barkingcatfarm

As a farm that runs a CSA, we often hear people call CSA a food co-op and vice versa. But, there is a big difference between CSA & a food co-op. So we like to try to help clarify whenever we see the two terms confused as part of our ongoing effort to educate about what a CSA is. A few key differences are:

• CSA is about connecting directly with the farm(s) and farmers who are growing your food, hence 'Community Supported Agriculture'. Food co-ops introduce one or more middlemen between you & the farm. Your food is usually sourced from wholesale distribution and your connection to the farm is pretty much the same as it is when you buy from a grocery store.
  
  
• In a CSA you know your farmer(s) personally. In a Food co-op, you most likely never meet the people who grow your food, nor do you get to visit the farm.
  
  
• CSA is about supporting your local food grower & local economy who gets the entire dollar amount you spend on the food.  Food co-ops usually buy through wholesale distribution same as a grocery store where the farm only receives a portion of the money you spend on the food.
  
  

• CSA implies risk - that is farm disaster, crop failure may impact your share delivery. You don't get this with a food co-op because of the nationwide/worldwide food sourcing, much like buying your produce from a grocery store. 
  
  

• CSA foods are seasonal & grown locally; not so with food co-ops in general.
  
  

There is nothing wrong with food co-ops; in fact, they can be a good way to source additional produce for your family. However, we hope you understand now that they are not at all the same as a CSA, and those that call their co-ops CSA's can give a bad impression about real CSA's.  For instance, you might hear of a (supposed) “CSA” that is signing people up and delivering bushels of produce every week when Barking Cat Farm's CSA is suspended due to the drought conditions making it impossible to grow anything.  You might reasonably wonder why this other “CSA” is able to provide food while BCF cannot.  Unless that other “CSA” farm is growing in greenhouses or has spent a lot of time and energy drought-proofing their farm, they are likely not actually growing most of their food but rather buying it from distribution.  In our opinion, this is dishonest. And that sort of operation is more accurately called a food co-op or buying club, not a CSA where the subscriber knows the farmer who actually grew the food.

Local sourcing for food co-ops is very difficult in this area because there are not enough farmers to support the demand and selling into wholesale distribution is generally not profitable for small farms. If your food co-op says they try to source locally, ask who the farms are if supporting local farmers is important to you. 

Our 2012 Food CSA share price is $20/week with a 12 week term. That means the total cost for the term is $240. We also offer egg shares when they are available. Egg shares are $3.75/week or $45 for the term. We have multiple terms during the year. Egg share are only available to Food CSA members. Additionally, Bee Charmer Raw Honey and extra cartons of eggs are available for purchase at the drop location each week. 

25% of your CSA payment is non-refundable. Many traditional CSA's don't refund or carry over balances from one year to the next. After the record setting heat & drought of 2011, our CSA members urged us to allow them to assume more risk in the farm. We're beginning with a 25% risk. In the event of weather or other acts of God that prevent us from completing a CSA term in a timely manner, 25% of the CSA share payment will be deducted from member accounts. In previous years, we rolled the entire credit balance forward. We will continue to be transparent and act with integrity in all such instances. 

Our current subscription term is 12 weeks. We send out renewals to CSA members near the end of each 12 week term.

The contents of your Food or Flower CSA share will vary by season, by time of the year, and by what the weather is doing at the time.  Our crops are all naturally grown. We don't use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. We grow using only organic & sustainable methods. And we never knowingly use genetically modified seed.  We believe in growing crops in season because they are of better quality, taste better, look prettier, last longer and allow us to properly tend the farm in a sustainable fashion.

We do plan our crops based primarily on what you tell us you like.  This is part of what owning a subscription share means.  Your input is balanced with what will grow well in our area. 

The volume of food you receive for a food share will vary weekly in accordance with the season. With our current box size, you can expect to receive 4 to 6 different types of vegetables and herbs each week. The volume will be higher in the prime part of the season when the plants are better established than, for instance, in the beginning of the season when the plants are just beginning to produce.  We will offer larger weekly volume subscription shares for future subscription terms as we gain CSA experience.

Your flower CSA share will consist of a seasonally changing bouquet of beautiful flowers. The value of your bouquet will be at least 10% more than your weekly subscription cost.

We are always trying to grow new & interesting crops, and sometimes we will have crop failures, a fact of life with farming.  We will, however, do our best to grow the freshest, naturally grown crops possible as outlined in our seasonal plan.  

We will bring as much extra as we have to sell to the drop spot as possible. Occasionally we will bring additional food to the drop for you to choose from as an “extra bonus” to your share if you want it.  This will be available at no extra charge to our subscribers. 

For example, you might receive a bunch of radishes in your share.  During the weeks when the radishes are producing heavily, we will bring extra bunches and give you the option of taking a certain amount of extra radishes at no extra charge.

The CSA drop is in Rockwall on announced Friday afternoons in the parking lot at The Life House in downtown Rockwall.  CSA members are notified via email when there will be a CSA drop. When we have extras to sell off the truck, we'll announce the CSA drop on the front page of our website. 

The drop-off starts at 2:00 PM. We start selling off the truck at 2:00 PM as well. If you are interested in buying off the truck, please do check to be sure that the CSA drop is open first. We recommend arriving closer to 2 PM if you want to buy additional food or eggs off the truck. Please call us if you are running late so that we don't sell your CSA share off the truck. 

The Life House is located at 506 N. Goliad just North of the downtown square in Rockwall. To get there, proceed North on Goliad through downtown, past the historic courthouse. The right-hand lane ends just after the square, so merge to the middle lane. You'll see the tree that has been 'yarn bombed' in their front yard as well as their sign on the right-hand side of the road at the same point as the two lanes of Goliad narrow to one going Northbound. The next part is very important, be sure as you turn in, to endeavor to drive on the driveway closest to The Life House. The other pavement is the neighbor's and we need to avoid driving on it. Parking is in the rear.  You can also park in downtown public parking and walk, however, there is not a sidewalk all the way to The Life House. 

If you know in advance you are going to be unable to pick up your share a certain week, for instance you are out of town that week, please let us know that via email or phone no later than Tuesday at 5:00 PM on the week.  In such cases, you have 3 options.  You can arrange for somebody else to pick up your share, you can ask us to donate it to Rockwall Helping Hands, or you can ask us to just cancel your share delivery. 

During each 12 week term, each CSA subscriber may cancel their share twice at no charge. We really do encourage you to find someone to pick up your share for you instead. After you have cancelled twice during a term, you may cancel additional deliveries, but you share balance will be charged as if you had received the share. 

Currently we allow both cancellations & partial refunds. However, most traditional CSA's do not allow either because the CSA funds are used to grow the crops for the season and are already spent by the time the term starts. 

We hope that you will find our crops and the whole CSA experience to be so enjoyable that you will not want to cancel.  And if you find yourself unhappy with the CSA for any reason, we respectfully ask that you call or email us and give us the chance to address your concerns before you make your final decision.  

However, if in the end you still wish to cancel your subscription, we will refund the prorated remainder of your unused share less 25% of the initial payment.  In this case, please notify us no later than Tuesday at 5:00 PM on the week you wish to cancel in order for the refund to cover that week.  Otherwise, you will receive prorated credit for the remainder of the term beginning the next week.

Prior to the end of the current subscription term, we will publish specifics for the next CSA term to our CSA subscribers.  Current subscribers will be given first option to renew their subscription for the next term.  Then people on the waiting list will be contacted and given the opportunity to subscribe if shares are available.

Please see this previous answer.

Our Food CSA operates nearly year round. As we are able, we add shares when a new term starts. Please see this other answer for more information.

Because we are a small farm with few employees, we are always exploring ways to work more efficiently so that we can better serve our customers. We decided in October of 2006 to switch from a pre-order business to the CSA model. We've found that the CSA approach allows us to spend less time and effort on administrative tedium and more effort planning and growing the best quality, freshest food and flowers you can get!

As we continue to grow, we will look at better ways to serve you.  We may eventually even think the pre-order method is worth revisiting.  And we always welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback.

We do not attend Farmers Markets at this time because we are sold out by the weekend every week.

As with the term CSA itself, this term means many different things to many people. There is no universal definition, but here is a good legal one.  Our basic definition is to reduce the need to bring in outside materials to the farm while taking care of the environment (soil, air, water, creatures).  We do this in a lot of ways.  Examples include good soil management (cover cropping, green manures, no or low till), natural pest control (integrated pest management such as the use of bats and beneficial insects and our fingers to control the pest population, targeted organic pesticides only when necessary), and good water management (drip irrigation, use of rain water).  Our goal is a lofty 100% sustainability, and we are working to achieve that.