What’s a CSA?
A CSA is a farm subscription. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you join up with us, you become a member of our farm and receive a “share” of the good food we grow.
Bluestem Farm offers flexible, build-your-own shares with everything from certified organic vegetables to pasture-raised pork, eggs, and chicken.
You get to choose everything that goes into the box. Everything we offer was grown right on our own farm.
How do veggie boxes work?
1. Before each delivery, we send you an email with inspiration for every ingredient.
2. You choose what goes into each box if you want, or let the farmers decide for you.
3. We deliver it to your town.
4. Want to reschedule with us, or put your share on hold? Just click.
Why should I join Bluestem Farm?
With a Bluestem Farm share, you get:
✔ certified organic vegetables
✔ your choice of what goes into the box
✔ option to add on pasture-raised pork, chicken, and eggs
✔ free additional crops for preserving
✔ option to either pay up front, or space payments out
✔ convenient rescheduling options
✔ option to order extra items
✔ weekly recipe suggestions for every item
✔ great customer service
Do I get to choose what I bring home?
Yup!
You get to choose every single vegetable every single week, if you want to. (Some members enjoy leaving that to us, and that's fine, too.)
What do you mean, "pasture-raised" and "non-GMO?"
Our animals are pasture-raised, and our pastures are 100% certified organic.
Pasture-raised means that we move our animals through fresh pasture during the seven months of the year that grass will grow. Our broiler chickens live out their entire lives in mobile chicken coops, or "chicken tractors”—the kind of movable poultry housing made famous by farmers like Joel Salatin.
Because of our chickens' varied diets, their meat is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin A than the meat of factory farmed birds. (1)
Like humans, chickens and pigs are omnivores. Unlike cattle, chickens and pigs do not have the special stomach called a rumen, specially adapted to digest the cellulose in grasses. Chickens and pigs need a balanced diet that relies in part on grains to support their health and growth. We go out of our way to provide local feed that is not genetically modified/non-GMO, but it is not certified organic.
Our animals are never given growth hormones. We treat animals like ourselves, and would give antibiotics only in the case of a true medical emergency, never to boost growth or to temper the effects of confinement. There has never yet been a cause for antibiotics use at our farm.
For more information about our practices, please ask us.
COOKING IDEAS
If you are unfamiliar with cooking with whole chicken, we have lots of ideas to share. From informational videos on cutting a chicken into parts to delicious recipes for stock, grilling, brining, and more, we're happy to help you make the most of your share. For starters, you can browse upwards of 60 recipe ideas on our farm's Pinterest board.
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REFERENCE
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/nutritional-differences-between-pasturefed-chickens-vs-non-79222.html
Let's talk about logistics.
REFUNDS AND CANCELLATIONS
We know that joining a CSA is a big commitment, and we want you to be completely satisfied with your experience at our farm.
If you've got a problem of any kind, we hope you will come to us right away so we can fix it or provide an explanation. If you're unsatisfied for any reason, we will refund you the balance of your share on demand.
PAYMENT PLANS
You can choose to pay for your share all up front, or space the payments out into 4 installments. If you're able to pay in full ahead of the season, we'll thank you with 3% off the total share cost.
If it's not feasible to pay the membership fee in full, we understand. We require 25% down at sign-up and three following payments of 25% each in mid-June, mid-July, and mid-August.
If you need other arrangements, please don't hesitate to drop us a line.
RESCHEDULING
Going out of town for a family wedding, or just need an afternoon at the beach? No problem. Just let us know you'd like to put your share on hold, and we'll bring it to you another time.
START DATE + THE 2019 CALENDAR
Northern springs are a notoriously difficult thing to predict, so we offer a floating start date. If there's a rogue storm in late April that drops 3 feet of snow (I'm taling to you, 2018), we'll start a little later in June.
Expect us to start in ballpark 2nd to 3rd week of June.
Our summer CSA program runs for 22 weeks, from mid-June through late fall. If you have a Heart of Summer 11-Week share, your dates will run somewhere between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2019.
Our winter CSA program picks up again right after our summer program ends, and goes through February 2019.
What are the benefits to me? What are the responsibilities?
BENEFITS OF BLUESTEM
+ Specialty varieties a grocery store simply cannot offer.
+ Ultra-fresh food.
+ Share farm bounty with preservation crops--there's no additional cost to you.
+ Have a direct, personal relationship with the farmers growing your food.
+ Great food at a reasonable price.
+ Priority access to our good food.
+ CSA greatly benefits local farmers, too! Your early season investment supports the financial stability of small family farmers... like us!
RESPONSIBILITIES OF CSA MEMBERS
+ Picking up the food on a regular basis, or being on top of rescheduling the delivery if you're going to be away.
+ Just as CSA members share in the rewards of bountiful harvests, they also share in the ancient risk of agriculture. We would never abandon our responsibilities to you, but some years, the broccoli does better than others. Fortunately, we grow a huge variety of crops. If conditions are bad for broccoli, chances are they're good for squash!
How many people does a Bluestem Farm share feed? What size share should I get?
This is always such a tricky question to answer!
It's such a personal thing, how every household eats. Some people cook at home all the time, and some people go out a lot. Some people are really committed to eating local food and tons of vegetables, and others like having more exotic produce and convenience foods around the house. Some people feel overwhelmed with the unfamiliar vegetables that can crop up in a CSA share, and some people love being exposed to new foods.
Large Shares are a good fit for households who eat with a serious focus on vegetables. (The Brower family would probably need more than one Large Share, and we have two adults, an 8-year-old, and a 5-year-old at home.)
The image that's running behind these FAQs is a Large Share from August 2018.
Small Shares are about 30% smaller than Large Shares. Small Shares are usually a good place to start if you eat vegetables pretty regularly but don't have a very big household.
Small Shares and Large Shares are delivered each week.
Have a one-person household, or eat out often?
Extra Small Shares are the smallest share we offer. They’re delivered every other week. If you can do $10 or $15 worth of produce in a week, this share could be just the thing for you. XS Shares are often a good choice for one-person households.
Heart of Summer shares are small shares that are delivered weekly during the 11 short, beautiful weeks of summer.
How do pork shares work?
Pork shares come to you frozen and vacuum-sealed, once per month. Pork share pick-ups are timed to coincide with egg and vegetable shares.
LARGE PORK SHARES
A large pork share equals about 12 pounds per month. That might look like a roast, a package of ribs, a couple pounds of pork chops, a smoked ham hock, a pound of plain ground pork, a pound of breakfast sausage, and a pound or two of bacon. (That's just an example.)
MEDIUM PORK SHARES
A regular pork share equals about 8 pounds per month. A typical regular share might look like a roast, a pound of pork chops, a smoked ham hock, a pound of plain ground pork, and a pound of bacon. (That's also just an example.)
SMALL PORK SHARES
A small pork share equals about 4 pounds per month. We typically don't give larger cuts of pork (like ribs or roasts) to people with small pork shares, but we are happy to at your request. Small pork shares get bacon only every other month. (That's just an example.)
A WORD ON BACON
We know that everyone loves bacon, but because only about 10% of a pig is made up of bacon, only about 10% of each household’s pork share can consist of this marvelous food. Due to the constraints of porcine anatomy, we are unable to raise the quantities of bacon for individuals. Please note that the bacon in your pork share might take several forms. Cottage bacon, regular bacon, and guanciale are all delicious smoked and cured cuts of pork and can be used interchangeably.
CUSTOMIZATION AND PORK SHARES
There's not an order form for each pork delivery, but we are almost always able to accommodate your household preferences. Some folks just want roasts and bacon. Some people really love pork chops, some really don't. We're happy to do our utmost to steer toward your tastes as much as possible. There's also a pork swap box available to you each time you pick up.
How do chicken shares work?
Chicken shares are distributed once a month, and come in the form of frozen, whole birds. Large chicken shareholders get 6 chickens per month, medium shares bring home 4 chickens per month, and small chicken shareholders get 2 per month.
There are six distributions in the summer 2019 season.
RECIPE IDEAS
If you are unfamiliar with cooking with whole chicken, Mary has lots of ideas. From informational videos on cutting a chicken into parts to delicious recipes for stock, grilling, brining, and more, she’s happy to help you make the most of your share.
PICK-UP DATES
Please be aware that we may need to ask for some flexibility with precise pickup dates for protein shares, since some aspects of scheduling are beyond our control.