What does CSA stand for?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and came to America in the 1980s. It was an idea started by the Japanese and came to the US by way of Europe.  It started because of food safety concerns and now, for us, it offers a great opportunity for each client to connect with Glastonbury’s rich agricultural past through building a community of customers at our little farm.

Our program…

We offer a once a week pick-up for clients to swing by the farm and pick up their pre-filled box of fresh produce that is available to pick that week.  If what you’ve read from above sounds interesting to you, feel free to try it out.  We have full shares (a full box, every week pick-up) for $500 and half shares (a full box, every other week) for $300.  Some people asked for Asparagus and Rhubarb, but others didn’t care – for that we are offering a Late Spring CSA at $75 for the month prior to the regular CSA start date.  No half shares are available for that.  Pick-ups are all at our red barn in front.  In your box will be everything from herbs, to fruit, to a number of different vegetables.   Please remember that we live in Connecticut where different crops come in at different times and our summers are unpredictable which can sometimes cause the lettuce to bolt or a hale storm to take out more than 50% of our peaches, both of which happened last year.  With that said, there might not be as many peaches in your basket as you were expecting, but that is part of the program. We look at the CSA as a sharing program more than anything else.  Each customer gets a “share” of the crops each week during the season and you will share in the risk of crop loss. By sharing the season with you, we can plant a bigger variety of crops, which is good for the land, and hopefully offer your better produce quality and variety than you normally would get in a store.

This will be our third year offering the CSA to our community.  The CSA does two important things for our farm – first, it allows each client to connect with the farmers and staff in addition to providing us with money starting in February or March which enables us to order the crops and prepare for as successful of a season as we can plan, order seeds, plant and keep the farm maintained and up to date, the rest is up to the weather!

We’ve designed this to be as flexible for us as it should be for you, so please let us know if you have any questions because we promise we will try as hard as we possible can to accommodate your CSA needs!  Our program will start the last week in June and will end Halloween weekend.

If you are interested, please send us an email or submit an application for the CSA.

– Application Deadline: March 15, 2011 –

CSA options:

1. Full Share – This is the traditional CSA box that we offered last year, it is enough for a whole family! From July until October.
2. Half Share – This is a full traditional CSA box offered every other week.  This would be better suited for singles, couples, or those who just want to start experimenting with fresh food and aren’t sure they can keep up with a box every week. From July to October.
3. The Late Spring Share – This will be a once a week box filled with whatever we have in the June, the month preceding the summer CSA, which will mainly include asparagus, rhubarb, greens and sugar snap peas.

Pick-up:
CSA pick-up times will be from 4 to 7 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
All boxes will be pre-filled because that was what the majority of people said they preferred in our survey.

Recipes:

We tried to give everyone a recipe or something related to what was in the box last year, but people want more!  Send them to our email address (info (at) beckettfarms (dot) com) or drop them off when you pick-up your box and I will post them on the website.  We also have a facebook page where you can post recipes.  We would love for the program to be more interactive, so feel free to submit however many you like!

Swap Table:

The swap table is an idea that we got from another farmer at farmers market. The swap table is designed for the customers to place items that they do not want on a table for someone else. What is in your box is our gift to you, and unless there is extra of something the swap table is only for your usage, not ours! For example, someone said that their favorite product this summer was the Collard Greens and a number of people said that they didn’t like the Collards.  If you were the part of the crowd that didn’t like the Collard Greens you could leave them behind for the family that did.

Favorite products:	Wish there was more of:	Less of:
1. Berries – IIIII	1. Lettuce – IIIII I	1. Collard Greens – IIIII IIII
2. Blueberries – IIII	2. Blueberries – II	2. Basil – IIIII
3. Red Onions – III	3. Rhubarb – II	3. Beets – III
4. Apples – II	4. Swiss Chard – II	4. Eggplant – III
5. Broccoli – II	5. Tomatoes – II
6. Collard Greens – II	6. Summer Squash – II
7. Heirloom tomato – II
8. Lettuce – II
9. Peaches – II
10. Raspberries – II
11. Tomato variety – II

A list of our crops that will be included in the CSA boxes:
- Fruit: blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples and peaches
- Vegetables: tomatoes (heirloom, beefsteak, cherry, sungold), carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, swiss chard, okra, broccoli, collard greens, red onions, beets, sugar snap peas, green beans, wax beans, squash (summer and zucchini), and eggplant. Rhubarb and asparagus for the late spring share
- Herbs: basil, lemon basil