JUMP TO OUR SIGNUP WIZARD
If you're ready to sign up for our CSA, go here!
If you want to know more, read on.
(Signup Checklist) (Pickup Locations) (Prices)
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE BOX
"We so appreciate these delicious fruits
and vegetables! And mission accomplished – our fifteen year old son is
eating them! We really enjoy the newsletter also." – Adrianne, Glenn and
Kyle Wojnar
"Dear Farmer Tom and All your Crew, My husband
and I would like to thank you for all the hard work and caring that goes
into providing us with nutritious, tasty, locally grown, and sustainable
fruits and vegetables throughout the year. As we enjoy them every week
we are grateful for your effort and judgment in the field. We wanted
you to know how much we apprediate the opportunity to participate in your
program. Thank you!" – Zara Dee Mehta
"The veggies and fruit are delicious! How
can I eat anything else now!?"
– Heather McKenna
"It's a real luxury to have this tremendous
bounty of great food, and even better knowing that it's being produced
in a way that's good for the earth, the farmer, the workers, and everyone
involved." – Heather Murdock
"My children loved visiting the farm and want to be reassured that the veggies
on their plates are from their farm."
(a sentiment expressed by more
than one parent!)
"We first learned about Live Earth Farm last year when a friend
of mine started sharing her 'extra' produce with me. We thought we had
been eating 'real' food already, but realized we hadn't when we tasted
your produce - truly phenomenal!" – Amanda Kelly
"Dear Tom and Debbie, Thank you for all the hard work you do, - not just getting
us our lovely and nutritious vegetables and fruits - but for the thoughtfulness
you put into the newsletters; sharing your beliefs, opinions and concerns for
our world; for the care with which you tend your farm, your crops and your staff;
for your humanity, integrity and morality. Our family is happier, healthier,
more hopeful, I think, for being part of your CSA family. And for that, we are
most grateful." – Terry, Joe and Phillip Hingston
WHY JOIN OUR CSA?
Fresh and locally grown. Most of our fruits and vegetables are harvested only hours before they are packed into your box, and then the box goes right into our cooler.
By the next morning that box is out on delivery to you, so you are receiving produce that barely 24 hours earlier was growing in the field. Can't get
much fresher than that! And we're right here in Watsonville, so the farthest our deliveries go is 60 miles or so. Typically the produce in a grocery store is 7-14 days old and has traveled hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles.
Superior flavor. We plant varieties for flavor, not durability! And to ensure the best flavor and nutritional value, we pick everything at its
optimum stage of ripeness.
Know where your food dollar goes. By purchasing directly from the farm, your entire food dollar goes back into the local economy and supports the farmer, local farmworker families, and sound
ecological agricultural practices.
Connect to the people and the land. Get to know the land and the people who grow your food! The farm is always open for CSA members to visit. Throughout the season we organize community
events and educational programs to facilitate a closer connection to the farm. (Farm Events and Calendar)
100% organically grown. You can be assured all produce is grown organically. We go beyond what the law requires. We want to grow food that is vibrant and alive. We
nurture and grow a healthy soil, grow cover crops to rest and replenish the soil, and practice detailed crop rotations. There is
no question that by "growing" a healthy soil, plants are stronger and more resistant to pests and diseases. Healthier plants grow healthier people.
Weekly Farm News and Recipes. Every week with your share you will receive a newsletter
filled with farm related information. Learn what's happening on 'your' farm, get recipes
for preparing what's in the box, read stories about sustainable farming issues (political, spiritual, economical and ecological), events, nutrition, etc.
SIGNUP CHECKLIST
Regular Season or Winter Season? (Hint: usually the Regular Season. Our Winter Season has fewer subscribers and usually sells out to
Regular Season members through an email offer.) In 2010 our Regular Season will be 34 weeks long, beginning the last day
of March/1st day of April and ending the week before Thanksgiving in November. To learn more about our Winter Season, reveal the details.
Winter Season
The winter season is different than our regular season:
- Only 400 Winter Shares. We only offer 400 Winter Shares (as opposed to our regular season when we are capable of offering 800 shares). Consequently signups for this are typically limited to our existing membership only. However - in the event all Regular Season members have signed up for Winter that want one and we still have some left, we will offer Winter Shares to waitlisters on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Fewer pick-up locations (see table below).
- Pick-up days and times are different (see same table).
- All deliveries Thursdays only (no Wednesday deliveries).
- 8 Weeks, not every week. The Winter Season consists of only 8 delivery weeks, and is NOT delivered every week like during the Regular season. They are delivered on a specific schedule: 3 weeks in a row between Thanksgiving and Christmas, then a break for the next 3 weeks (the weeks encompassing Christmas and New Year's), then starting the second week of January you'll get a share every other week through the second week of March. There is then a 2 week break before the start of the next regular season in April.
- Only one share size. No "Family" or "Small" sizes; it's just the "Winter Share." The amount you get in each box may vary from week to week (for example, we try to 'bulk up' the share before Christmas, so you'll have a good amount to get you through), but everyone gets the same thing.
- Bread, Eggs, and Preserves! Although there are no winter Fruit options, there will be Bread and Eggs available, plus new for winter 2009: we will be offering a Preserves Option!
- Extras. The shares will still include special 'extras' like home canned tomatoes from our own tomatoes and basil (like last year), and preserves made from our summer fruit.
What's In The Box? – Winter Share 2009
| Fruit: |
Veggies: |
| Apples |
Broccoli |
Kale |
| Pineapple guavas |
Beets (golden and red) |
Leeks |
| Avocados (another farm's) |
Brussels sprouts |
Lettuce |
| Oranges (another farm's) |
Cabbage (Napa, red, green) |
Onions (another farm's) |
| |
Carrots |
Parsnips (Mariquita farm's) |
| Bonus items: |
Cauliflower |
Potatoes |
| Canned LEF tomatoes |
Chard |
Radishes |
| Preserved LEF fruit! |
Collard greens |
Rutabagas and turnips |
| |
Fennel |
Winter squash: butternut, acorn, delicata,
sweet dumpling |
| |
Green garlic |
Cost – Winter Share 2009
$280 |
for the share itself (i.e, for 8 delivery weeks) |
$24 |
per egg option – each 'option' equals a half-dozen eggs per delivery
week. Remember to
order more eggs than you normally do, as you do not receive them every
week |
$48
|
per bread option (each 'option' equals one loaf per delivery week) |
$128 |
per preserves option (three preserved items per week) |
There is just a flat cost, no monthly payment options, no special discounts.
Pick-up Locations and times – Winter Share 2009
Address and directions to pick-up sites will be emailed to all members
before the start of the Winter season.
| Santa Clara County: |
pick-up times: |
| Los Gatos - University Ave. |
1pm - 7pm |
| East Los Gatos |
1pm - 7pm |
| Sunnyvale |
1pm - 7pm |
| Mountain View |
1pm - 7pm |
| Palo Alto - Downtown |
1pm - 7pm |
| Palo Alto - Professorville |
1:30pm - 7pm |
| Santa Clara |
2:30pm - 7pm |
| Willow Glen |
2:30pm - 7pm |
| Morgan Hill |
3:30pm - 7pm |
| Gilroy |
4pm - 8pm |
| Santa Cruz County: |
pick-up times: |
| Watsonville (here at the farm) |
9am - 7pm |
| Aptos |
10am - 7pm |
| Soquel |
10am - 7pm |
| Seabright |
11am - 7pm |
| Downtown Santa Cruz |
11am - 7pm |
| West Santa Cruz - Baldwin |
12pm - 7pm |
| Scotts Valley - Skypark |
12:30pm - 7pm |
Remember: IT GETS DARK EARLY! Site hosts should have lights on for when it's dark, however please bring a flashlight just in case.
Pick-up Schedule – Winter Season 2009
Remember, all pick-ups are on THURSDAYS
November 18 and 19 - last CSA shares of the regular
season |
<no share Thanksgiving week> |
first winter share
Week 1: December 3, 2009 |
Week 2: December 10, 2009 |
Week 3: December 17, 2009 |
<no share for the three weeks encompassing Christmas
and New Year's> |
Week 4: January 14, 2010 |
<no share January 21st> |
Week 5: January 28, 2010 |
<no share February 4th > |
Week 6: February 11, 2010 |
<no share February 18th > |
Week 7: February 25, 2010 |
<no share March 4th > |
Week 8: March 11th, 2010
last winter share! |
Regular 2010 CSA season begins March 31st/April
1st 2010 |
Family Share or Small Share? The Family Share is designed for a family of four, the Small Share for a couple. Check any of our newsletters to see the difference in quantity and variety. A vegetarian family, large households, or co-ops may want to buy two or more
Family Shares; a bigger family that doesn't
cook every day, but still wants fresh, local and organic produce in their diet, may want to start with a Small Share.
Extra Fruit? Fruit Bounty? The Extra Fruit Option is 29 weeks of additional fruit starting in May and
running through the end of the season. We call it 'Extra' Fruit for a reason: although you get some fruit with your Share, this option adds
greater quantity and
more variety.
If you are a fruit lover, you'll want this! Please note: our Extra Fruit option sells out early, often before the season starts.
The Bounty Option is 15 floating weeks of additional fruit. Your bounty will come in on those weeks when we're flush with a fruit crop (you're guaranteed 15
weeks of additional fruit by the end of the season).
The difference between "Extra Fruit" and "Bounty" is: 29 steady weeks
vs. 15 floating weeks; the per-week cost and quantity is the same.
How much more fruit do you get? In 2008 "Extra Fruit" and "Bounty"
members started with 3, 4, then 5 baskets of strawberries each week; another week they got 2 baskets of
strawberries and 2 baskets of apricots; another week was 2 of strawberries, 1 of apricots, and a bag of
plums; yet another was 2 of apricots, 2 of blackberries and 2 of strawberries; yet another (as our fall
bounty arrived) was a bag of apples, a bag of pears, and a basket of our sumptuous sungold cherry tomatoes!
You can feel the bounty of the seasons evolve with these options.
The fruit in these
options evolves slowly over the course of the season, starting with lots of
fabulous strawberries in the spring (strawberries most of the season, actually!).
Coming into the summer you will see (whenever
they ripen) blackberries, raspberries, plums, apricots, and delicious concord
grapes, followed by apples (4-5 different varieties) and pears (French butter
pears) and pineapple guavas. Sometimes we supplement our fruit offerings
with fruit from other local, organic growers – things like avocados and kiwis.
Check any of our newsletters to see what fruits we've delivered in the past. See our Harvest
Schedule for an idea of when our fruits ripen.
Pastured Eggs? There is a world of difference between "Pastured" and "Free Range
Organic" eggs. Eggs from grass-fed or 'pastured' chickens (the only kind we offer) are healthier on four counts: healthier for the chickens, the farmers, the environment AND the consumer – that's you! Learn more about our CSA's eggs, where they come from, and why you want to make this particular
distinction when selecting eggs to feed your family. Important Note: each
Egg Option is a half-dozen, so if
you want a dozen per week, be sure to request 2 'Options'. (Pastured Eggs)
Bread Option? Get a freshly handmade loaf of artisanal bread each week with your share! The bread share is CSA-style: you don’t select what type of
loaf you get; instead, the baker varies the loaves each week. Erin of Companion Bakers has made us 3-seed
(sunflower, sesame, poppy) whole wheat, plain whole wheat, caraway rye, whole wheat and flax seed, and whole wheat and sesame seed loaves... and promises more special loaves! (Olive
bread? Rosemary and garlic? Maybe a special ingredient from the farm?) If you love bread,
you will love this!! Learn more about this wonderful option; for a slice of Live Earth Farm history, reveal the details. (Bread Option)
How the bread share came to be...
In July 2001 we
built a straw and clay domed wood-fired oven here
on the farm, and the following season baked a small number of bread shares for
our fledgling CSA program. The oven, nicknamed "Toastie," still stands
today (2010), and many of you have had a chance to see it in action during our seasonal
celebrations. (And we now have a Toastie 2!)
The experience of baking 40 to 50 loaves every week for an entire season, however,
convinced me that I couldn't be Farmer and Baker at the same time. But then in 2007, when I met Erin Justus from Companion Bakers selling her baked
goods at the Santa Cruz farmer's market, the idea of offering our CSA members
tasty, rustic loaves of freshly baked bread was rekindled. So for our Winter
CSA that year we did a sort of pilot program. Erin baked some wonderful loaves of bread
for our winter members and they were a hit, so I am excited about diversifying
our shares by offering her bread to our regular season members!
Erin shares very similar values and reasons in her passion for baking as we do
for farming, and that is to offer our community food that is tasty, of high quality,
and produced locally in a sustainable way. Her breads are truly artisan loaves;
each is hand made, from her own sourdough starter. Erin also enjoys inspiring
others to bake, by teaching classes, offering workshops and job internships.
Currently she is in the process of building her own wood-fired brick oven in
what she hopes will develop into a community bakery in Santa Cruz. I am happy
to welcome Erin and her wonderful Bakery as a part of Live Earth Farm's CSA and
encourage everyone to sign up for one of her bread shares this season.
- Tom
Near a Pick-Up Location? During our regular season, Live Earth Farm delivers shares to multiple
pick-up locations throughout Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Each week, you go to your chosen location during the time allotted, and pick
up your fruit, vegetables and options to take home with you (we do not offer
door-to-door delivery). Some locations get shares on Wednesdays, others on Thursdays.
None near your home or work? Don't panic. Reveal the details below for the most up-to-date list of our pick-up locations. And if nothing's convenient, send us an email so we know where to consider adding a pick-up location.
OUR PICK-UP LOCATIONS BY COUNTY
Santa Clara/San Mateo County
Santa Cruz County
Monterey County
To protect the privacy of our pick-up site hosts, we only describe the vicinity of sites other than the farm. Once you are signed up we will email you the address, directions, and pick-up details. Details occasionally change, so please go by the information in the email.
PRICES FOR 2010
| Share Choices |
Cost per week |
Cost for full season |
| Family Share |
$34 |
$1156 for 34 weeks |
| Small Share |
$29 |
$986 for 34 weeks |
| |
|
|
| Optional Add-ons |
Cost per week |
Cost for full season |
| Extra Fruit Option |
$13 |
$377 for 29 weeks (May - Nov) |
| "Fruit Bounty" Option |
$13 |
$195 for 15 floating weeks |
| Pastured Eggs Option |
$3 per half-dozen |
$102 for 34 weeks |
| Bread Option |
$6 |
$204 for 34 weeks |
• Please note: "Options"
are NOT available a la carte – only as additions to a Family or Small
share
• These are Regular Season rates. For Winter Season rates, see Winter Season above. |
Payment Plans: The CSA concept embodies paying the farmer in advance
for the season. Most people pay via credit card or Paypal, but we also have two-payment and monthly payment
plans by check. For more info, reveal the details.
Payment Methods. We take payment by check, credit card or PayPal.
Payment Plans
The CSA concept embodies paying the farmer in advance
for the season, however for those who cannot afford to pay the full amount
at one time, we also have our two-payment and monthly payment
plans, which allow you to spread your payments out over the season.
How do I sign up?
Since there often is more demand for our CSA shares than we
are able to supply, we need to control the number of signups we take in so
that we don't oversubscribe. Fortunately we have started using a new CSA
signup system, which keeps track for us.
If space is available you will be able to sign up; if you end up on our waiting
list, we will contact you when space becomes available.
When do I pay?
We always request
some sort of deposit* at signup (to reserve your
share combination), and
then you pay your balance due according to one of our payment
plans.
*between October and January, the deposit is a flat fee ($200/share, $50/option);
the rest of the year it is the first payment of whichever payment plan you
choose. Either way, your deposit is always applied towards your total share
cost (i.e. your balance due is your total share cost less any
deposit you have paid).
Registering for each new season
Currently, every member must sign up anew each
season; being a member one season does not guarantee your membership in the
next (including winter). You must re-sign up for each season. We
generally begin Registration for our next Regular Season (and for
the Winter Season!) during the fall of the current season. Notification is
sent out by email to our existing members the beginning of October. October
is reserved exclusively for members to 're-enlist'
(i.e. before we begin allowing waitlisters to sign up). Starting in November,
we open up Registration to people on our waiting list as well, and then continue
to take signups until we are full.
How/when will I know I'm getting
the share combination I wanted?
We email everyone a Confirmation upon receipt
of signup AND payment. If you are paying
by credit card, your signup and payment are simultaneous. If you choose the pay-by-check
option, however, merely completing the signup process does not secure
your share – you
also need to mail us your check(s). We email you your confirmation when
we receive them. Note
that in the pay-by-check scenario, the bounce-back email you get immediately
upon signing up is NOT your confirmation, it is simply an acknowledgement that
your signup was sent successfully. You need to mail the checks.
OUR POLICIES
You may want to read how we handle payment issues,
pausing your delivery for your vacation, share-splitting, and so on.
You especially should read our Pick-Up Protocol: it's nothing that unusual, but following it is really important to everyone's enjoyment of the CSA. (Our Policies) (Pick-Up Protocol)
MEET OUR SIGNUP WIZARD!
If you're ready to sign up for our CSA, go here. The secure signup wizard is new in 2010, prepared in collaboration with Farmigo, a CSA software company.
