2021 CSA Program

What would it be like if we sat down to a meal that helped a local farm, helped us eat healthier, and helped reverse climate change? If the food we ate helped heal the environment, and ourselves? It would be delicious.

Do you like trying new things or cooking vegetables you've never heard of before? Join our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Unlike most CSAs, we want to offer you the power of choice! Each week you'll get to choose a portion of your favourite veggies right from our Farm Market - no need to request substitutions or dread that one vegetable you just don't enjoy.

We connect people with the food they eat, the land it comes from and the farmer who grows it. Community Supported Agriculture is a system that supports small scale farmers by guaranteeing a market for their produce, builds a direct relationship between families and the farm, and allows supporters to receive a premium selection of local naturally grown farm produce to supplement their meals throughout the growing season.

We grow 150 varieities of vegetables, berries and apples - from the staples like potatoes of all colours, carrots of all colours, onions and lettuce, to delicious heritage tomatoes of all colours, beets of all colours, cabbage, cauliflower of all colours, cucmbers, kale of all colours, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, bok choi, Swiss chard, Japanese spinach, French sorrel, edible flowers, culinary and tea herbs.  We also grow interesting berries like haskaps, golden raspberries, and delicious fall apples, as well as cool new veggies to try - like kohlrabi, salsify, tatsoi, golden turnips.  We specialize in heirloom varieties!  You can also sign up for a farm egg share!

WHAT COMES IN A WEEKLY BOX?

Each week, for 17 weeks, you'll get your selection of your Share Size (S, M, L) of our own farm grown super fresh and healthy produce: greens, root vegetables, fruits (like strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and apples) and herbs.

NEW this year, we want to give you the power of choice when you pick-up at the farm market!

Every week, you'll receive the farm's choice of peak in-season vegetables, plus your choice of the produce you would like to select from the farm market:

Small Share -(Ideal for an individual) $510 for the season (a weekly value of $30 worth of produce). It looks like this: Farm selection of between 3-4 different veggies ($15) - and then you'll get to choose your own selection of produce directly from our Farm Market - $15 value.

Medium Share (ideal for a couple) $750 for the season (a weekly value of $45 worth of produce). Looks like this: Farm selection of $15 of produce plus your choice of $30 from the market.

Large Share (ideal for a family of 4-5)  $1020 for the season (a weekly value of $60 worth of produce).  Looks like this: Farm selection of $15 of produce, plus your choice of $45 of produce from the market.

This way, if you're crazy about carrots, or want to try pickling baby beets, you can choose multiple portions of the same vegetable! Or if you want to try a little of everything, you can do that too!

Farm produce available will change with the seasons, providing you with an amazing range of vegetables grown with care using natural growing and regenerative agriculture practices.

This is a chance to eat in a thoughtful way in tune with Alberta seasonality, and to discover new foods and cooking traditions.  Plus you will be supporting a local farm, and building a local sustainable food system!

Our newsletter will supply you with recipes and ideas on how to prepare your veggies, as well as stories about the farm and programs.

We offer three series of CSA seasons to offer you a year-round program. You can sign up for one season or all three!

Summer CSA- April 28 - September 18 Maximum registration: 50 shares

Fall CSA - October 2 - January 22 Maximum registration: 12 shares

Deep Winter CSA - January 29- May 20 2022  Maximum registration:  8 shares

Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm (56311 Lily Lake Rd, Bon Accord, AB)

*Pick-up Friday, Saturday & Sunday on the farm from 11am-5pm

The Break Down:

• Small Share - $510.00
  (Over our 17-week long season, this works out to $30/week.) You should expect 5-8 types of veggies, fruit, and herbs in your box every week.  The farm will choose from what's in peak season ($15 worth)  and you will have a voucher for $15 to select your choice from the market. (Total of $30/week)
• Medium Share - $765.00
  (Over our 17-week long season, this works out to $45/week.) You should expect 7-11 varieites of veggies, fruit and herbs in your box each week. The farm will choose from what's in peak season ($15 worth)  and you will have a voucher for $30 to select your choice from the market. (Total of $45/week)
• Large Share - $1020.00
  (Over our 17-week long season, this works out to $60/week.) You should expect 10-15 varieties of veggies, herbs, and fruit in your box each week. The farm will choose  from what's in peak season ($15 worth)  and you will have a voucher for $45 to select your choice from the market. (Total of $60/week)

TIPS for EATING without a Meal Plan.

Gardens do not grow according to Meal Plans or our go-to favorite most-often cooked with vegetables.  Getting food from the edible garden is very different from a grocery store. Whether you grow your own garden or are part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) you will notice that gardens do not grow according to our meal plan, they grow according to what's up with the weather.  A cool wet spell means the greens are flourishing.  A hot dry period means abundance of zucchinis and squash.

As a new real local food gardener, you might find it very difficult to plan meals around what is ready to harvest. However, making meals from homegrown vegetables is the ultimate goal.  You just need to be flexible, willing to try new things, and patient!

There is an important concept woven into the CSA model that takes the arrangement beyond just buying vegetables. That is the notion of shared risk: in a CSA, members pay up front for the whole season and the farmers do their best to provide an abundant box of produce each week.  Weather and mother nature play a role in the arrangement. Bumper crop years mean abundance is shared.  Drought means that the risk is shared.  This past season, we offered many varieties of greens & plenty of potatoes, greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers.  The peas, beans, beets, and carrots were late – but eventually lovely.  Sadly, the parsnips never did germinate!

Here’s the seasonal breakdown of when veggies are ready from the farm for your table:

SUMMER April - September

• April & May – Greenhouse greens, green onions, potatoes, herbs, plus spring bedding plants, tomato & herb plants to plant in your own patio planter to enjoy all summer
• June – Spring greens and winter onions, rhubarb, salad fixings, lamb's quarters, amaranth greens, edible flowers, dried peas and selected herbs.
• July – there’s many types of greens, from bok choi to komatsuna, lettuce, salad fixin’s, heirloom tomatoes, beets, peas, zucchini, cousa, crookneck squash, greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes. Fruit: haskap berries, strawberries, rhubarb.
• August and September, your baskets will overflow with abundance –  large assortments and quantities of all kinds of vegetables, tomatoes, fennel, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, greens, broccoli, broccolini, spigerello,  cabbage (many kinds), kale (many kinds), mustard greens, tatsoi and beans of all colours. Fruit: Raspberries, saskatoons, late strawberries, rhubarb, early apples.
• September, you will enjoy sweet corn, garlic, fall greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, cauliflower, kholrabi, winter squash, pumpkins, blue pumpkins,  tromboncini, Brussels sprouts, root vegetables, sunchokes, sunflower seed heads, and several varieties of exotic potatoes. Fruit: fall apples and fall strawberries/li>

FALL September - January

• Fall cole crops - Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, broccoli
• Roots of all kinds from onions to beets, carrots, parsnip, winter radish to turnips to rutabaga.
• Heirloom tomatoes
• Kholrabi, tatsoi, mustard greens, Swiss chard
• Winter squash and pumpkins
• Wheat berries, dried peas, faba beans
• Greenhouse Faba greens, mustard greens
• Fruit: Fall Apples

DEEP WINTER January - May

• Winter storage veggies- roots of all kinds - potatoes, onions, carrots, rutabagas, celeriac, beets, turnips, radish
• Cole crops - cabbage, Brussels sprouts, winter kale turnips,
• Wide array of winter squash, pumpkins, blue pumpkins, kabocha, hubbard, acorn, vegetable spaghetti, crookneck, tromboncini
• Wheat berries, dried peas, faba beans
• Greenhouse greens - mustards, Swiss chard, beet greesn, lettuce, herbs, edible flowers
• Spring greens - French sorrel, winter onions, green onions.
• Transplants from the greenhouse (your choice of vegetable, herb or flowering plants).
• Fruit: Winter storage apples

What Are Families Saying About our CSA program?