The support we receive from you and other CSA members is greatly appreciated! It provides both financial resources and a commitment to supporting our local beginning farmers, sustainable organic agriculture, and our education program through thick and thin. With this financial support comes certain risks based on many factors. CSA members share in the bounty of good growing seasons and the leanness of poor growing seasons due to unexpected things like crop damage from pests or bad weather. For example, the first two weeks of this season's half shares have been slightly smaller than usual due to the unusually cold spring months we experienced this year, which stunted farmers' plant starts and put us behind schedule about 2-3 weeks of where we'd usually be with CSA produce harvests.
As an aggregated CSA program, we source produce from over 15 different farm teams here at Big River Farms to fill your weekly veggie shares. Harvest estimates happen a week in advance since our farm teams sell their organic produce to many other local markets, including wholesale accounts (schools, nonprofit organizations, restaurants, etc.), food shelves, and farmers markets. CSA harvests typically happen the day prior to deliveries being made, every Tuesday.
The produce items listed in the weekly emails you receive are a best guest based on our harvest estimates and purchase orders given to each farm team. Oftentimes, we may be short or missing one or two produce items the day of packing CSA boxes because of unforeseen circumstances. It is not uncommon for substitutions to occur, which will be noted in the emails you receive each Wednesday. When items are missing, we replace them with other available ones. We do our very best to fulfill each CSA order based on our weekly harvest estimates and what is available from each farm team. While we all share in these risks, we also share in the reward of amazingly fresh, nutritious food grown right here in Minnesota. Thank you for being a Big River Farms CSA member!
