CSA BASICS
5 Great Reasons to Join the Red Fire Farm CSA:
- Enjoy fresh locally grown vegetables. Our careful variety selection and organic growing practices bring out the very best in flavor!
- Help us compete with environmentally detrimental industrial food producers from distant regions.
- By supporting Red Fire Farm, you also benefit
the local economy.
Red Fire Farm both provides jobs and also recycles money by purchasing supplies from other local businesses. - We don’t use chemicals, synthetic pesticides or herbicides on our vegetable fields.
- You become involved in a community of farmers and eaters committed to healthy food and a cleaner environment!
How Red Fire Farm Works:
Delicious heirloom tomatoes, crisp salad greens, tender tasty carrots, hearty golden potatoes… these are just a few of the many exciting vegetables that members will find in shares from the Red Fire Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project next season. We specialize in Diversity. Each season we grow over 300 different varieties of vegetables, berries, plants and flowers.
For the CSA, we grow abundant quantities of such favorites as heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, and carrots as well as a selection of less usual vegetables like edamame and Brussels sprouts to keep things interesting.
At Red Fire
Farm we offer several share options to match the needs of your household.
Each share includes a selection of freshly harvested produce to be
picked up once a week.
Additional produce of certain crops (peas, beans,
basil, cherry tomatoes, herbs, strawberries and cut flowers) are also
available to all CSA members for Pick-Your-Own at no additional cost.
At most pick up locations, produce is displayed so that you can select
the items that you want within the weekly guidelines. Pre-packed boxes are offered during November and December at some of the distributions when the weather is cold.
Additional Member Benefits:
- Biweekly newsletter full of recipes, farm news and sustainable agriculture information.
- Opportunities to purchase bulk produce at discount prices for canning and freezing.
- The opportunity to work with the farmers (plant, weed, harvest, mulch) or assist with outreach to new members.
- Invitations to farm events such as the annual Tomato Festival, member potlucks, cooking demos, and more!
- Daily recreational access to the farm for walking, picnicking, playground equipment, bird watching, and more!
CSA SHARE OPTIONS
Vegetable Share Options
The standard Full Season Red Fire Farm CSA share option is 24 weeks long and is available at most locations. This season begins the week of June 8th and ends the week of Dec. 14th (24 distributions). The distributions are weekly except during Nov. and Dec. when they are every other week (Fridays Nov. 6 and 20, Dec. 4 and 18). Sliding Scale $580-$720 . Please pay at least $640 unless you are low income. Payments over $640 will be used to subsidize shares for low income members.
For those who want only an Abbreviated Main Season
share,
we offer a 20 week option which ends the week of October 19th. Sliding Scale $465-$590. Please pay at least $520 unless you are low income. Payments over $520 will be used to subsidize shares for low income members.
NOTE: for Springfield, only Main Season shares are available, though you can switch to picking up in Granby for the winter distributions.
To see when things are in season, check our season chart.
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Locavore Deep Winter CSA - New for January, February and March 2010!
Eating locally can be a challenge in the wintry months. This year we’ll be storing away delicious root crops, cabbages, garlic and more, and sowing our greenhouses full with winter hardy greens to make it a little easier! Every two weeks in January, February and March we’ll bring things out to share with you! We’re partnering with the makers of some local products to incorporate them into the share as well, from Real Pickles sauerkraut to apples from local orchards.
All vegetables will be organic. Items from other producers will be local organic when possible, local IPM (Integrated Pest Management, apples for example) or very locally sourced otherwise. All items will be vegetarian friendly :).
Deep Winter Shares (6 distributions January - March). $240. Distributions will be available on the Fridays of January 15th, 29th, February 12th, 26th, March 12th and 26th.
Egg Shares for the Deep Winter: $35 (6 distributions, 1 dozen each distribution).
Two pickup locations for this season: Granby at the farm, and Metro Pedal Power in Somerville.
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Egg Shares - New in 2009!
Our flock of heritage breed chickens is integrating into the fertility cycle of the farm and laying delicious, nutrient-rich eggs for us to share with you. Shares come with a half-dozen eggs each week (or get two shares to receive a dozen each week). Rotated on fresh pasture and Certified Organic. Raised by our Harvest Manager Patrick Bensen.
Check out this little video we made about the newly-arrived chicks!
Shares start in June when the vegetable shares start and go through the CSA season, either October or December.
20 week Share: $65 for a half-dozen each week
24 week Share: $78 for a half-dozen each week
You must also have a regular produce share in order to purchase an egg share.
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Flower Shares
Take home gorgeous bouquets each week to brighten your table.
Enjoy a season of fresh local flowers! Organically-grown. Flower shares include a weekly bouquet of flowers picked fresh on our farm and delivered along with your produce share. Your ten weeks of flowers will begin in mid-July and go through mid-September.
We’re growing a gorgeous field of snapdragons, sweet peas, many types of sunflowers, larkspur, zinnias, gladiolas, cosmos, lisianthus, ornamental grasses, celosia and many others. In the late season dried flower bouquets may be included. Available at all Red Fire Farm distribution locations except Montague. Flower shares cost $100 for the season. You must also have a regular produce share in order to purchase a flower share, unless you can pick up your share in Granby or Springfield.
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Home-Delivered Shares in Western Mass and Boston
Have Red Fire Farm Shares delivered to your home or office door by Metro Pedal Power and Valley Green Feast!
Boston Area Delivery by Tricycle Truck
We offer delivery to Somerville, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain and parts of Boston in emissions-free, bicycle-powered trucks. The cost is just $9.25 per week - it's convenient, environmentally friendly, and supports a growing local business. Our partners, Metro Pedal Power did a great job carrying our shares in 2008. Your share of top quality produce will arrive at the door of your home or office the same day each week based on your location. Each week, you leave
your last week's empty box out so the biker can exchange it for a
full one. And that's pretty much it!
Really Busy One Day? Don't Need a Full Season of Delivery?
Get Your Share Delivered with On-Call Delivery - New for 2009!
Setup ahead of time with Metro Pedal Power for On-Call Delivery of your share a couple times a season, whenever you need it. Contact info@metropedalpower.com or call 617-776-3700 for sign up and details.
Western Mass Delivery by Biodiesel Truck - New for 2009!
We offer delivery to everybody in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties. You can get our top quality produce and connect to our farm for visits and Pick Your Own, as well as having the convenience of delivery.
Jessica Harwood, our delivery partner from Valley Green Feast, drives a biodiesel-powered truck and is already traveling through your area. With your share delivery, you can also order other items from Valley Green Feast, like bread, cheese, eggs, meat, fish and more.
Delivery available Tuesday or Friday, based on your location. $8.50 per week, available for Full Season and Main Season. Then you can come visit the farm anytime you like!
To get your share delivered for the season, just check that section on our CSA signup form when you sign up for the CSA. Please call the farm (413) 467-7645 or email us if you would like more information about our new home/office delivery options.
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Fruit Shares
The Fruit Share is a deluxe option including locally grown fruit for a 20 week season. We have a limited number of fruit shares available, so sign up early to reserve one. You must also have a regular produce share in order to purchase a fruit share.
This share provides one fruit unit (or occasionally other value-added produce such as peas, beans and cherry tomatoes) per week. Example units are: one quart of strawberries, 1.5-quart box of peaches, or a 1/2-peck of apples. The season lasts for twenty weeks and begins in June with Strawberries. As the season goes on, it includes Blueberries, Plums, Peaches, Raspberries, Pears and a wide variety of Apples in the fall.
Some of the berries and vegetables included in this share are grown by Red Fire Farm and are certified organic. Most of the fruit, however, will be grown and harvested from other Pioneer Valley fruit farms. These farms use low spray Integrated Pest Management on their crops, but the fruit is not organic.
Farms supplying fruit include River Valley Farm (blueberries), Cold Spring Orchard (peaches, pears, apples), and Rice Fruit Farm (plums, peaches).
The Fruit Share Option costs $190 per share for the season.
Note:
Fruit-Plus Shares will be available
only at the Cambridge, Somerville, MIT, Jamaica Plain, and Brighton locations.