About CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

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Current and back issues of our CSA shareholder weekly newsletter with share information and recipes.

2007 Shareholder Newsletters

What is a CSA?

A CSA is a community of people coming together to support a local farmer in producing food for their table. CSA brings together community members and farmers in a relationship of mutual support based on an annual commitment to one another. It is a commitment that helps ensure the survival of small farms, a local food supply, and of agricultural land. CSA assures the farmer a prepaid local market for the crop while providing community members access to the best and freshest local produce available. Members pay an annual fee and receive a weekly share of the farm's produce.

Community Supported Agriculture is an international movement that is providing people with an alternative to the global food system. Over 1000 CSA's have formed in the United States since 1985. The movement arose as a local and human-scale response to the worldwide damage to farmers, farm communities, and the environment, which has occurred with large scale conventional agriculture. Small farmers everywhere are faced with leaving the land because of low food prices. The CSA movement seeks to restore direct contact between farmers and consumers, putting a human face on agriculture and the food supply.

About Dripping Springs Garden CSA

Dripping Springs Garden has been marketing organic vegetables, cut flowers, and berries at the Fayetteville Farmers Market since 1984. We feel that the farmers market itself is a form of community supported agriculture which we completely support and hope to be a part of for years to come. Here on the farm, we have been involved in transitioning some of our land out of 30 yr. old blueberries and putting in more extensive vegetable plantings in addition to our cut flower production. With this added land in production, we are excited to be able to produce for a CSA group with whom we can share the harvest.

How a CSA Works

Subscribers pay an annual fee before the season begins to reserve their share. This helps us plan our production and provides needed cash to get the crop planted.

Members will receive a weekly box of produce for the duration of the season. For 2008, our season will run from June 12 through October 30, a total of 21 weeks. We will deliver the boxes each Thursday morning a bit after 6 a.m. (on our way to the Farmers Market) to 344 Combs Ave., the home of Joy Fox. The boxes will be available for pickup from the porch of Joy's house, and we encourage everyone to pick up the boxes during the morning hours for peak freshness, or have a friend pick up for you. The produce will be harvested each Wednesday morning, washed and packed, and stored in refrigeration until loading early Thursday morning.

We grow over 30 different kinds of vegetables and berries. The boxes will contain as much variety as we can manage and will change with the season. Due to the unpredictability of farming, we cannot guarantee every item will be available. We do not customize boxes for individual members. A cut flower share will also be available.

We will provide a regular newsletter, containing recipes and keeping members up-to-date of what is going on at the farm.

During the summer we will host a members-only open house and farm tour.

The membership fee for the 2008 21-week season is $420. Each week, the share box will contain an average of $20 worth of produce. A cut flower share is $105, and will consist of a weekly delivery with the vegetable share of a $5 bunch of flowers for the 21 weeks.

Subscribers may initially make the full payment, or pay a $100 deposit with their registration, with the balance due by June 1.

We encourage you to register right away if interested, as we will only take have 25 shares for this 2008 season, and expect to fill up quickly.