Join the CSA
CSA - Community Supported Agriculture
Community Supported Agriculture is just that: the community is supporting the farmer by buying a percentage or share of what the farmer is growing. When crops grow well, the shares contain abundant amounts of a wide variety of produce, which is what we all hope for.
A CSA is paid for up front because there is a large amount of expense incurred by the farmer early on in the growing cycle; notably, the purchase of seeds, equipment and soil amendments. Labor expenses through the season are estimated and included in the price of a share. Under ideal conditions, the community receives a bountiful return on their investment with a wide variety of produce throughout the growing season.
On the flip side, there's no guarantee about the success of a crop or even all the crops together. Weather events (flood, drought), insect pressure and plant disease are all considerations when growing food. Farmers take these into account when choosing types and varieties of vegetables to grow, but there are never any guarantees. If a crop fails, the farmer has still purchased seed, equipment and amendments and paid for labor.
Buying a CSA share is a way to share the wealth of a good harvest and spread out the cost of losses when things don't go to plan.
What We Offer
When you buy a share of a CSA, you are relying on the experience and knowledge of the farmer and crew to choose plants and varieties that grows well in our micro-climate, and can tolerate a decent range of variation in weather and insect pressure and plant diseases. You are also relying on the farmer to have made reasonable efforts at preventing crop losses through strategies like providing a garden space that offers good fertile soil and drainage, installing irrigation, providing trapping crops, and knowing about the judicial use of organic disease and insect control treatments. At Minka Farm, we've got these covered.
We have a full range of produce planned for 2022: brassicas (including broccoli, kale, chard), lettuces, root crops (including carrots, radishes, onions, beets), corn, nightshades (including tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes), cucumbers, squash (including butternut, cantelope, acorn), herbs (including basil, parsley, chives)
We're already gardening in January. Even though not much can grow outside until March, we've already planned our crops, purchased seed and started the earliest transplants in our greenroom.