CSA
What is CSA?
CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture.” Customers invest in the farm by committing to buy a weekly box of produce for the season early in the year. Our CSA model here at Fifth Crow is that of a single-farm CSA; meaning we grow 100% of the food included in every share. Everything we produce is Certified Organic by CCOF. Our flowers are also Certified Bee Friendly and our poultry production is also Animal Welfare Approved.
By choosing to be a Fifth Crow CSA member, you are making a commitment to help support a small, sustainable, local business that feeds, clothes, and houses 30+ farmers and their families. In addition, the longer term commitment between farmer and customer leads to a more personal relationship and greater community building between producer and eater as well as between CSA members who share an interest in sustainable agriculture and good food. Want to preserve the beauty of San Mateo’s Coastside? You can do it one bite at a time by forging a connection between your family and our sustainable, organic farm.
Perks of being a CSA member!
- Save money (we value CSA produce at a discount from our market prices)
- Get first priority on our eggs and flowers by getting a regular add-on subscription.
- Exclusive seasonal offers through our CSA website
- Opportunity to try foods that may never be available at our farmers’ market stall or seen in grocery stores
- Building real community with your farmer and neighbors
- Learning about your food and where it’s coming from
- Access fresher and higher quality food than the grocery store!
- Keep your hard-earned dollars in your hyper-local community
- Receive a weekly newsletter that includes fun facts about your food, preparation ideas and tips, farm happenings, and shared photos & recipes from fellow CSA members
About Our CSA
Our CSA is now offered through HARVIE, an online platform that will allow us to offer a more customized and user-friendly CSA experience.
For $30/week, you get a weekly box of 8-10 items based on the preferences you set when you sign up. Each week you will receive an e-mail with a list of what will be in your box and you have 24-48 hours to make any swaps or adjustments you want before we pick and deliver it to a site near you. What will be in your box? From dry beans, to baby greens we grow a huge assortment of what can be grown here on the central coast and are known for having the highest quality and tastiest stuff out there. More info about what we offer can be found under the “what we grow” tab on this website, or on HARVIE.
We are proud to grow EVERYTHING in your box. We don’t buy in produce.
We offer many adjustments to make CSA work for our diverse clientele:
- Every week too much? Choose pick up every other week.
- Don’t like what’s in the box? Swap items.
- Want a bit more for family visiting? Easily add on extras.
- Don’t ever want to eat beets ever? Set your preferences and when we’ve got beets they’ll go just to the beet lovers.
- Want the box just like it’s always been? Don’t select preferences and get the “farmer’s choice” CSA box you know and love.
Not ready to be a regular committed weekly or bi-weekly member? Sign up for our online “Farmstand“ and you will get e-mails when we have produce, flowers, eggs, and special items for sale. There is a minimum purchase of $35, and these shares are available for pick up at any of our current Farmers’ Markets or here at the farm in Pescadero (Sundays from 10am-5pm).
The order window is Wednesday morning-Friday 5:30am.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's in a CSA box if I don't set preferences?
Each box includes 8 – 10 items, rotating within the categories below depending on what’s in season:
- Baby head lettuce (varieties vary)
- A root crop (carrots, beets, turnips, radishes)
- A bag of pre-washed baby greens (baby arugula, baby kale, spring salad mix, mesclun salad mix, or spinach)
- A brassica (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage)
- An allium (leeks, onions, shallots, spring onions, chives)
- Fruit (strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, and from July-November apples from our 27-variety heirloom orchard, and pears when possible).
- An herb (dill, cilantro, basil, thyme, oregano, sage, etc.)
- PLUS another 1 – 3 seasonal items: bunching greens, summer squash, winter squash, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, tomatoes, baby artichokes, poblano or sweet peppers, green beans, cucumbers, and more…!
- You will also receive a pound of our heirloom dry beans monthly (which you can swap out of the box if you choose)
Where can I pick up my weekly box?
We offer many pickup sites throughout the bay area, including Thursday (3-8pm) pickup at member-hosted sites and weekend pickup at our farmers’ market booths (9-1 or 2pm). An interactive map of our pickup sites is available on HARVIE. If you have any questions or if there isn’t a site in your neighborhood, please email [email protected] . Interested in hosting? We need a minimum of 8 – 10 people to add your site as a delivery/pick-up location, and site hosts receive $200 off their share.
How much does it cost?
$30/week for the 27 weeks from May-Nov. Want more in a given week? You can easily swap items and add on additional items to your box each week based on your needs.
What if I take a vacation?
In order to consistently grow the produce for our customers we have to plan months in advance. For this reason and the complicated logistics, we do not refund boxes if you decide to cancel. However, we offer options:
1. Find a neighbor or friend who will pick up your box in your stead (makes a great bonus for your house-sitter).
2. Give us a full week’s notice and you can cancel a box and schedule an extra box at a later date
3. With a full week’s notice we will donate your box to a local non-profit.
4. If you know your vacation dates at the time of registration, you can give us those and we will prorate your invoice accordingly. We allow up to 8 weeks to be prorated for the May-Nov. season. We must know the dates at the time you register. Fill out the registration and pay the minimum amount, then e-mail us with the dates and we will adjust the remaining balance.
What is the pick-up etiquette?
Each pick-up site has specific hours for pick up. Farmers’ Market pick-ups happen during market hours; private site hours vary depending on the specific host but most pick-up hours are 3pm to 8pm. The site hosts are volunteers and are not paid. Please respect the hosts and only pick up during specified times. They are not required to make special accommodations if you can’t pick up your box or forget. Boxes that are not picked up during pick-up hours will not be available or held for later.
Is this right for me?
A CSA can be a wonderful learning experience but, is it right for you? Before committing you should consider the following: Can I use 8 – 10 vegetable items a week? Can I commit to picking up my weekly share during pick-up hours?
If a CSA share isn’t right for you there are still ways to support a local farm. Come to the farmers’ market! Choose locally produced food over imported items at your grocery store. Support organizations that help out small farms like CAFF, OFRF, and Wild Farm Alliance and teach your kids about where their food comes from!
Can I visit the farm?
We encourage and welcome your visits to the farm. We hold an annual Open House which is a great time to meet us, see the farm and meet fellow CSA members and Fifth Crow eaters. That said you are always welcome to stop by and see where your food is coming from. Bring good shoes and be prepared to walk yourself around- we’re pretty busy so we likely won’t be able to tour, but we want you to know this is your farm too.
CSA Add-ons
Pasture Raised Organic Eggs
Eggs will be available as add-ons depending on supply on a weekly basis. We currently have a waitlist for subscription egg shares. If you would like eggs, please e-mail [email protected] to be added. We will re-distribute egg shares that become available by order on our waitlist.
Flower Shares
Receive $18 worth of organic flowers each week at the discounted rate of $17.
New: Farm Preserves Share!
Get a weekly jar of delectable jams, pickles, and more, custom-made from Fifth Crow produce by (mostly) Happy Girl Kitchen. We offer most of these unique hand made products as extras each week, but if you know you enjoy them and want to get something each week and also try some of the limited items we don’t have listed, this share might be for you. By signing up, you also receive a roughly 20% discount off the retail price. What might you get? Jam (strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, mixed berry), canned apple cider, fresh live sauerkraut, dilly beans, pickled carrots, garden bouquet pickles, salsa, crushed dry-farm tomatoes, and more.
New: Bean Club Share!
While beans are always available as extras, and 1-2 varieties are available for swapping each week, some of you are major bean lovers! Want to be sure to get beans in your box? Consider signing up for the Bean Club. You’ll receive a different variety every other week for a total of 14 lbs for the season. Eat them right away or stock them up for the winter months. The share costs $90, a roughly 20% saving off retail price. Save a bit of money and get to try some of the special varieties of limited quantity that won’t be available online.
Member Subsidized Shares
We want to improve access to the nutritious food we grow. We know that the initial cost to join the CSA is prohibitive for some. This year we’ve decided to launch what we’re calling our “Member Subsidized Share Fund”. What you donate via our HARVIE menu will be used to reduce the cost for others for whom the CSA is a financial hardship. We will also be offering a way to contribute weekly in the “Extras” when you customize your box.
Partner products:
CSA members can get more of their weekly shopping done through our CSA because of our partnerships with local businesses. We deliver products from the following Partners to your pick up site. You can sign up for these add on shares on our website at the time of registration.
*Add-on products from our Partner Farms are not Certified Organic
Markegard Family Grass-Fed
provides the community with locally born, raised, and processed certified grass-fed and finished beef/ lamb and pasture raised chicken/ pork. We are 100% grass-fed certified by the American Grass-Fed Association and were the first California ranch to be certified Bird Friendly by the National Audubon Society. Our philosophy in grazing is to manage the cattle herd to simulate the large herds of Elk and Antelope which once roamed California’s grasslands. We accomplish this by keeping the herd moving with Holistic planned grazing, so as never to overgraze an area, but to stimulate growth and grass-land health through properly timed grazing. We look forward to serving you and your family with the freshest, healthiest local meats in the Bay Area!
Steadfast Herbs
Steadfast Herbs is a small herb farm located just down the road from Fifth Crow Farm where they use organic practices to grow over 60 varieties of medicinal plants on one acre of land. In addition to offering fresh cut herbs, they also make small batch teas, tinctures and salves from the plants that they grow in order to support folks in caring for their physical, mental and emotional health. This year Steadfast Herbs’ remedies will be available as a weekly optional extra purchase. No need to subscribe, just buy it when you need and get it packed in your Fifth Crow Box. For more info visit steadfastherbs.com
Root Down Farm
Root Down Farm is a queer-owned pasture-based poultry and pig farm located in Pescadero, CA, just a few miles down the road from Fifth Crow Farm. Our mission is to humanely raise the healthiest animals possible, while working within our ecosystem to responsibly steward the land and improve soil health. We work with various breeds of animals to balance our humane standards with the meat folks want to eat. Our animals roam the pastures, are fed an organic, non-GMO grain and are never given any hormones.
Companion Bakeshop
NEW THIS YEAR!!! Companion Bakeshop was created in 2006 for the Santa Cruz Farmers Markets. We opened our first location on the Westside of Santa Cruz in 2011. We bake organic sourdough breads and pastries daily. We value our coastal community, nestled between Farmland and Redwoods, and love supporting our local farms and purveyors. Together, our Companion Teams work hard for our community, our food system, and our love for turning great ingredients into delicious pastry & bread.
City Bees Honey
City Bees’ hives are cared for using only organic methods to maintain colony health and vigor. Robert also manages hives right here at Fifth Crow. Take a tasting tour of the Bay by trying beekeeper Robert MacKimmie’s one-of-a-kind micro-climate honeys from around the Bay, where hills, valleys and their proximity to summer fog are as varied as the diversity of plants. This bounty of blossoming nectar sources creates rich and distinctive flavors of honey. Keep your eye out for that Fifth Crow honey!