Join Our CSA Today! 

Community Supported Agriculture is a movement that began in Massachusetts in 1985 in order to create a partnership between farmers and their consumers.  Today, most fresh fruits and vegetables purchased in the United States travel an average of 1,400 miles between the fields in which they are grown, and the kitchen tables on which they are consumed.  CSA’s mission is to create a connection between people and the healthy food they eat and the land on which it is grown. Today there are over 1200 CSA’s scattered across the United States. 
 
Since our inception, Kathy’s Pumpkin Patch believes in this mission and the importance of “local” food choices for our customers, family, and friends.  Because of this, for the past three years, we have been a member of “Buy Fresh, Buy Local,” a comprehensive marketing program for farmers selling directly to consumers, restaurants, grocery stores and other institutions.

Beginning in 2007, in order to take our dream one step further, we began offering an alternative to our current food system for our customers by offering our own “Veggie Venture” CSA.  Once again this year, we invite you to explore our CSA program, and get to know each of us that grow your food. 

Why join CSA? If you enjoy eating a variety of fresh summertime produce, but don't want to grow your own extensive garden or shop the Farmer’s Market on a weekly basis then joining a CSA is your answer!   Joining a CSA also allows you to share where your food comes from and how it is grown with your children, to enjoy the convenience of a weekly delivery with recipes and newsletter, and to enjoy the adventure of trying new things and sharing that excitement with your family.

Each week, your bag will include several varieties of in-season freshly picked vegetables from our farm. One bag will provide enough fresh veggies for several meals each week. A variety of recipes featuring our produce will also be given to each customer at the beginning of this year’s season. In addition, each customer will receive a weekly newsletter, through e-mail, that will talk about the “happenings” on our farm, pictures from our garden, and share helpful cleaning/storing tips and health benefits of the veggies you will be receiving, as well as mention what veggies you should expect to see in your bag the following week.

A typical early season “weekly share” bag would include—1 head of Romaine lettuce or 1 head of Bok Choy, 1 bunch of spinach, 2 bunches of radish, 1 bunch of green onions, a bunch of beets, carrots or kohlrabies, and one bundle of fresh rhubarb. Later season bags might feature one pound of green beans, 3-4 pounds of new potatoes, 2-3 cucumbers, 5-6 tomatoes, 2 summer squash, green peppers and/or eggplant. And of course, we hope to have sweet corn beginning in early July through the end of August.

We are not organically certified, but grow our veggies in a very environmentally friendly way. We use natural methods whenever possible to control insect pests. We never apply green manure to our veggie beds. With the exception of our herbs (washing rapidly deteriorates their shelf life), all produce is hand washed using the Rathbun Rural Water system. All produce is then rinsed with Tsunami® 100, an EPA registered antimicrobial water additive that reduces 99.9% of the pathogens Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica in harvested fruits and vegetables. All produce is immediately cooled after washing in our Veggie Barn coolers, and delivered to you the next morning.

In addition to our basic CSA, we also offer many add-ons including: an herb share, fresh flower share, fresh asparagus, an egg share, honey share, and a fresh bread share. For more information on our add-ons, please click on our membership form below.

If you are interested in joining please download our 2010 "Veggie Venture Membership Form" Then simply complete the form and mail or email it back to us! If you have any futher questions, please contact us at 319-470-1558.