CSA Membership

OUR FREE-CHOICE CSA SHARES ARE FULL!

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER FOR A BOX SHARE (FARMER’S CHOICE BOX PICKED UP ON WEDNESDAYS OR THURSDAYS) BELOW.

Our winter and spring CSA (community supported agriculture) program is the heart of our farm. It runs late November to mid May and includes up to 24 weeks of veggies, flowers, herbs, and more - all picked up by CSA members on our farm in south Sebastopol. By becoming a CSA member, you enter into a deep relationship with this land and us as your farmers; every week we provide delicious, healthy food to you and you offer us a dependable market and caring community to eat our products. CSA members also have access to our ½ acre u-pick garden, filled with flowers, herbs, and a few cozy places to sit. 

What is a CSA?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a method of selling food that directly connects farmers to the folks eating their food. Think of it as a farm membership program, where when you commit to support the farm for a season and we commit to share its abundance with you. For Winter Sister Farm, the community portion of this idea is deeply important. We hope that the farm feels like part of your community when you pick up each week - a place to see friends and neighbors, to hang out in our garden, to chat about the produce with your farmers, and to connect to the landscape.

CSA also a beautiful way to share both the highs and lows of farming with you all. As members of the farm, we offer you with as much as the farm can provide, but with the understanding that the act of farming is entering into a relationship with nature and as such, is not fully predictable. In that sense, the risk you take embarking on the season with us is more acute than some traditional summer CSAs because the weather is more extreme: wind, rain, frosts, and flooding can cause crop loss at the most extreme, but also simply inhibit plant growth and lock us out of our fields and prevent planting. We plan all we can to offer safegaurds to bad weather, but a windstorm or flood event might just mean we have a little less variety than expected. While these risks are real, the reward to joining us on this journey is also high. The foods we provide are hard earned, delicious, and rare: the carrots are sweetened by the frost, the radishes are tender without heat to add spice, the asparagus is the juiciest you’ll ever have, you won’t find purple sprouting broccoli available at any other time of year. Winter and spring in our region can be delicious, if you give it the chance!

Seasonal Dates:

• The 2023-2024 CSA season will have 2 potential start dates:

  • our main 24-week season will run from November 25 - May 15

  • a delayed start 20-week option will run December 30 - May 15

    There will be no pickup December 23rd or 26th

    Pickup will be held Wednesday, Jan 3 instead of Tuesday Jan 2

Share Sizes:

Large Share (as much as you need + garden access) = $1340 for 24 weeks or $1260 for 20 weeks.

Averages to $55.83/week for the 24-week option and $63/week for the 20-week option. Also available in 3 installments. Large shares don’t have specific number limit for their vegetables, which allows you to take what you need without having to keep close count as you fill your bag. This is not meant to be entirely unlimited, but it means you can select somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-14 items without worrying if you go a little over. There will still be some limitations around double dipping on certain items when necessary. We will let you know if we feel that anyone is taking an unfair share of the harvest.

Small Share (7 items of your choosing/week + garden access) = $835 for 24 weeks or $790 for 20 weeks.

Averages to $34.79/week for the 24-week option and $39.50/week for the 20-week option. Also available in 3 installments.

Box Share (6-8 items/week + garden access) = $785 for 24 weeks or $745 for 20 weeks.

Also available in 3 installments. For the first time, we are offering a limited number of 20 pre-packed Box Shares for pick up on the farm on Wednesdays 10am-9pm or Thursdays 7am-9pm. These boxes will include a farmer’s choice selection of 6-8 items of produce, as well as access to the garden. The selection will be a balance of hardy roots, fresh greens, and dried goodies. We hope this offers flexibility to folks who can’t always make it during our normal pickup hours.

Pickups times (for our free-choice CSA):

• Tuesday afternoons 2pm-6pm (We will offer extended spring pickup on Tuesdays till 6:30pm once the evenings become lighter) *except for Week 5, when pickup will be held Wednesday Jan 3*

• Saturday mornings 10am-2pm

• Pickup is always located here on the farm (1670 Cooper Road, Sebastopol, CA).

• Free choice CSA members are welcome to choose the pickup day (Tuesday or Saturday) that works best for their schedule that week without notifying us first. We always encourage folks to come on Saturdays as it tends to be the quieter day!

• During these pickup times, CSA members also have access to our garden space to hang out, swing on our swing, and pick herbs or flowers (as available). There is no additional cost to anything picked in the garden.

• There will be no pickup Saturday December 23rd or Tuesday December 26th

Box CSA pickup times:

• For the first time, we are offering a limited number of 20 pre-packed Box Shares for pick up on the farm on Wednesdays 10am-9pm or Thursdays 7am-9pm. These boxes will include a farmer’s choice selection of 6-8 items of produce, as well as access to the garden. We hope this offers flexibility to folks who can’t always make it during our normal pickup hours.

What to Expect at a Free-choice Pickup:

We strive to offer around 10-16 crops per week to choose from for our free-choice CSA members. Depending on your chosen share size, you will choose up to the weekly allotted number of these items to take home. What exactly you take is always up to you, but there will be limits and guidance so that there is enough for everyone, especially scarcer crops. The following chart shows all the different kinds of crops we might have, and what a large or small share might take home in a sample week (depending on the member’s choice).

The Garden

Our 1/2 acre u-pick garden is planted with both annual and perennial herbs and flowers for members to enjoy. Access to the space, including anything picked from it, is fully included in the CSA membership. Picking guidelines and limits are posted in the farmstand. In the early days of winter, some lingering fall crops like fuyu persimmons and prickly pear fruit may be harvestable (depending on weather) as well as the hardiest herbs. As we go into the darkest, wettest days of winter, harvests from the garden will likely be relatively minimal (trusty rosemary and winter thyme will be your friends!). But in the early days of spring, flowers will begin popping up, herbs will start growing fast and the garden bounty will increase. This is the part of the farm where the seasonal shifts are seen and felt the most, and where we welcome you to connect directly with our plants and soil.

Payment options: 

1. Pay the full veggie membership amount, all up front. Farming costs a lot up front and so we very much appreciate this option as it allows us to pay for the inputs and labor it takes to grow you this food!

2. Pay in 3 installments (initial deposit now + 2 more installments) 

   • Your deposit for the share covers your first 8 weeks of food.

   • We’re offering installment payment options as a way of lessening the burden of paying up front. This is not intended to lessen your commitment to the CSA season. If you sign up for a share, we are growing and allotting that food for you for the whole season.

   • If paying in 3 installments is prohibitive for you, you may request monthly payments when registering

3. Pay using EBT

   • You can pay for your CSA membership using you EBT/SNAP benefits card! Due to regulations, EBT costumers must swipe weekly with us when you pick up your veggies. EBT customers will also have the option to pay cash any week if needed. Unfortunately, we cannot accept EBT for the lamb share.

4. Buy Individual Items at the Farmstand

   • If committing to a full CSA share is a bit much, we will also be open as a farmstand during our distribution hours, and you can purchase individual items there at farmers market-level prices. We will prioritize the CSA members for items of limited stock, so the CSA will always be the greatest-value option, and have the most selection. CSA members can also buy additional items beyond their share allotment, if they are so inclined, and we have enough of that item.  

Community Support Fund

We are implementing a community support fund as a way of making our CSA more accessible to our community. Think of this as a sliding scale. If you are financially able, when you register, we would love for folks to give within their means to our Community Support Fund. If the share price is prohibitive for you, check a box when you register and we will redistribute some of the money given to the fund to cover a portion of your share cost. 

Farm Orientation

Please note: because our CSA is set up a little differently than others and because harvesting from the garden may be new for some, all new members will be required to have a farm orientation during the first few weeks of the season. We will send more information to registered members once the season is drawing closer. 

Refunds

Because of the nature of a CSA farm, we spend your membership dues soon after we receive them for things like labor, seeds, compost, and all the other things it takes up front to grow food for you. Because of this, we generally cannot offer refunds for membership dues. Please sign up knowing that we are making a mutual commitment to each other. If you need to unexpectedly end your membership midseason, it will be your responsibility to find someone to replace you. Exceptions may be made for serious and unforeseen events like illness.