Please read this CSA Member Agreement in its entirety.
By checking the required Member Agreement box below, members agree to purchase the CSA Farm share indicated. They understand the CSA principle and agree that there is no guarantee on the exact amount or type of produce that they will receive in their CSA Farm share throughout the CSA season.
Members also understand that all deposits are non-refundable.
Thank you for joining VonThun Farms CSA & Crop Share Program … we sure are excited and thankful that you have chosen us to be YOUR farmers! Please remember that as a CSA member purchasing a SHARE, no matter what the size, you have chosen to SHARE both the loss and the bounty of the CSA season with us and other CSA members.
The general agreement of becoming a part of VonThun’s CSA family …
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a relationship between VonThun’s Farm and you as our customer. Rather than simply purchasing produce from our farm market, you’ll purchase a “share” & become a “member” of our CSA Program, receiving a portion of our farm’s harvest for a specified number of weeks.
We view our CSA program as not only a way of securing fresh, healthy, local food, but also an an experience and a means of your learning a little more about where your food comes from. Please understand that your food is guaranteed to be FRESH, healthy, and local. In most cases, it will be picked by our staff the same day you receive it. But, with that promise of fresh you may also receive some dirt, an occasional insect, or blemishes and imperfections. We do not, in any way, want to promise picture perfect crops. Although that is our goal, reality is, fresh and homegrown are not always picture perfect.
The South Brunswick (Middlesex County) based CSA Program is a 20 week program. You can choose between picking up at the farm between 2 & 7pm or at one of our many local host delivery locations.
The Washington (Warren County) based CSA Program is a 14 week program. You can pick up at the farm between 3 &6pm or at one of our local host delivery sites.
Pick up hours for host site delivery locations differ from site to site and many can be flexible if need be. An alternative pick up time at either farm can be made in case of emergency, but must be done via email request. Most host sites are private residences, so your respect and cooperation when picking up is appreciated. If picking up at a host site, you are encouraged to get your host’s contact information so you can contact and interact with him/her if need be throughout the season. Our corporate host site locations are strictly for employees of that site.
Although program start and end dates will depend upon the weather, it is our hope to start the program in early June when our crops are becoming bountifully ready for harvest.
Although the CSA Program is comprised mainly of homegrown produce, greenhouse plants, pick-your-own vouchers, and agri-tainment activity passes are often included in the shares.
Unfortunately we are not able to accommodate special requests to include, or omit individual crops from your share. We will strive, when able, to have a Swap Table at the farm each week during share pick up where you may swap one crop for another. We ask that you swap only one crop, not multiple crops, so that others may do the same.
If you find that a crop is missing from your share, please contact us immediately. Although we understand mistakes can be made, our packing staff double and triple checks each outgoing share, so missing crops are uncommon.
You are able to use up to three vacation holds to reschedule CSA shares if you are away. All share rescheduling must be done via your online account at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled share pick up. If away, you may also arrange for friends or family to pick up your share or have the share donated to our local food bank.
You are responsible for picking up your CSA share from your chosen pickup site each week. Unless prior notification is given and alternate arrangements are made with the farm, all CSA shares not picked up on your regularly scheduled pick up day will be donated to a local food bank and you will forfeit that week’s share.
Sharing in the Risks & Bounty of the Farm …
We promise to do our best to provide you with a bountiful share each week. The quantity of produce, however, may vary from week to week depending on the time of year, extreme weather, deer, insects, or other production factors despite our best efforts.
By joining our CSA, you are agreeing to share the risk of crop failure with us and other members. Occasionally we do have crop failure due to weather, insects, deer, etc. We typically compensate for the failed crops by filling our CSA shares with other crops grown on the farm that are ready for harvest at that time. Although our CSA shares do not always include what we had originally planned to include, we do incorporate risk management into our crop production to ensure we are able to supply our CSA members with a variety of crops throughout the entire season.
VonThun Farms grows an average of 30 different crops for the CSA program: Some crops are early/cool season crops (lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, etc). Some crops require longer, warmer growing seasons (sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, etc). Yet other crops thrive with cooler, fall weather (broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkins, winter squash, etc). Each growing season is different, therefore altering the crops included in each weekly basket.
Weather is also a factor when determining what crops will be included in shares each week. Weather is out of our control – excessive rain, drought, cold/freezing temperatures, humidity, and excessive heat hold a great amount of influence on the quality and yield of our crops. Occasionally unforeseen weather conditions will cause us to take a pause in the program and wait for crops to mature. We promise to provide you, as a member, with the best of what’s in season. Varieties and quantities may vary from month to month, but we grow a wide variety of crops to include in our shares throughout the CSA growing season.
There are times that our farm market & tailgate markets will carry products such as berries, while the CSA shares will not have any. At certain times throughout the season, it is impossible to ship berries to host sites due to the heat of the day. There are also times we must pick berries every day to keep invasive pests from damaging the entire crop. This may limit the amount we may have available later in the week to pick for the CSA. Occasionally, if our crop yields allow, we will provide Pick-Your-Own vouchers for you to visit the farm to pick fresh berries at your convenience.
Communicating With Us …
The best way to communicate with us is by emailing Cindy at CSA@VonThunFarms.com Communication via email assures that your information is received, saved, and available to review if necessary. Please DO NOT call the farm with CSA questions or requests. Email will be replied to within 24 hour, less on CSA days.
As a CSA member you will create an online account within the Farmigo CSA software. Please retain all log-in information and passwords, as all changes to your pick up day, donating of CSA shares, and changes/additions to email addresses must be done via YOUR account. Please note that Farmigo will only allow two email addresses to be linked to your online account to receive CSA notifications.
VonThun Farms will send out weekly CSA email including a pick up reminder, a share content list, and recipes, care & handling tips, and how-to video links. If you do not receive weekly emails, please let us know … we have no way of knowing. We suggest you keep an electronic folder for CSA email so you can refer back to them as need be.
Our new software was chosen to help streamline CSA Program efficiency and minimize time spent on administrative paperwork. While we realize that remembering to use our new software will take time, we hope CSA members will understand the need for all change requests to be made via their CSA account.
Once again, we THANK YOU for choosing us at VonThun’s to be YOUR farmers! We certainly appreciate your support and we promise to do our absolute best to provide you and your family with our fresh, healthy, local crops and an amazing CSA experience!
