What is CSA?
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a partnership between a farm and its members. When you purchase a Flying Carrot Farm CSA share you become a member of our community. By joining you are helping support a local family farm. In return we are dedicated to growing amazing tasting food for you using sustainable methods, leaving the land in better condition than we found it. Together, we share the risks and benefits associated with farming sustainably.
What do I get in my CSA share?
The easy answer is the freshest in-season vegetables all grown without chemicals. So what does “in-season” mean in Southern New England? With produce from all over the country and the world in our grocery stores, it is hard to know when something is in-season. Click on the picture to the left to see how the share changes from spring to summer to fall.
Each week, we offer a balanced selection of vegetables. We grow a lot of favorites with a few different vegetables and varieties to keep it fresh and fun. You will find that spring and fall are dominated by greens and veggies that grow best in cool weather like broccoli, beets, carrots and spinach. Some veggies like it hot and will be available in the summer, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, summer squash, zucchini and more. There are some crops that take a full season to grow so are only available in the fall: winter squash (butternut), sweet potatoes, rutabaga, macomber turnips, and more.
Share size
Regular Sized Share
Each week you get a set number of items depending on your share size (the picture to the left demonstrates a regular share). Which share size is right for you depends on how many people are in your family and how many vegetables you eat with each meal. Below we give rough guidelines for the different share sizes. If you have more questions, feel free to contact us.
Small 5 items/week: great for 1-2 people or a larger family with limited vegetable eaters in the family; this is also a great way to try out a CSA for the first time or to supplement a home garden
Regular 8 items/week: feeds 3-4 people eating vegetables or 1-2 people that eat veggies more often or as a larger portion of their meals
Large 12 items/week: feeds families with more than 4 people or 2-3 people that eat more vegetarian based meals This share is also great for eating fresh veggies all season AND canning/freezing some for the winter months.
Cost
Summer - Fall CSA: 25 weeks (June through Thanksgiving):
small $625
regular $900
large $1,350
Summer CSA: 16 weeks (June through September)
small $400
regular $576
large $864
Short Summer CSA: 9 weeks (July & August):
small $225
regular $324
large $486
Egg Share
9 weeks $72
16 weeks $128
25 weeks $200
Payment Options
You can pay in full or pay a $100 deposit to reserve your spot and pay the remaining balance by the start of the CSA. We do offer payment plans across the summer if it is a burden to pay all at once. You can also use your SNAP/HIP benefits to pay for all or part of your CSA share. Please contact us for more details.
We accept cash, check, credit/debit cards, and EBT/SNAP payments.
Home
Delivery
We will not be offering a home delivered CSA share this year. If you can’t pick up on farm, check the Coastal Foodshed Virtual Market with Home Delivery.
On-Farm CSA
How it works
Distribution follows a market-style format, allowing you to choose the items you want and leave the items you don't want. Each week you can choose a set number of items (depending on the size share you have) from a selection of the freshest, in-season vegetables, greens, and some fruits (strawberries in June and watermelon & melons in August). An item can vary from a bag of spinach, a bunch of carrots or beets, to a pound of tomatoes or a pound of beans. You don't have to take items you don't like and you can take multiples of the veggies that you really like. A few items will have a per share limit, for example the first tomatoes of the season will be limited so we can make sure that everyone gets a share of the harvest. As the season progresses, we will remove these limits.
Pick-up Sites and Times
Main Farm (607 Elm St, South Dartmouth)
Tuesdays 3-7 pm
Thursdays 3-7 pm
Saturdays 10am - 2pm
The full season CSA starts in early June and goes through the end of August (14 weeks). The Short Season CSA is 10 weeks and includes the last week of June through August. The fall CSA runs from mid-September to right before Christmas (14 weeks). Note that pick-up for the fall CSA is only on Tuesdays.
If for some reason you can't make your regular pick-up time, let us know and you can either pick-up on another day or we can pack a share for you to pick up at the farm store.
Pick-Your-Own Garden
The pick-your-own (PYO) garden is located at our Main Farm site (607 Elm St.). As a CSA member you have access to the PYO garden during your CSA pick-up hours. Items from the PYO garden don't count towards your set number of items (they are a bonus), but we ask that you only take what your family will use for the week. The PYO garden varies from year to year, but always has flowers. We are aiming to add some herbs in 2024. The PYO garden is a fun place to teach your children where their food comes from, relax and enjoy the farm and chat with other like-minded foodies. If you are unable to use the PYO, let us know and we will accommodate you.
CSA FAQs
Are your veggies chemical free?
We use sustainable and regenerative farming methods. We don't use chemical (synthetic) pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, or fungicides. When we are having a severe pest or disease outbreak, we use some pesticides/fungicides that are OMRI listed (Organic Materials Review Institute). We also don't grow any genetically modified organisms (GMOs). We practice nutrient dense farming, which means we feed the soil to maintain a healthy soil ecosystem and grow healthy, nutrient-dense veggies. We use compost, cover crops, natural occurring minerals and organic fertilizers to nourish our plants. We limit pest damage by using row covers, rotational planting, and removing some pests by hand. To keep weeds in check we use a combination of mulching (landscape cloth/plastic and/or straw), tractor cultivation, and good old hand weeding and hoeing.
Do I need to contribute work as part of my share?
No. We do not require a work commitment from our members. We do offer some member work days during the season for people that do want to help out and get their hands dirty.
Do you have a work share option?
Yes! We are looking for people who can commit to working 5 hours/week throughout the whole CSA season (June - August). In exchange for your hard work, you will receive a free regular share and a dozen eggs each week for the full 14 week season. We have several different positions available including working in the CSA/farm store, working in the fields and working in our pack shed. Check out our jobs page for more information.
Do you offer egg shares?
We do offer egg shares for both on-farm and delivered CSA shares. There is an egg share add-on for 7, 10, or 14 weeks of eggs (get eggs weekly or every other week). Our chickens are free-ranged on pasture (they eat bugs, grass, and our veggie scraps) and we feed them GMO-free grain, so the yolks are deep yellow and the eggs taste great.
Do you have short term shares for summer residents?
We offer a 10 week short season CSA (July & August) for summer residents, or people who just want summer veggies. We also have a farm stand open on Saturdays during the summer.
How do I join?
Sign-up online and pay online. You can also request a paper sign-up form by contacting Susan (farmers@theflyingcarrotfarm.com) and send it along with a check (made out to Flying Carrot Farm) to our mailing address:
Flying Carrot Farm
599 Elm St.
S. Dartmouth, MA 02748
Still have questions?
Please feel free to call Susan (774-400-7277) or email (farmers@theflyingcarrotfarm.com).