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CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
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Community Supported Agriculture is just that - farming that is supported by a community of members who have a share in the risk and the bounty of the harvest. Members join by paying a fee up front, before the season begins, which provides the farm with capital when it needs it the most. The share cost is determined by the size of the share and the distribution period. Brook Farm offers regular, large, and student shares. We can guide you to find a share situation to suit your needs.
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What are the benefits of CSA?
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CSA farms reconnect people to the soil and each other by preserving local farms and the rural character of an area. They provide fresh, nutritious, sustainably grown food to consumers on a weekly basis. CSA creates a partnership between the farmer and the consumer, relieving the farmer of many of the inherent financial risks of growing food and distributing it.
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There are many hidden benefits of CSA, too!
You'll be introduced to foods that you may not normally try at the grocery store. Distributions bring individuals and families together in a more intimate way, encouraging brief discussions on what to do with vegetables that you may never have seen before.
Picking up new and exciting produce on a weekly basis eliminates the question of what to buy and what to cook for the week - the garden decides for you. You will begin to eat seasonally and the garden will teach you about how nature works with you to feel your best throughout the year.
You will want get involved. Being around the garden will make you want to get your hands dirty. There are many opportunities to plant, weed, harvest and wash the food. It's difficult to pass a ripe raspberry or tomato and not want to pick it.
Meet like-minded people. With about 100 families participating in our harvest, you are bound to meet others, like yourself, who understand the importance of proper land stewardship and look forward to helping restore the planet.
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We are conditioned to believe that organically or sustainably grown produce should be more expensive. In reality, you are subsidizing the conventional food growers beyond the price at the grocery store. By choosing CSA, your food dollars go directly to the growing of the food alone. No "middle man", no shipping costs and no costs for expensive fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.
The costs to the planet are zero! By choosing sustainable farm practices, you restore the topsoil to a nutrient dense ecosystem for all types of plant and animal life that naturally inhabit the region.
The per pound cost of your food will vary week to week, year to year depending on the harvest. Spring time generally produces lighter foods such as greens and peas, but by the fall you will receive weightier foods such as squashes, potatoes and onions. The cost averages $20.00 a week for an estimated 10-20 pounds of produce for a regular share and $35.00 a week for an estimated 15-30 pounds of produce for a large share.
Many members report saving a lot of money and have enough food to freeze or can for the winter months effectively lowering the cost of your weekly food budget even further!
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Conventionally Grown vs. Sustainably Grown Food Systems
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Industrial farming operations (currently referred to as conventional growers) produce food for large-scale processing. They maximize the harvest by using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, large automated equipment, inhumane treatment of animals, inadequate containment of animal wastes, and wasteful irrigation methods - many even use genetically engineered seeds. These techniques are known to cause negative side effects such as topsoil degradation and loss, water contamination and depletion, high fuel and electricity consumption, pollution of air and streams, and adverse health conditions. Standard accounting practices have the public subsidizing the processed food industry and large private agri-businesses in addition to the price paid for their products at market.
By contrast, community supported agriculture using natural and organic farming methods aims to be ecologically and economically sustainable over long and even indefinite periods of time. By reducing or eliminating adverse side effects we also reduce or eliminate the hidden or delayed costs associated with them, and the true unit cost of food production is paid by the consumer.
At Brook Farm our growing practices meet or exceed official organic standards yielding the freshest, purest fruits and vegetables available.
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Are you ready to join the hundreds of thousands of people choosing a better option for their health and health of the world around them?
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