What Is YCGrown’s CSA?
YCGrown’s CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) offers fresh, local and seasonal produce, eggs, grass-fed beef, chicken, tortillas and other prepared products straight from our members’ farms and ranches to our community. All of our Co-op producers grow or raise their products using sustainable, humane, healthy, water-conserving methods. You won’t get GMOs, growth hormones or synthetic pesticides in your food.
YCGrown’s CSA is an exciting alternative to grocery stores. By supporting the farms and ranches directly, you know where your food is coming from and who grew it, reduce packaging, lower your carbon footprint, help support local ag, and in exchange, receive nutritious, locally and sustainably grown foods.
The Co-op was created in part to minimize one of the risks CSAs face: the failure of some or all of the farm’s crops. By having multiple growers in different parts of the county, we can shift to a different Co-op member for that item if there is a hailstorm, insect plague or other growing problem–and we all know these things happen here in Yavapai County! Because all Co-op members commit to growing and production standards, you can be assured of getting the same quality from one farm to another.
CSA farm boxes are offered to shareholders in weekly regular or small sizes. We also offer a web store to add items occasionally, such as nuts, prepared goods and case quantities for restaurants, canning or special occasions.
How To Order Your CSA Share
We use an e-commerce solution designed specifically for CSAs. When you click to join the CSA, you will be linked to Farmigo, a secure site that processes the shares according to our specifications. We chose this route so that our subscribers would have the easiest and most flexible method of obtaining the shares they want with the payment method they prefer.
On Farmigo’s site, you will create a unique account, be able to track and make payments, and renew your subscription in a few quick steps. We accept cash, checks and credit/debit cards, and EBT/SNAP payments. After sign-up, new accounts will be placed on hold for two days, at most. This gives us time to process your account and get you and the Co-op set up with everything we’ll both need. You will receive your first farm box on the closest delivery date for your designated pick-up site after your account is established, and will receive an email telling you the date.
Our Mutual Commitments
Becoming a CSA shareholder means that you pledge to support local agriculture by pre-paying a fee in exchange for a guaranteed share of the harvest. You also commit for the entire season; we regret that we are unable to have shareholders “try” the CSA for a few weeks or stop early. A trial membership doesn’t provide a true or complete picture of the CSA–what’s ready in spring is very different than what’s ready in summer or fall. That’s the nature of seasonal and local agriculture! In addition, since the number of shares is limited, dropping out early takes a space away from someone else who would have committed to the whole season. The deadline for signing up this year is May 15, 2013. Late sign-ups will be accepted if there are spaces available.
Finally, farmers and ranchers commit to the Co-op what they will grow and how much of it will be ready week-by-week, based on shareholder commitments. The Co-op must pay the farmer, even if the shareholder drops out–for a non-profit farming enterprise, that’s a tough row to hoe.
The Co-op commits to you that we will provide a weekly farm box of the very best we have to offer, to the pick-up location you select, for the entire season. Each box will include between 6-12 items (an item might be a pound of tomatoes or a pint of strawberries), depending on share size and the time of year. See the FAQs for detailed information about the shares. You also may add items from the YCGrown web store as they become available, and these will be delivered in a separate box with your share for that week. We ask that you please bring your own bags to transfer the produce and other items from the farm box to your home–two or three bags and/or a cooler should do.
This year, share deliveries will begin June 3 and continue until October 23, a 22-week season. Your share will be at the specified pick-up location on the designated delivery date and time. If you can’t make it that week, or wish to pick up your share at another location, please call or email us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll donate the share in your name to a local food bank (receipt provided).
We hope that you will enjoy being a YCGrown CSA member, and welcome your comments and suggestions. If you have additional questions, please visit the FAQ page or the Contact Us page. Enjoy the harvest!