Welcome Farmers!

What is a CSA?

As a farmer you may already know what Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is, but you may not.  The first official CSA farms originated in Asia and Japan, and were introduced to North America in the early 1980s.  In a traditional CSA, people in the community invest in a local farm by purchasing a share of the farm’s produce.  Shareholders--or members--in turn receive a portion of the farm’s produce every week, typically for 20 weeks of the growing season (although some CSAs now go year round). 

Shares are generally paid prior to the growing season in order to provide CSA farmers income needed for the costs associated with the beginning of the growing season.  In this sense, a CSA creates a market for the farmer in a time when the amount of produce available for sale is limited.  The price of a CSA share is meant to be fair for both producer and consumer.  Because the producer saves money by avoiding distributors and retailers, savings can be passed on to consumers who pay less than they would at grocery stores or farmers markets.  The price of the Growing Whatcom CSA is $450, and for this price consumers receive a weekly Whatcom County harvest share for 20 weeks!  This amount will allow us to purchase premium produce from a variety of farms at a fair price, while still making it affordable to the consumers.

A Non-Traditional CSA

The Growing Whatcom CSA is a non-traditional CSA.  For the consumers, this CSA is like others in that each week they will receive a delivery of fresh, local farm produce.  However, they enjoy the benefits of receiving a wide variety of food from the many farms that their share supports.

In our multiple-farm CSA, the initial funds go to cover administrative expenses incurred by Growing Washington in order to organize and facilitate the CSA.  Although your farm will not receive all of the money at the beginning of the season (this is why it is still attractive to have your own CSA going), the benefit of this system is that it offers you a consistent, community building market for your produce, much in the spirit of old-time farmers cooperative.  Our CSA allows great flexibility for growers, very little risk or responsibility, and gives customers the absolute best of what Whatcom County farmers have to offer.  This system also relieves you from much of the preparation that goes into a traditional CSA.  All you have to do is harvest the agreed upon produce and Growing Washington will take care of the rest:  In the beginning of the season we will take the lead advertising, recruiting new members, and working out the technical details inherent to CSA operations.  During the season we will provide transportation from your farm to customers, will pack the boxes with produce from the numerous farms to create one appealing CSA box, and will provide pick-up points for customers. 

The pilot season of 2007 was incredibly successful, and all participants enjoyed the project.  We are extremely excited about the prospects for the 2008 season.  Farmers chose which of their items to sell and had a say as to what constituted a “fair price” for their product.  Walter Haugen of F.A. Farm in Ferndale is satisfied with this system.  “I grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota and we had to take whatever price the creamery gave us for our milk and whatever price the elevator gave us for our grain. In short, we were price-takers, the usual trap for commodity farmers. Now, the Growing Whatcom CSA allows me to be a price-maker."  
           

When he is not busy harvesting ladies, a topless Walter Haugen
can often be found harvesting fresh items, like these cukes, from
his F.A. Farm in Ferndale.

How it works

The ordering system

Growing Washington will arrange with you in advance what items you will supply the CSA.  Because much of farming is difficult to predict, and we never know exactly which of ours will be a bumper crop, our ordering system is flexible.  While we will count on you to provide the products that you sign up for, the beauty of the multiple farm CSA is that we always have back-up farms with back-up products.  This arrangement allows you to plan part of your operations around the CSA, but also reduces the stress and unhappy customers if things don’t go exactly as planned in your fields

You will receive a phone call or email (it is up to you) from Growing Washington early each week.  As our CSA fulfillment day is Thursday, you will need to arrange which items you would like to sell by Tuesday at the latest.  You are not obligated to sell every week, and in fact the CSA will not be able to accommodate every farm each week.  Our first hope is to create a stable market for farmers, but our second hope is to also help farmers sell their products quickly when necessary. 

Getting Paid

You will invoice Growing Washington each time we come to pick-up your produce and will receive a prompt payment in return.  Growing Washington asks that you discount your produce by 15-20% from the retail value in order to cover the administrative, transportation, and infrastructural services we’ll provide.

Depending upon the number of shares we sell as a team and your farm’s proposed participation in the CSA, Growing Washington is not opposed to the possibilities of working out an arrangement where your farm receives advance payment for future crops.  However, when creating this multiple farm CSA we studied other models, most notably the now-defunct Pike Place CSA, and tried to avoid the common pitfalls that these CSA programs endured (this was one such pitfall).    

The Final Product

The best part of the entire project is seeing how tremendously beautiful each CSA box is, and knowing that each of our customers is enjoying the absolute best variety and quality that Whatcom County farms have to offer.  Growing Washington includes a list in each box, and your farm will be listed with the items you have included.  This is a fun way for our customers to become acquainted with the particular produce of each farm, as well as a nice way to promote your farm.  We would like to include a newsletter about each farm throughout the season, so if you already have literature about your farm, we would love to have access to it.  Otherwise, we will work with you to write a brief biography about you and your operation.  Also included in each box are recipes that make use of one or more items included in that week’s box.  If you have recipes you’d like to share with our members, please let us know.  The boxes are packed and distributed at the new Local Food Exchange in downtown Bellingham at 1314 Railroad Avenue on Thursdays. 

Requirements

Sustainable Farming Practices

Growing Washington supports sustainable agricultural practices.  We offer to consumers in our community a stamp of approval on the produce we deliver to them.  This means that the farms we do business with should be emblematic of 1) fair wages and good working conditions for its employees, 2) minimal impact on the surrounding ecosystems and 3) safe and nutritious produce offered to the consumer.  We do not require that you possess organic certification, yet we hold the right to be informed of your practices so that we are being honest to the consumer when we vouch for the quality of the produce and practices of the farmers we work with. 

Recruiting New Members

As a participating farm in The Growing Whatcom CSA, it is also required that you make an attempt at recruiting customers for this CSA.  Although no farm will be prevented from partaking in the CSA without having recruited new shareholders, we urge you to contribute to the building of our membership—this is in the best interest of our entire cooperative.  Although Growing Washington is the lead agency, and will gladly provide a leadership role on recruitment of new members, will handle administration and transportation, and will work closely with each participating farm, we believe that the project is strengthened when we are all providing food to those in community that we know and love.  This CSA is a collaborative effort at building another market for all of us, so we ask that all farm members try to successfully recruit 5-10 shareholders each.  Upon signing up to become a participating farm, you will receive brochures and other advertising materials for the CSA, and we will also provide an online sign-up option at www.growingwashington.org

Sound Good to You?  Great!  Farmer Applications are now Being Accepted!

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