What is CSA?
Community supported agriculture (CSA) shares are an integral part of supporting a local farm. Members pay upfront for a season's worth of vegetables, thereby committing to participate in the farm’s growing season. By paying upfront for a season's worth of vegetables, CSA members help financially support the beginning of the farm season by providing funds for seasonal start–up expenses such as seeds, new tools, seed-starting soil, and labor.
The benefits of being a CSA member are copious. You have the opportunity to eat incredibly fresh and nutritious food, harvested with care by people passionate about their environment and communities. Investing in the farm not only gives you access to beautiful produce, but also a place to connect with the land, the food you eat, and the other people in your community.
What makes our CSA different?
Traditionally, CSA share items are chosen by farmers for a weekly pickup, and each share includes only one unit of every distinct vegetable. Rabbit Rabbit Farm’s CSA invites members to choose what vegetables and what quantities go in their weekly shares! This means you can avoid vegetables you aren’t a fan of and get more veggies that you love in your share. Conversely, if you aren’t in the mood to choose what goes in your share, we will happily give you a share that represents what is in season!
The composition of the share is flexible in more ways than one– if you need to skip a week, or two, or three– simply do not request a bag that week. This is made possible because of our ‘spend-down’ credit model, where members have credit they can spend at whatever pace they please throughout the season, rather than getting a standard size share every single week. If you are throwing a party and need a lot of veggies, easy! If you are feeling particularly carnivorous in a random week in August– great– you can just skip pickup and use your credit later.
How does our CSA work?
When members join our CSA, they pay for their share upfront in the spring. Whatever the cost of their share size, and corresponding bonus cash, gets loaded onto the member’s account on our online farm store hosted by GrownBy. We offer three different share sizes for you to choose from, depending on how many people you plan on sharing your vegetables with. When the CSA season begins (first pickup is Thursday, June 18th, and last is October 29th!), the members make their selection of whatever vegetables they would like in their share, and use their pre-paid farm credit to pay for it. The vegetables get selected by the members a day before the CSA pickup, so that we can have ample time to harvest. Throughout the course of the season, members can progressively use their credit until they either run out or want to re-up, which is an option.
Our CSA works a little differently for members on SNAP. Members participating in SNAP are not asked to prepay for their share – they place their customized share orders weekly through GrownBy. There is no commitment to the full-season CSA – orders can be placed however frequently is desired. We are very lucky to participate in Glynwood’s CSA is a SNAP program, where we have the ability to offer members on SNAP shares at prices reduced by half!
When you arrive at the farm on Thursdays to pick up your share– you have full and unlimited access to our you-pick garden, where we will have hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, a slew of flowers, bush beans, and sugar snap peas for your picking, with tools to help. Our CSA pick-ups will be the host of fun events– maybe we will make pizzas, host a natural dyeing workshop using our plants, or have a tomato sauce making party, depending on who wants to participate!
How to sign up for our CSA
Please fill out the sign-up form no matter what payment method you chose to purchase your share with!
Some information you will need to have available is your personal contact info, your share size selection, and your payment method
Step 1.
Fill out the CSA Sign-up form.
Step 2.
Your next step is based on your selected payment method.
Cash/Check
We will be in touch with you about setting up a place and time to receive the cash payment, or about what address to forward the check to. Once we receive your payment, we will send you an invitation to create a GrownBy account, where your farm credit and bonus farm credit amount will be reflected. This is the platform we will use throughout the season to receive your custom share selections as you spend down your farm credit.
Credit/Debit/ACH transfer
These payment types are all processed through GrownBy. Our GrownBy page is linked here, as well as on the banner of this website. Please create an account and search for our farm on the platform. Favorite our store so that it is easily accessible to you when it comes time to make your first CSA vegetable selection! Next, select your share size as you have it selected on the sign-up form. If you have interest in donating to our food access fund, you are also able to do so now through GrownBy or at any time throughout the season. Then, simply check out and process your payment! We will convert this payment to a farm credit balance on your account and add your bonus credit to this amount once you have completed your payment. This is the platform we will use throughout the season to receive your custom share selections as you spend down your farm credit.
Paying via EBT
After you have completed the sign-up form, there is no upfront payment required from you, nor is there a commitment to a specific size of CSA share plan. We will invite you to create a GrownBy account via email. Then, once our CSA distributions begin, you can make weekly vegetable orders of any quantity via GrownBy, using EBT to pay. Because we are a part of the Glynwood CSA is a SNAP program, we are able to offer you half-off the cost of whatever vegetables you select to receive for any given CSA pick-up day.
Alternate Payment plans
If paying upfront does not work with your financial situation, select that option on the form and we will be in touch with you to devise a payment plan that would allow you to participate in our CSA program!
Step 3. (for all forms of payment)
We will be in touch with you soon with more specific information for you as a new member! We will fill you in on how to use GrownBy to place your weekly CSA order, how to get to the farm, and other similar housekeeping items. Check out our FAQs too! If you have any questions between now and then, we are happy to connect with you via farmers@rabbitrabbitfarm.com
In the meantime, spread the word and tell your friends to join our CSA?We can’t wait to see you on the farm.
Step-by-step sign up instructions
If you are able, we strongly prefer to receive cash and check payment to avoid funneling your money towards processing fees. We also recognize that paying via cash or check is not accessible to everyone— if paying in this way is cost-prohibitive please pay via your preferred method using GrownBy. If paying for the CSA in installments would make it financially viable for you to join, please select that option on the sign up form, and we will be in touch with one another about your payment plan!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out should you need technical assistance.
farmers@rabbitrabbitfarm.com
Our CSA program is…..
bountiful!
flexible!
customizable!
extremely Fresh
a place to make friends!
a chance to meet our farm cat!
a way to stimulate the (hyper) local economy!
an opportunity to support responsible land stewardship!
did we say flexible
nutritious!
a time to connect with the land!
a way to meet your young farmers (us)…….
a great time to gather zinnias for your kitchen counter from the pick-your-own on a summer evening, when the heat has finally given way to a charitable breeze and crickets are singing at bit and everything feels fine
and more and more and whatever you make it!
FAQs
How does customizing work?
We use a farmer owned and operated platform called GrownBy to manage CSA ordering. Customers will set up their own accounts on this platform, and we will make items available in the online store so members can customize their shares each week. We will make available to you all of our vegetable inventory that is harvestable in the field at any given point– if you want your entire share to be 5 units of eggplants and 5 bulbs of fennel, for example, it is well within your right to do that!
Do I have to customize my share every week?
No! You don’t ever have to customize your share if you don’t feel like it. There will always be an option for you to select a ‘farmer’s choice’ share and we will take it from there, using your selected share size to guide us in how many items go into your particular share.
Is there a preferred payment method?
We want to communicate that cash or checks are strongly preferred, while also recognizing that making a large purchase like this using those payment forms is not possible for everyone. If you can manage it, we would appreciate it, as it helps us avoid costly fees. However, if paying in cash or check makes our CSA cost prohibitive to you, please feel no hesitation in using your preferred payment method.
What if I use all my credit early? Can I add more? What if I don’t use all of my credit?
We love that you are liking the vegetables…! You can totally add more credit, either through GrownBy payments or by giving us cash or check.
What if I don’t spend all of my credit by the end of the season, can I get a refund?
As outlined in our Member Agreement, the income from CSA is integral to our season’s cash flow. We will not offer refunds or rollovers for shares. We will be diligent in sending you reminders throughout the season for you to spend your credit.
Do I have to pay for my share upfront?
If paying upfront does not work with your financial situation, send us an email. You can secure your spot with a deposit and we can devise a payment plan for the rest of the CSA cost!