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CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a way for customers to support their
local farmers by, essentially, investing in the farm. In the CSA model the customer pays a lump
sum for a set time period, or season, and for that lump sum they will receive a weekly box of
whatever is currently being harvested on the farm. The lump sum is paid before the season
starts & the farmer is then able to use that money for seed or equipment etc. & in that way the
customer is helping the farmer to be able to provide their boxes.
What makes this different from a farmers market or roadside stand is the customer is gambling
along with the farmer on what they HOPE will grow. The farm will generally have a list of what is
being planted & what you can “expect” to get each week but -just like with farming- there are no
guarantees. The farm may plant green beans but if the grasshoppers eat the green beans there
won’t be any green beans in the boxes. The farm still has an obligation to fill the boxes each
week, but the consumer needs to be prepared to have a certain amount of flexibility. Some
weeks the boxes will be overflowing with a variety of produce & other weeks they may be a little
boring or sparse. But over the course of the season the consumer will end up with a variety of
fresh from the garden produce, eggs, canned goods. In some cases it’s also possible to include
home raised meats in the boxes.
If you have the ability to grow a large garden or raise chickens or other fowl & want to share
your bounty with others starting a CSA may be the thing for you.
It does not require vast acreage, we have been running a CSA on our small farm for the last 3
years. We grow a large (7000sf) market garden, we have 40-50 laying hens, we keep bees for
pollination & to sell honey & offer frozen whole chickens & turkeys as an optional add on. It does
require you to be available every week, many MANY hours of weeding, planting, picking &
preparing, some advertising savvy & a willingness to work with the public. A great place to start
is to seek out other farmers, either in person or online, and ask them for tips on how they got
started. You’ll definitely need to put together a contract lining out exactly what you customers
can expect from you, what will be expected of them, figure out ahead of time how you will
handle any issues or disagreements, try to troubleshoot any possible “anythings” that may come
up & have a plan to handle them.
On the gardening or animal side, know what you can grow & grow well, concentrate on veggies
or fruits that you have consistently had good results with. If you plan to offer eggs or meat make
sure you can consistently provide the amounts you will need, week in & week out. It’s a good
idea to research your local bylaws on what you can & cannot offer in your boxes & any
regulations there may be specifically to CSAs in your area. For example, in our state we can
offer home butchered chicken & other fowl but beef or pork or lamb must be USDA processed to
sell by the cut. Also we can include home canned or home baked items but we cannot include
any raw dairy products. Each state & sometimes even each county may have different
regulations, it’s important you know what those are before you start. Most of this information can
be found online but any answers you can’t find can probably be provided by your local
Extension Service.
Before getting started you also need to figure out how you are going to operate- are you going
to grow organically or conventionally or somewhere in the middle? Your customers will want to know. Do you feed your animals grain? What type of grain? Where do you buy it? Often people
who are interested in CSA boxes are looking for organic, no spray veggies & animals raised
with no soy, sometimes no grain at all & they want to know HOW the animals are raised-
confinement, pasture etc. It’s a good idea to know all of those answers before you start & even
to put together a little information packet covering what you grow, how you grow it, why you
choose to do it that way, your background, how many years of experience you have -people
love a story & they love to know YOUR story before they buy from you.
What are you going to put in your boxes? Will they be just fruits & veggies? Eggs? Meat? How
about extras? Honey, spices, home canned goods, baked goods, homemade textiles, recipes,
ideas of what to do with what is in the boxes, flowers, seasonal items, etc. People love variety &
they like to be surprised by unusual fun items they may not have expected.
Are you going to have people come to your farm to pickup or will you provide a drop off point?
Both choices have good & bad points so it comes down to what works best for you & your
customers.
A CSA is not complicated, but it is hard work, it requires a lot of hours both in prep &
distribution, & it’s a very people-centered undertaking. It’s also very rewarding, knowing that you
are helping people to eat healthily & to have more food options than they may have room or
ability to grow is a great feeling. So if you are thinking about starting a CSA I encourage you to
go for it!
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