Tipsy Toad Grove Farm

Gearing up for the 2023 Tipsy Toad Grove CSA !

If you love fresh spray-free produce delivered to your door weekly you’ve come to the right place! We’ve started sowing this years’ seeds and as always we’ll have lots of variety in our 2023 shares.

What is CSA?!?

CSA stands for Community Supported (or Shared) Agriculture. It’s kind of like crowd source funding for farmers, but you get stuff as a result. The premise is simple – a farmer sells CSA shares at the beginning of the production season and then members of the CSA get deliveries of whatever is fresh and available each week. Each CSA is as unique as the farm that offers it, varying in price, products, and duration.

We are a little different than many other growers in that we like to keep our CSA small.  We would rather offer boxes filled with a large variety of quality produce to a small number of customers than feel stretched to fill an unreasonable amount of shares. Because we are allotting a smaller plot of land to each variety, we can produce a vast assortment of fruits, herbs and veggies. We aim to provide at least one or two different items each week so your box will always be unique. Having up to 50 varieties growing at any given time means that even if the growing conditions dish out extreme challenges, there will always be things in the field that are able to thrive. Our CSA is geared towards foodies and adventurous cooks  – people who enjoy trying something different.

How Does it Work?

Each CSA share will include 20 weeks of delivery, beginning around the end of May (actual start time will be determined by the weather and deliveries may start slightly earlier or later depending on when we’re able to get seeds in the ground). The contents of your CSA box will vary from week to week as produce becomes ready to harvest.  Once our members have signed up we will try to choose a day and delivery time that suits everyone. This year we’re delivering between Middleton and Berwick, but if you live outside that area we may be able to work something out, so contact us.

What are the Benefits?

• Tipsy Toad Grove products are guaranteed to be free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Our happy pastured animals provide the stuff that makes our produce grow. We grow things the hard way… no sprays allowed.
• You’ll receive a different box every week. Participating in a CSA is an easy way to ensure that you’re eating the freshest food at the time it’s locally in season. That’s good for you and for the planet. We ripen on the vine, not in a truck driving across the continent.
• Support local farmers (that’s us!) and pump money into the local economy. You’ll be able to ask us how things are grown, what varieties we produce, and you’ll have a real connection to your food and the people who grow it.
• Learn how to cook and enjoy produce you may never have experienced before. We’ll send a newsletter weekly containing information about the produce, recipes to use it, and happenings on our farm.
• We try to plan a “Thank You” event each year to bring our CSA customers and their families together for a day of fun and food on the farm. It offers you the opportunity to see what we do firsthand, meet the critters, and to meet others who enjoy good local food as much as you do.

What Can I Expect?

• Each box will give you some of whatever we have each week – an ever-changing palette of fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits. . You can also purchase eggs as part of your CSA when we have them. Some weeks may be a little sparse but others will be abundant, based on the growing season. The spring starts out heavy on greens and then as the ground and air begin to warm the offerings become more diverse. You can expect your box to grow as the season does.
• Delivery to your home once a week between Lawrencetown and Aylesford. We’ll consult with our shareholders to figure out which times are best.
• Healthy, fresh produce, guaranteed. That said, we are not adverse to “ugly” vegetables and we ask our customers to embrace them, too. You will never receive produce that is rotten, old, or unpalatable in any way. The fact that we grow without sprays does mean that sometimes you’ll get a cabbage with a few holes or a 3-legged carrot. For more about “ugly” produce, and why we think it’s important to promote its acceptance, please read this.
• Although we grow a wide variety of items, we can’t possibly grow everything. Occasionally you may receive something in your box that was grown at another farm. Rest assured that if we do include something we didn’t grow it will be sourced from a farm using the same practices we use. It will also be labeled with the grower’s name and location so that you know where it came from.

What if I go on vacation or move? When do I have to pay?

Your CSA share is more than a produce purchase – it’s a show of support for a healthy local food production system and it helps us to offer good clean food at a reasonable price. When we fill our subscriptions we are asking you to commit for the season so that we can plan to grow appropriate quantities. Our seeds are ordered long before you ever receive a delivery, so we like to know well in advance that we have a market for what we’re planning to grow. We offer a couple of different payment plans to our customers so that you can pay monthly instead of all at once, if you choose.

NEW THIS YEAR! Due to the fact that we have a lot of military customers (not to mention that summer is a popular time for travel)  we are going to try something new to help ensure our customers don’t miss out on deliveries when they have to be away. People who won’t be home to use a scheduled delivery in time will have the following options:

1. If you are going away you can contact us in advance to arrange a mutually convenient day and time to pick up your share from the farm (assuming you will be back within the same week.) Depending on the timeline the share you receive may not be identical to the delivery that it replaces, but it will be of equal size and value.
2. You may defer up to 2 shares and receive them in the 2 weeks following  the CSA’s official end date (deferred boxes will be pick-up at the farm only, no delivery, and will contain 6-8 items based on what is available). Although our CSA ends the middle of October we usually keep growing a reduced number of veggie varieties well into November.

Of course we are also willing to deliver your share to a friend’s house instead, on the condition that they reside within our delivery area.

If you decide to discontinue receiving your share during the season for any reason we will not be able to offer refunds on the remaining weeks. You may sell or transfer your remaining deliveries to another person on the condition that they are located within our delivery area. If you have to drop out of the CSA for any reason please contact us as soon as possible… sometimes we have people on a waiting list who would be interested in taking over your share, and we will do what we can to help you find someone to take over.

What does it cost?

The CSA will include one delivery per week for a total of 20 weeks.  Each weeks’ box is priced at $30. A discount of 8% is applied for customers who choose to pay the full season in advance

• Monthly payments: Number of deliveries in the month x $30 (total of $600 over the full season)
• Full Season payment: $552 ($600 minus 8% discount of $48)
• Eggs: $5/dozen, as available

If you choose to take advantage of the cheaper Payment-in-Full plan, payment is due on the first day of delivery. If you’d like to pay monthly, payments are due on the first delivery day of each month. An invoice will be sent by email at the end of every month for eggs or other add-ons. Payment may be made by cash, cheque, credit or debit card.

Sign me up – I want to support ethical and sustainable local food production!

Please email Sue@tipsytoadgrove.com for answers to any questions you may have.