Updated January 2, 2020 – Note: below is the information from the 2019 season. We’re currently still working on updating our plans for the 2020 season and will likely start accepting sign-ups for the share in early February of 2020 (this has been our typical pattern for the past few years – we usually still have spring shares available until late April or even into May). Check back here then, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or sign up for our mailing list for more updates. The 2020 CSA shares and prices will likely be very similar to 2019 so the below information won’t change much.
We’re accepting sign-ups for the 2019 CSA season! See the sign-up section below for details on how to join our CSA.
What a membership includes:
- Pre-harvested shares of fresh local produce weekly from mid-May through mid-November
- Free access to additional pick-your-own herb, cut flowers and vegetables
- Free access to a large collection of seasonal recipes and tips on cooking from Katherine Deumling at cookwithwhatyouhave.com
- A deep discount at our farm stand during pick-up hours (new).
- A connection to the actual people and ground where your food is coming from.
Keep reading below for more details…
How it works:
- Share pickup location is at the farm: NE 55th & Killingsworth – Mondays or Thursdays 4:30-6:30pm with extended pickup until at least 8:00pm (Holiday hours may vary – see below)
- CNF (Cully Neighborhood Farm) uses ecological and sustainable methods. We don’t use any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. We use organic practices such as cover cropping, crop rotation, purchasing organic seed, etc., but we are not certified by a third party so by law we cannot label our practices organic.
- We grow a wide variety of vegetables including: arugula, basil, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, celery, collard greens, cucumbers, eggplant, escarole, fava beans, fennel, garlic, green beans, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, pac choi, parsley, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, scallions, shallots, summer squash & zucchini, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips, and winter squash.
- Depending on how much you cook at home, and how many vegetables you use a single share might feed a family of four, or an individual. We strive to create mixes each week that complement each other and will create multiple meals, maybe even feed you for the whole week.
- Cost is $615 for the full season from approximately May 13 until the week before Thanksgiving in November. Or, you can sign up for just the season or seasons you want: 6 weeks of spring for $110; 13 weeks of summer for $310; 9 weeks of fall for $210
- To reserve one, or multiple seasons of shares, we ask for a $110 deposit and completion of a short agreement form.
- Payments can be made by check, card, Paypal, cash, or SNAP.
Signing up
To sign up and reserve your CSA Share for the 2019 season please read our member agreement and then fill out our simple online sign up form.
We’ll confirm your sign up and send an invoice within a few days. See the cost section below for more details on the share prices. If you don’t hear from us within a few days please e-mail josh@slowhandfarm.com to check on the status of your share.
Reasons to become a member of the farm:
- Eat fresh, tasty vegetables on a regular basis
- Be more connected to your food, your community, your place, and the seasons
- Reduce the miles your food travel, have more of your food dollars go to the people who grow and harvest them and fewer go to driving them long distances and storing them before they get to you.
Joining a Community Supported Agriculture farm is a great way to do all of these things and more!
When, Where, What, and How
Pick up your shares each week at the main farm site (access through the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church @ 5520 NE Killingsworth). Your pickup will be either on Monday or Thursday depending on your preference and availability. Pickup time is 4:30-8:00pm. The CSA will start in mid-May and go through November.
At the CSA pickup we set the produce out on tables farmers market style with signs telling you how much of each vegetable to take. Bring a bag to fill and start on the left – we put the heavier items there – selecting your share of the vegetables from each category (we’ll have extra bags on hand if you forget). There’s a check off sheet to let us know you’ve picked up your vegetables. After 6:30pm, remaining shares will be bagged and the pickup area will not be staffed, but you can still pick up your produce until 8:00pm.
If you ever can’t make it to pick up your vegetables feel free to have a friend or neighbor pick up for you, or let us know in advance and we can either switch your pick up day for the week, or donate your produce to someone who needs it.
There is just one share size. Each week the share will include about 5-10 different vegetables, fewer at the start and end of the season, more during the peak of production in the late summer. We grow 100+ varieties of about 40 types of vegetables, herbs and flowers. If you are just one or two people that don’t eat many veggies, you might want to find a friend or neighbor with whom to split the share (we may be able to help with that – see the sign up form). If your family falls into the voracious vegetable eater category you might consider getting two shares. See below for more information on estimated quantities. Feel free to get in touch if you have questions about the amount of food to expect.
Here are some example shares to give you a sense of the approximate quantities planned for the shares in different parts of the season. The photos are of actual shares from previous seasons (which always differ a bit from the plan!)
Early June: 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch kale, 1/2 lb green onion, 1/2 lb peas, ½ lb radishes, 1 head pac choi
Here’s an early June share from 2017:
August: 2 lb tomatoes, 0.5 lb eggplant, 1 lb carrots, 1 lb summer squash, 1 lb cucumbers, 1 bunch swiss chard, 1 lb fresh onions, 1 head lettuce
An actual share from August 2017:
October: 2 lb potatoes, 1 lb sweet peppers, 1 bunch collard greens, 3 lb winter squash, 1 lb celeriac, 1 bunch beets, 1.5 lb leek, 1 head escarole
Here’s an actual share from October 2017:
Our online newsletter archives detail the shares that were given out each week for the past few years. You can read back through those to get a better sense of what we distributed to our CSA members in the past, it should be similar this year.
We focus on growing varieties that are delicious, productive, and resilient in our climate. Often this means heirloom varieties or varieties that have been bred locally by trusted vegetable seed breeders. We try to grow special varieties, some of which you might not easily find in grocery stores.
Joining a CSA is a bit like investing in the farm for the year, which is not without risk. Each growing season has its unique challenges. Sometimes a crop may fail due to weather or pests other unforeseen conditions, and sometimes there may be a ‘bumper crop’ with greater bounty than expected. We are committed to growing a diversity of produce throughout the season to the best of our abilities, buffering against the occasional mishap. Between the three main growers on the farm we have over 30 years of CSA growing experience, and the farm has been producing on this land since 2010 so this is not a new endeavor.
For all the nitty gritty details of being a CSA member, read our Member agreement here: CullyNeighborhoodFarmMemberAgreement2019
CSA Cost
This year’s membership costs $615 for the full season (this averages out to about $22 per week for 28 weeks). A $110 initial payment is requested to hold your spot. Or, you can sign up for just the season or seasons you want:
- 6 weeks of spring for $110 – May 13 to June 20
- 13 weeks of summer for $310 – June 24 to September 19
- 9 weeks of fall for $210 – September 23 to November 21
To sign up and reserve your CSA Share for the 2019 season please read our member agreement and then fill out our simple online sign up form. We’ll confirm your sign up and and send an invoice within a few days. If you don’t hear from us within a week please e-mail josh@slowhandfarm.com to check on the status of the share.
If you have SNAP/EBT, you can pay for CSA with SNAP funds thanks to the Portland Area CSA Coalition. Please write to josh@slowhandfarm.com to inquire.
Why Join the Cully Neighborhood Farm CSA Program?
Nutrition – Cully Neighborhood Farm is committed to growing nutrient dense food by properly balancing the nutrients in the soil. We add organic soil amendments, compost, and cover crops to improve the soil health.
Sustainability – We are a small-scale farm working to decrease our ecological footprint. We do this by growing food inside the city, working with human-powered tools whenever possible, sourcing our inputs as locally as possible, picking produce fresh to reduce the need for on-farm refrigeration. We provide habitat and food for birds and insects in the city, and a bit of open space and beauty for all of our neighbors. We envision a future in which every neighborhood has a number of small urban farms providing a connection to healthy, sustainable, local food and meaningful, local work for residents.
Connection to Your Food – Want to know where your food comes from or how it’s grown? You’ll be able to talk to your farmer directly and visits to the farm can be a fun and educational experience. You will find that you are eating what’s seasonally available, tasting the seasons of the farm and your bioregion. We hope the faces that come with this local food will also encourage you to think more about the faces and production practices behind the food that you get from other places.
Sustainable income for the farm – The CSA model help smooth out the financial wrinkles of farming. It also establishes a direct relationship between growers and eaters.
More info on the CSA concept can be found here.
FAQ:
Will there be add-on items?
In 2019 we’re working with Terra Farma to provide an egg add-on. Additional add-on items may be possible (TBA).
What if I go on vacation?
Vacation weeks are a great time to introduce your friends and family to the CSA! Have a friend pick up your share while you’re away, or if you can’t find someone else to pick up let us know and we’ll donate the share to someone who can use it.
What about holidays?
Memorial Day and Labor Day both fall on Mondays and on those weeks we move our harvests and share pick-up days to Tuesday. July 4 is on a Thursday so we’ll move that harvest to Wednesday. For 2019 we don’t anticipate moving any other harvest days, but it does happen occasionally for unforeseen reasons. If you’re taking a holiday on another day you can request to have your share picked up on the other harvest day that same week (i.e. swap Monday for Thursday, or Thursday for Monday). We can usually accommodate a small number of these changes with at least a couple of days advance notice.
Can I volunteer?
The short answer is yes! We’d love to foster more member involvement, both in the fields and with organizing events for other farm members. If you are interested in volunteering please get in touch: josh@slowhandfarm.com
Farm Gatherings:
We hope to have at least one gathering at the farm during the summer or fall for CSA members. Please let us know if you might be interested in helping to organize this.
Can I buy your produce if I’m not in the CSA?
During CSA pick-up hours we usually have a small “farm stand” with surplus harvest from the day. CSA members can purchase extras at a discounted rate and other members of the community are also welcome to come and purchase from us. In the past some of our produce has been available at the Cully Farmers Market (Thursday evenings from June – September on NE 42ndAv near Alberta) and we hope that will be the case again in 2019.
Do you offer half shares?
No, but you can find a neighbor or friend to split a share with. We may be able to help with this if you can’t find someone. Please email matt@cullyneighborhoodfarm.com if you’d like to be put on a list of folks who want to split a share.
CONTACT INFO:
For questions about the CSA, CSA payments, CSA pickup schedules, volunteer opportunities, or employment, please contact:
Josh Volk
Slow Hand Farm
503-704-0512
josh@slowhandfarm.com
For questions about other things, please contact:
Matt Gordon
Cully Neighborhood Farm
503-310-5766
matt@cullyneighborhoodfarm.com
Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions.
Cully Neighborhood Farm 