About our CSA

CSA stands for Community Sustainable Agriculture. 

A CSA is a collection of consumers that agree to purchase products from a local farm (or group of farms) throughout a season.  Members purchase a “share” of the farm and each week go to the farm to pick-up or, have the product delivered to their town.  It is a creative way to eat locally and reduce your carbon footing! For the duration of the growing season, you know the farmer that is providing your fruits  and vegetables, and how they are being produced!

Silverbrook Farm is coordinating the Silverbrook Farm CSA. We partner with other farms (see below) to provide a wonderful diversity of fruits and vegetables offered at the peak of ripeness and freshness.  Our farmers select seed varieties for their taste. The large commercial growers must plant products that can tolerate mechanical harvesting and travel well over long distances.

At the Silverbrook Farm CSA you will find old favorites as well as a heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables that are not usually available in any super market.  All produce is freshly harvested on the pick-up day or the day before.

Another great benefit of owning one of our shares is that you are part of a farm family that donates thousands of pounds of good fresh food to charities every year.

Food is political and social.  Where you spend your food dollars makes a big difference to our environment and the local scenery. Spending your food dollars at super markets supports farms in foreign countries. Spending just a fraction of those dollars locally, you support local farms AND keep them from becoming housing developments or strip malls.

Michael Pollen states in his wonderful book, The Omnivores Dilemma, that five calories of petroleum are spent to produce one calorie of food. Most of this expense comes from trucking food long distances, to your table. Other petro-calories come from pesticides and fertilizers used in conventional agriculture. Buying local organic and sustainably grown produce means that you are reducing the effects of excessive petroleum use in agriculture (20% of our nations energy use!).  If everyone ate one local meal each week, the United States would save 57 million barrels of oil a year!

We promise to share your dollars with other local farms.  The Europeans say “Eat your view” meaning if you want farms in your community, you need to buy from them.  In other words, buying locally keeps green open  spaces in your town and helps to ensure that the means to produce food, will exist in your community.

 

Our Partner Farms

Our Farms are in Dartmouth and Westport, Massachusetts and are in a 6 mile radius from Silverbrook Farm:

About 50% of the produce in your share will originate from Silverbrook Farm.  The rest are from the following:

• Mendes - Sustainable
• Eva's Garden - Certified Organic
• Sylvan Nursery - Sustainably grown fruits and vegetables. (See home page for definition.)
• The King Farm - Sustainably grown vegetables. (See home page for definition.)
• Matte's Orchards - Conventional Fruits and Vegetables
• Hillside Farm - Conventional Corn Grower (Organically grown corn will have a worm on every cob.  Paul does not use genetically modified seed.)

Fruits & Vegetables You Can Expect in your Share:

We guarantee products that are local and fresh. You will experience the seasonal harvest of New England. Each week there will be a new mix of vegetables, fruits and herbs that are harvested that day or the day before. You will have the opportunity to try some new and tasty varieties of produce as well as many old favorites.

Depending on the month, you may receive:

Salad Greens	Tomatoes	Strawberries	String Beans	Beets
Peas	Basil	Cucumbers	Peppers	Squash
Pea Tendrils	Leeks	Garlic	Corn	Flowers
Raspberries	Blueberries	Grapes	Herbs	Spinach

Later in the season your share may also include:

Fingerling Potatoes	Onions	Winter Squash	Asian Pears	Turnips
Macomber Turnips	Broccoli	Carrots	Apples	Parsnips
Melons	Eggplant	Kale & Chard	Peaches	Currants