Traditionally, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a relationship between interested consumers and local farmers where a consumer can pre-purchase a share in a local farms harvest.  CSA’s commonly run for 19 weeks, with a box of produce harvested for each CSA member each week and made available at different pickup points at the farm and around the city. Consumers have the benefit of knowing where their food is coming from, while farmers have the peace of mind knowing that the produce they grow can be sold.

At New Leaf Market Garden, most of the produce we grow is sold either through our CSA or at the farmers market.  Often our CSA customers start out as loyal farmers market customers before finding out about the CSA and making the switch.  Since CSA members are committing to the farm up-front for the whole season and are quite often our most loyal, encouraging and long-standing customers, we’ve always prioritized them over other sales outlets.  In fact, there are many crops that we grow primarily for the CSA, to ensure the weekly boxes have a nice variety. We also work with other local Waterloo Region farmers to provide produce and sometimes fruit that we don’t grow on our farm.

Being in a CSA isn’t for everyone.  It’s ideal for people who are excited to have a relationship with a local farmer, love fresh veggies that are a step above what you can find in a grocery store and who are around for most the summer.  Since they involve a weekly commitment to pickup or receive produce, it works best for those people who can reliably fit that into their schedule.