CSA at Natural Harvest Farm
What is Community Supported Agriculture?
At its heart, a CSA farming operation is a combined effort between a farm and a community of supporters ("harvest shareholders", "members") that creates a direct relationship between the production and consumption of food: Each season the harvest shareholders provide the money (and sometimes other resources) needed for the farm to operate by purchasing a "harvest share" of the season's harvest. Operating costs include seeds, labor, growing supplies and soil-building amendments. By making this commitment a harvest shareholder assumes with the farmer the risks and the rewards of growing the food they will eat. In turn, the farm distributes to the harvest shareholders the entire production of the farm: a wide variety of seasonally harvested fresh produce, usually on a weekly basis, throughout the growing season(s).
The CSA model is an economically viable way for small scale farmers to produce a small amount of a wide variety of high quality vegetables in an earth-friendly way. CSAs foster responsible relationships between the grower, the consumer, the food, and the land on which the food is grown.
How does Community Supported Agriculture work at Natural Harvest Farm?
There has been a CSA operation at Natural Narvest Farm since 1990.We grow vegetables, fruits, herbs & flowers on 20 acres of naturally managed land near Canby, Oregon.
There have been no manufactured fetilizers, pesticides or other artificial materials used since sometime before 1985. Most work is done by hand, and we grow year around. We purposely maintain a broad diversity of plants, not only for variety in each harvest share, but also to provide year around habitat for wild creatures, including pest predators. We work with composts and mulches to build and maintain healthy soils, which in turn support healthy and healthful plants. We do not raise animals for slaughter, but we do have a mix of chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, alpacas and llamas to help complete nutrient cycles. We also keep a number of bee hives.
Harvest Shareholders at Natural Harvest Farm have two choices for their shares:
Pick up at the farm from July through November (21 pickups)
Pick up at the People's Co-Op Grocery Farmer's Market from March through June (bi-weekly - 9 pickups) and July Through November (weekly - 21 pickups).
Click here for a printable version of the 2007 farm pick up brochure and commitment form.
Click here for a printable version of the 2007 market pick up brochure and commitment form.
Click here to visit the Portland Area CSA Coalition web site, which includes a listing of CSAs in the Portland Metro area and throughout Oregon.
