Happy New Year to everybody. With 2014 gone, it’s time to look ahead to the 2015 farm season (March 18/19 to November 18/19), even while we harvest for the winter shares. This is a good time for us to be reminded of why Community Supported Agriculture is such a helpful model for small farmers, as well as for those who crave local fresh produce. From the farm’s perspective:
- we get a good portion of our CSA income at the beginning of the calendar year, when we incur a lot of costs in labor and farm inputs (seed, compost, fertilizer), but sell little produce.
- we can count on providing a steady number of produce boxes throughout the season, so we can grow and harvest for the number of people who we know will buy the produce, reducing waste.
- we can grow a variety of produce and provide the CSA members with the best vegetables and fruit that are ready to harvest at that time, without pressures to pick too early or hold over a crop too long. In contrast, growing for the wholesale market necessitates producing a steady flow of a particular item, week after week.
- we grow our food for CSA members who know who we are and appreciate our stewardship of the land, keeping us focused on using environmentally sound farming methods, rather than for an impersonal market that is satisfied with just the organic label.
Early Payment Discounts
To show our appreciation for those of you who make those early payments and commit to the season, those who pay for the full 36-week season now will get a discount equivalent to three free boxes ($72 off for the season). You are the backbone of our CSA, and we urge as many of you as possible to choose this option.
We do understand that that’s a big chunk of money for a lot of people. So we offer a 5% discount to those who pay for a smaller part of the season but get that payment in before February 15th. Having most of the people signed up in advance makes it much easier for us to estimate what our numbers will be and to plant accordingly.
Here’s the lowdown:
Full year sign-up (paid by February 15th): $792 (normally $864)
18-deliveries sign-up (paid by February 15th): $410 (normally $432)
(this is also the price for a full-season for biweekly deliveries)
9-deliveries sign-up (paid by February 15th): $205 (normally $216)
4-deliveries sign-up (paid by February 15th): $91 (normally $96)
Flowers Subscribers:
If you receive weekly flowers, please add $8/delivery to this amount.
Weekly flowers for the full season are an additional $288
biweekly flowers for the full season (18 deliveries) are an additional $144
9 deliveries of flowers are an additional $72
4 deliveries of flowers are an additional $24
You can sign up by sending us a check (High Ground Organics, PO Box 2601, Watsonville, CA 95077) or by making a payment to your account online.
If you already have credit of at least $91 toward the 2015 season already in your account (not counting the winter CSA) by February 15th, we will apply the above discounts to your account–you don’t have to do anything. If you have some credit, but want to take advantage of the discount, you can just add the difference up to the $792 for the full season discount (or 4, 9, or 18-week amount for the 5% off discount). You can check your balance here:
http://csa.farmigo.com/account/highgroundorganics/csa
If you make the payment online, write in the amount in the blank field under the other payment amount options rather than ordering a box set.
If you use automatic recurring payments, but would like to pay more now to take advantage of the discount, you can make a one-time payment—it will not duplicate your future automatic payments, which don’t kick in until your balance again falls to $0.
If you are a previous member and you would like to reactivate your deliveries for spring, or if you need any clarification or assistance renewing your CSA subscription, please email Sarah at csa@highgroundorganics.com (or call 831-254-4918).
We are very grateful to all of our CSA members who keep the farming adventure alive for us. Thank you all for your continued support of our farm!
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