programs, including enrollment forms and deadlines, will be available on our website by late spring.