CSA Frequently Asked Questions
Cut Flower Frequently Asked Questions
CSA Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What exactly is a CSA?
A CSA, (short for Community or Customer Supported Agriculture), has become an increasingly popular way for consumers to buy direct from their local farmer and support local agriculture in the process.
The basic idea is simple: The farmer offers a certain number of CSA "shares" to the local public early in the growing season. Interested consumers purchase a "share", (aka a "deposit" or a "membership" or a "subscription"), and in return receive a set amount of the farm's seasonal goods, such as vegetables and flowers, each week throughout the growing season.
The CSA arrangement creates many benefits for the farmer and consumer and provides a very efficient model to conduct a small farm enterprise.
There are just as many ways to run a CSA as there are CSA members. No one CSA is the same and all farms who choose the CSA model find their own way to be successful in providing a CSA.
To put it simply, we run a CSA as more of a pre-season order system for our farmers market customers. This helps us as a small farmer remain competitive and profitable.
For example, by employing the CSA model we know exactly how many fruits, vegetables and flowers to grow prior to the season and avoid ordering unnecessary inventory and supplies that add to the costs of our farm.
Our online ordering system, http://www.springhavenfarms.com/market, not only helps with managing the CSA but provides our other customers the ability to pre-order garden produce, landscape flowers, and cut flower bouquets as well.
We have some informative links and videos for you to learn more about CSA's at our "What is a CSA" link or you may type in www.whatisacsa.com in your browser.
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Q. So the CSA sounds neat but what about if I miss a week? Do I lose the value of that week?
Our CSA Online Pickup System, administered through www.springhavenfarms.com/market, helps us to manage our pickups week to week.
Once you are signed up and either paid in full or set up on an automated payment plan, you will be registered for our CSA Online Pickup System.
If you will miss a week due to vacation or be out of town for any reason, you simply sign in and select a missed week request and we will know automatically not to bring your Flower CSA bouquet or Garden CSA box.
So if you miss a week, the value of that week remains on your balance to use for the next week. You are only charged against your balance when you schedule and checkout a pickup from our online order system.
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Q. A CSA is about "sharing the risk" between the farmer and customer. What does that truly mean and does that mean I lose my money if there is a risk to the crop?
Farmers take on great amount of risks each season to bring their commodity to market that many consumers are not aware of. It does not matter if the commodity is beef, lamb, pork, fruit and vegetables, cut flower bouquets, potted flower plants, honey, maple syrup, or even corn and soybeans. There are many factors that can impact farmers adversely that typical businesses do not readily deal with.
The impacts include pests, (such as predatory animals, insects, parasites, fungus, and invasive plants), and the weather (late or early frosts and freezes, hail storms, flash flooding and severe droughts). Any one of those factors or even others not mentioned, can have devasting impacts on a particular commodity that season and the farmer can quickly lose all the capital and labor invested.
The greatest benefit of the CSA is that the farmer can "share the risk" with the consumer. The CSA member helps the farmer by providing some capital earlier in the growing process and helps provide a more consistent marketplace of members than just bringing goods to a farmers market or selling online.
The early capital and consistent marketplace also allows for better planning for the season to assist in minimizing risks to the farm. This doesn't eliminate the risks, but it helps the farmer to minimize those risks and helps provide the farmer with the ability to better recover from those risks.
With our new CSA Online Pickup System, we can provide the CSA with the ability to retain the amount of your deposit in the system until it is deducted upon pickup, even if you miss a week due to vacation. The remaining balance is transferable between seasons, so if we somehow do not make it to the expected amount of CSA pickups each season, the remaining balance just transfers to next season.
There will always be a risk of the possibility that a commodity may get completely wiped out or significantly delayed for a season.
However with our online CSA pickup system, we are confident we can effectively manage to ensure you will always receive the full value of your subscription season to season!
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Cut Flower Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Are your cut flower stems available as wholesale?
We do offer our stems in bunches for wholesale. We can provide you an availability list either through email or FAX, when requested. If you’re interested in our stem bunches as wholesale, please contact us through the online "Contact Us" form above.
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Q. Can you provide your cut flowers for our upcoming wedding?
Yes, we would love to supply cut flower stems and custom designed bridal bouquets and flowers for your big day!
For the DIY bride, we can provide a set quantity of cut flower stems along with the necessary supplies needed to make your own bouquets, boutonnières, floral decorations, etc.
We also provide a full service, custom wedding floral design service. Our Weddings page gallery has a few examples of weddings we have designed for.
If you contact us early in the planning process, we can custom grow the flowers for you right here on the farm, or if we don't grow what you request we can source the specific flowers for you, even organic or sustainably grown flowers if you prefer!
If you are interested in us providing flowers for your wedding, please contact us by clicking on the "Contact Us" tab above. Select "Wedding Request" in the drop down and we will be in touch with more information!
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Q. We have a baby shower coming up and would like to have your flowers for that event. Can you provide flowers for such an event?
Yes, we can provide cut flower bouquets and custom floral decorations for any special event you may be having!
If we do not have the type of flowers growing on the farm that you prefer, we may be able to source your specific request for you, including organic or sustainably grown!
We just need a few weeks notice to prepare for your event, so please contact us by clicking on the "Contact Us" tab above and we will get started preparing for your special event!
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