Plowshare Organic Community Shared Agriculture

Hello and welcome to Plowshare Farm Community Supported Agriculture! We are an organic, horse-powered vegetable farm located in Salem, Ontario. Working with our workhorses Sally and Milly, we grow more than 65 crops, with 150 different varieties of vegetables, herbs and cut-flowers. Plowshare Farm is dedicated to building a resilient local food system that values the land, the animals and the people who work on the farm. We are looking to connect with, and to help build, a healthy community of local eaters who share these values with us.

At Plowshare Farm, we distribute our produce through our Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA program. Community Supported Agriculture is a co-operative, sustainable, and human-scaled approach to food and farming, where farmers and eaters work together for mutual benefit. Through Plowshare Farm’s CSA, households or individuals buy a share of the harvest at the start of the season. Each week for 20 weeks, from mid-June until the end of October, CSA members receive a box of our delicious vegetables, berries, herbs and cut-flowers, harvested fresh from the garden. CSA membership is a chance to be connected with the food you eat, by coming out to the farm for work bees, harvest days and celebrations, as well as through our weekly newsletter. Members will recieve a weekly CSA bulletin with recipes, pictures and stories from the farm, keeping folks posted on the weeks happenings in the garden.

Vegetables are picked up at one of two times and locations:
-Guelph on Tuesdays from 4:00-6:30pm, in the Paisley and Edinburgh neighborhood
OR
-Orangeville on Saturdays from 8am-1pm, at the Farmers Market on Broadway

A Community Supported Agriculture farm means certain commitments from both the growers and the members.

Plowhare Farm’s Commitments to our CSA members:
To grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, cut flowers and smallfruit
To provide only the highest quality, freshly harvested food to our membership
To provide a weekly newsletter including cooking and preserving ideas.
To encourage feedback from CSA members, and to tailor the CSA to your needs
To grow all our food following organic standards, and to be true stewards of the land we farm.
To be financially transparent with the membership

CSA Members Commitment to Plowshare Farm:
To pay the full cost of the CSA share before the season begins in mid-June
To ensure the share get picked up each week at the specified times and places
To bring bags or boxes from home for carrying veggies with
To volunteer on the farm at least 4 hours over the course of the season (or pay an additional $30 for those who cannot fulfill this commitment)

So if you are looking to eat more fresh, local, organic foods, or to learn to cook healthier meals for your family and friends, consider buying a Plowshare Farm CSA share for the 2012 season. We would be thrilled to grow for you!

Yehuda Nestel and Schirin Oeding