CSA

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you become a member of our farm community by purchasing a CSA share you’re investing in this year’s operation of our farm. In return, you receive a portion of the harvest we produce this year and we acquire up-front operating capital needed for seeds, supplies, infrastructure, and labor. 

By purchasing a share in our year's production you're sharing in both the rewards and the risks of producing a crop in interior Alaska. 

The rewards of farming are abundant harvests of wholesome food, and that's a joy we get to share with you. Our goal is to consistently overfill your shares, increasing the value of your investment. Any surplus beyond that will be sold at other markets, donated, or composted to build our soil health - all of which add to the value of your investment indirectly. In addition, we generally grow some trial crops. They may not produce enough to sell at market, but CSA members may find an unexpected melon or a unique variety of snap bean in their share that won't be seen anywhere else. And unlike a supermarket, you know where your food came from and how it was grown.

The risks of farming are reduced production or crop failures due to weather, pests, or other uncontrollable things like bad seed. We take considerable measures to minimize those risks, including:

• We start most crops indoors under grow lights, beginning as early as February.  

• We’ve invested in infrastructure like fencing, irrigation, row covers, and poly tunnels.

• We’ve worked to build soil health with aged manures, composts, soil tests by reputable labs, and appropriate soil amendments. 

• We have a multi-year crop rotation plan to minimize risks from host-specific pests and diseases. 

• We spend a little more to buy reliable seed from reputable suppliers. 

Still, risks can never be totally eliminated. If we have crop failures you may get a different mix of vegetables than we planned in some distributions. In the unlikely event of extensive crop failures, you may receive less produce than planned, though we will always do our best to fill in with substitutes when possible. 

It’s important to us that our CSA is a good fit for our members. To that end, here are some things to consider before you decide whether we’re the right farm for you to partner with.

Focus: Please look over our 2026 crop list. We're also growing some lettuce just to include in our CSA shares, but you should not expect an emphasis on salad greens. We focus on unique or less common varieties of staple vegetables that are foundations for great meals. 

Share Model: There are a lot of different styles of CSAs around, but we like to keep it simple while staying true to the character of our farm. We run a classic "farmer’s choice" CSA with one generous share size designed for 2-3 people. If you're looking for less, we encourage you to explore splitting a share with a friend. This allows us to keep our operations simple and focus on growing good food without being overtaken by adminstrative tasks. 

Peak Season: While we may offer longer CSA seasons in the future, this year is a 7-week "peak season" CSA running from mid-July to early September. 

CSA First: As an investor in our year's production, you come first. While we also sell at a farmers market, we'll always fill CSA shares first if the supply for an included crop is limited. 

Each week you'll receive lettuce, radish, scallions, and fresh herbs, plus 7 to 10 additional items. We aim for approximately 25 modest servings of vegetables, enough for 2-3 people for a week. Shares will tend to be a bit larger in mid-August and a bit smaller at the beginning and end of the CSA, but averaged over the seven weeks you should expect to receive a bit more produce than you would if you spent the CSA membership fee at our market booth. And, if we have surpluses or successful trials you'll likely receive considerably more. 

Each week's share will also include recipes to help you enjoy the contents, and we'll be perfectly happy to respond to e-mails or take phone calls (at reasonable hours) if you have questions about preparation. Note that we are emphasizing a unique selection of five summer squash varieties this year so you should expect some just about every week, but the five varieties are quite different and we've got lots of recipes to help keep them interesting.

Actual share contents will depend on actual harvests, but here are some realistic examples of what you might get:

Late July/early August: 1 head of lettuce, 1 bunch of French Breakfast radishes, 1 bunch of purple scallions, 1 bunch of mixed fresh herbs, 1 head of radicchio, 2 kohlrabi, 2 slicing cucumbers, 2 Mexican Gray squash, 1 pack of Dragon Tongue beans.

Mid- to late-August: 1 head of lettuce, 1 bunch of mixed round radishes, 1 bunch of white scallions, 2 heirloom tomatoes, 1 bunch of Swiss chard, 1 pack of sweet peppers, 2 bell peppers, 1 pack of mixed snap and snow peas, 1 bunch of badger flame beets, 2 ears of sweet corn.

PLUS, as a "founding member" willing to help us work out the kinks in our CSA processes, you'll get an end-of-season storage crop bag that is a bonus on top of the CSA share. Just like the shares, actual contents will depend on actual harvests, but this will contain crops such as spaghetti squash, winter squash, storage kohlrabi, hardneck garlic, potatoes, and onions.

You are responsible for picking up your share each week. If you cannot pick-up your share, you must arrange for someone else to pick it up for you. Shares that are not retrieved within the pick-up time will be donated to a food pantry or other charity, or sold at the farmers market. 

Pickup locations and times are to be determined. Our vision is to have pickups on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 near the Steese end of Chena Hot Springs Road, and 6:15-7:15 in the Pleasant Valley area. However, we're open to fine tuning to best meet the needs of those who sign up. 

The share fee is $275. We are only offering 5 shares for 2026, and it's first come, first served. We can accept a variety of payment methods.  If you're ready to sign up, send us an e-mail at whitefireweedfarmalaska@gmail.com or send us a mesage through our Facebook page and we'll get in touch to collect the necessary information and figure out what payment method works for you.