The DEVON ACRES CSA
MARCH, 2024
This year, 2024, is our 31th year doing the CSA program. The CSA program allows anyone who purchases a CSA share to come to the farm once each week during the 22 weeks or more of the growing season and choose from the selection of vegetables that are being harvested that week. Read on for more details and if you are interested or have any questions please contact us by e-mail: devonacres@hotmail.com
COMMUNITY SHARED AGRICULTURE (CSA) is a way for us, the farmers, to have a reliable stable market for our crops and for the CSA member to have a weekly supply of a variety of fresh organic vegetables and occasionally fruits. The CSA member shares with the farmer some of the risks involved in farming. CSA members can see the vegetable garden each week when they come to get their vegetables and also have the chance to talk with us the farmers! By purchasing a CSA vegetable share during the winter, before the season has begun, you, the CSA member, will be helping with our spring time costs; seed purchases, equipment purchases and repair, getting the ground ready, and getting seed and plants in the ground. There is no ‘money back’ guarantee, but we do plant a large number of different vegetables and herbs (see the list at the bottom of the page) and though there will most likely be a few failures, the majority of what goes in the ground will usually produce a good harvest during some part of the season.
THE CSA WORKS by having the CSA share members make payment, in whole or in part, as soon as can be done after the first of February, well before the start of the vegetable growing season. The CSA vegetable season runs from around the end of May or the beginning of June, until the week after thanksgiving in October. A total of about 22 weeks. CSA share members come out to the farm once each week to pick up their share of the week’s freshly harvested vegetables. The pick up time period is from 4 in the afternoon until 7 or later in the evening. The pickup day is the same day each week for each sharer, either Tuesday or Thursday. The veggies are gathered fresh each pick up day, with a few exceptions such as squash and potatoes, and placed out on tables where CSA share members can choose which they’d like to have. We have a list posted at the pick up tables with the suggested amounts to be taken for each type of herb, vegetable or fruit. One or more of us, the farmers, are always there to help out or to answer questions.
CSA SHARE COSTS for the 2024 season.
Large Share $850 Small Share $475 Large Working Share $425 Small Working Share $235
The Large Share and the Small Share do not require you to do any work on the farm but a Working Share requires you to come to the farm for a few hours of work each week until you have accumulated about 40 hours working for a small working share or 80 hours of work for a large working share. We are quite flexible as to when a working share works and how long each work session is. We need a lot of help with work such as seed bed preparation, seeding, transplanting, weeding, watering, mulching, harvesting and more. Although we have plenty of work to do all through the season it is in the spring, from the end of April through to the end of May, that much of the work is being done and when we are most under pressure to get things done. The seeds and transplants really have to be gotten into the ground at the proper times. There is work needed all through the growing season though, from the very beginning to the very end and beyond.
SOME OF THE VEGETABLES THAT WE’LL PLANT
We’ll grow all these various vegetables and more. Some vegetables will produce huge harvests. Others may be hugely disappointing or even produce nothing at all. The harvest will vary because of weather or insect or disease problems. Each year is different.
We also grow herbs such as Parsley, Sage, Oregano, Mint, Savory, Thyme and more.
Arugula usually late in the season
Beets several varieties including yellow
Broccolli and Rapini
Brussels Sprouts very late in the season
Beans Green, Yellow and Purple
Cabbage Green, Savoyed and Purple
Chard usually a rainbow Swiss Chard … different coloured stems
Chinese or Napa Cabbage for cabbage rolls, kimchee and more
Chinese Cabbage the Bok Choi (Pak Choy) version
Cauliflower White, Orange, Purple and Romanesco
Carrots several varieties including Yellow and Red
Celery sometimes Celeriac too
Corn several varieties of sweet Corn and possibly Popcorn and Ornamental
Cucumbers Green and White
Eggplants Purple, White and Green
Lettuce several varieties as individual heads or mixes for cutleaf
Garlic and Garlic scapes the scapes are early and the garlic heads at the end of July
Greens such as Tatsoi, Mustard, Cress, Mizuna, and salad blends
Leeks usually small to medium sized late in the season
Kale the common curled green leaf, as well as purple and Lacinato
Melons Watermelon and Muskmelon
Onions for greens (bunching) and Yellow, White and Red slicing Onions.
Parsnips available at the very end of the season
Peas Shell Peas, Snow Peas and Snap Peas
Peppers Sweet and Hot in several varieties Potatoes several varieties whites, reds, yellow, blue, russet Pumpkin Jacko-Lantern, pie and decorative and varieties suitable for carving
Radish Salad and Winter
Turnips only ready at the end of the season
Spinach sometimes only towards the end of the season.
Summer Squash yellows, greens, Zucchini and Scalloped all available from early on. Sunflower because they look nice are liked by lots of different insects and birds Winter Squash Butternut, Buttercup, Pepper, Hubbard and Spaghetti. Fall crop.
Tomatillo for Salsa Verde of course but also salads
Ground Cherry (Cape Gooseberry) sweet, yellow and little
Tomatoes Slicers, Cherry, Paste, Reds, Yellows, Orange, Blacks and Heirlooms
Devon Acres Organic Farm 