Shilofarm CSA

FAQ’s: How to Join! Obviously missing info that needed to be Someplace!

The CSA is intended for people who love to get hands on with fresh produce. The climate here has two long cool times and a short hot dry summer – the farm goes with that flow, extends the season with a greenhouse, lighting and some heat – and so produces from early February till Thanksgiving.

Growing our crops is almost a year long process – something that fits the four-season model we follow. Of course, the main season is the real heart of the garden – but the other seasons all have a purpose and meet the needs of some members.

• Four seasons:
  • Winter – a very difficult season, mostly very cool season crops grown in the greenhouse. Six weeks in 2024 as above.
  • Green – early cool season crops – Asparagus, lots of greens. Some berries may show up near the end, depending on how cold April is. Strawberries are schedule to be replanted in 2024, so… not a lot. Boysen and Raspberries should be good though.
  • Main – June till mid-October – This is the ‘main’ garden time, with the most variety, the highest volume, and those wonderful summer veggies.
  • Xtended – 4 weeks from mid-October till the week before Thanksgiving. Squash, late cool season crops, and Squash. Did we tell you about Squash?
• Delivery or farm call:
  • Delivery is  Friday, for a limited number of members. for Lacey/Yelm Hwy
  • Farm Call is Saturdays from 10AM – 2PM or Tuesday from 3-5PM. Note that FarmCall is able to support partial season membership.
• Partial Season Membership
  • In 2023 an experiment was done to allow people to ‘sign up’ for a number of weeks in a season. In that case, the number of weeks needed to be reasonable (not just 1 or 2) and needed to be farm call only. One memeber did 6 out of 8 weeks starting at Labor Day, and then added a couple more weeks on into the extended season. It is very desireable to have this forecasted at the start of the year, particularly as the later season crops are usually long to rippent (100-120 days).
• Varieties:
  • There are two common misunderstandings about a CSA, First, it is not a farmer’s market. That is, you can’t ‘just get what you want.’ The idea is that each delivery is basically going to be containing some of the same sort of things (lettuce, for example), and some things you may never of cooked or eaten (Turnips come to mind).
  • The Second misunderstanding is that you can just leave it on the counter till you get to it to eat it in a few days. That can be a very bad experience. There have been known to be live passengers on some produce, for the worst thing. The second thing is that quite a few of the greens really hate to be cut and in the open warm air. You should know if you sign up that you need to grab your box, wash and store appropriately. It is especially nasty to get a box back to the farm which was filled with rotted veggies. Ugh.
  • There is a degree of selection available each week. That said, it relies on a distribution of what is ripe across the whole of the members. A member is given a list at the beginning of their membership to tell us favorites and “never evers,” which allows the farm to plan accordingly.