Crown Point is a proud participant in a national trend towards eating locally. We have a 250+ family Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that links consumers directly to our farm and the produce we grow.
Families pay a flat fee in the beginning of the year, when the farmers need the money for purchasing seeds and supplies and hiring help. In exchange for this support, the “sharers” receive a weekly portion of freshly harvested, certified-organic produce throughout the harvest season.
For information about the different kinds of shares that we offer, please click here to read our 2014 CSA brochure.
We have sold all CSA shares for the 2014 season! If you would like to enter your name onto our wait list for the 2015 season, go ahead and click here!
Being a shareholder in a CSA isn’t the right choice for everyone. Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if joining a CSA makes sense for you and your family.
- Do you (and your family) like to eat vegetables? If you like to eat a lot of vegetables, getting a CSA might be a good idea. And this means, a lot of veggies. Many families with children (or adult picky eaters) find that they may need to be creative in order to get the whole family on board with the CSA share.
- Do you like variety? We grow over 50 different kinds of vegetables, which includes everyone’s favorites, but also includes some lesser known crops as well. The successful CSA sharer can get excited about learning how to prepare new foods, as well as the old standbys.
- Do you like (and have time) to cook? Many of the vegetables in the share can be eaten raw, such as in salads, but a lot are best cooked. It can be a big responsibility to make sure you are making good use of the share, which also means sometimes freezing, dehydrating, and perhaps even canning some of the food. It is for this reason that we recommend a biweekly share, or splitting a share with another household, for anyone who is brand new to CSAs.
- Do you like finding or making up new recipes? We provide recipes and tips in the weekly e-newsletter, and archive recipes on our website, but we also trust that sharers are open to searching out their own recipes as well.
- Do you have neighbors or friends who like vegetables? There might be times when you go out of town, or, when your share is so big, you might not be able to get through it all. It can sometimes be helpful to have a coworker, neighbor or friend come by and take a few pounds off your hands.
- Are you excited to eat seasonally? We grow according to the seasons, which means expect more greens in the spring when it’s cool and days are short, and expect the colorful tomatoes and peppers later on in the summer. Sometime, eating seasonally means eating patiently!
- Do you want to be connected to the source of your food? If it matters to you that you know the name of the carrot variety you ate in your salad, or that you picked those cherry tomatoes yourself, or that your children got to watch a praying mantis while picking husk cherries, then joining our CSA might be the right thing for you.
BENEFITS OF A CSA SHARE TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS:
- Crown Point’s harvest historically delivers 15 to 20% more value than what our sharers paid.
- A very strong connection with the food and those who grow it.
- Organic produce at a lower price than natural foods stores.
- Produce that is shipped exactly zero miles (when picked up at the farm), infinitely less than the typical farm-to-shelf shipping distance of 1300 miles.
- The freshest, most nutritious produce possible – most is picked the morning of pickup day.
- A more diverse diet. In order to reduce pest and disease problems in the field, we plant a wide variety of vegetables. Though some of the vegetables may be unfamiliar, they provide fun variety that enhance the sharers’ diets. Crown Point offers recipe tips, especially with those vegetables that are unfamiliar to most.
- Produce that is grown without the use of synthetic chemicals that leave harmful residues.
- Satisfaction in knowing your support helps the survival of an endangered American institution — the small, diversified farm.
- In the case of those who help with the farm work, a nice tan (or soggy feet) and maybe a few morsels of gardening knowledge.
CSA Shareholders assume the risks of each growing season such as drought, too much rain, unanticipated insect pressure, etc. However, we carefully plan a diverse portfolio of crop varieties to ensure a plentiful harvest, even when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate.
BENEFITS OF THE CSA PROGRAM TO CROWN POINT:
- Financial support at the time it is needed most, when the bills for seeds and supplies start coming in, and before the cost of labor start mounting.
- Through close contact with the shareholders we gain a better understanding of your preferences.
- In the case of a farm with working sharers, a more lively atmosphere, and help with the farm work — a true blessing.
- A shareholder who will often accept some cosmetic flaws if that is what is required for organic production.
- Shared risk, by virtue of the sharers support in the beginning of the season.
- Monetary compensation that more fairly reflects the effort put into the production of the food, and that allows for an oft overlooked aspect of farm sustainability – financial sustainability.
