Learn About the BUG Farms CSA!

For a customer-written overview of our CSA Program, click on this link:  http://www.examiner.com/food-in-salt-lake-city/b-u-g-farms-is-the-new-kid-on-the-block-community-supported-agriculture-review

To Learn Details About Our CSA Program, Read On........

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture is a partnership between us, BUG Farmers, and you, the locavore consumer! CSA's are a business model that allows you as a consumer and us as farmers share the risks and benefits involved in growing your food in an urban, grassroots, and community-based way. You purchase a subscription to the farm (a "share") and become a member.Our CSA program gives an opportunity for families and individuals to directly access urban farm fresh produce throughout the growing season while directly supporting small scale, sustainable, grassroots community agriculture. Your upfront payment is indispensible in covering start-up farm expenses and also providing living wages for the folks who are growing your food. Without your support, we would not be able to continue growing good food for our Salt Lake Community. We hope you will consider becoming a member of the BUG Farms CSA Program.

What Are My Share Options?

There are 2 basic option types: The Full Share, and the Half Share. Both provide the same amount of produce in each delivery, but the Full Share comes every week, and the Half Share comes every other week during the growing season. If you buy a Half Share, based on your delivery or pickup location, you will be assigned to either Week A or Week B distribution. Pricing for shares are outlined below:

How Long Is The Season?

We will plan to have our 2013 harvest season, weather permitting,  from mid-May to the end of October, give or take a week or two depending good graces of Mother Earth : ) The total season should last between 22-25 weeks.

How Will I Get My Veggie Share?

There are 2 ways of getting your veggies each week: HOME/OFFICE DELIVERY or CSA PICKUP LOCATIONS.

HOME/OFFICE DELIVERY: One of the many unique things about our CSA program is our delivery service. For a small additional fee, if you live within Salt Lake City, there is no need to remember to pick up your CSA share, we deliver it directly to your house or office! The one time delivery fee is $50 for a Half Share and $100 for a Full Share. This helps us cover our costs in fuel and extra labor.

If you are getting a Home/Office Delivery, we need to make sure you have a way of keeping your veggies cool and fresh until they get inside your fridge. Therefore, please make sure you have a cooler with a cold freezer pack outside your front door of hour house/apartment, or have some way of storing your produce in your office, either in an office fridge or cooler, before taking it home with you. 

CSA PICKUP LOCATIONS: If you don't mind coming to a pickup location for your veggies and are on a tighter budget, the Pickup Share may be the way to go for you. Since it is still early before the season starts, we don't have all of our pickup spots chosen, and they are still subject to change. Here is a list of our current dropoff Locations:

• Wasatch Commons Cohousing- 1411 S Utah St (1604 W)
• Mountain Valley Seed Co.- 455 W 1700 S
• Avenues-TBA
• University Research Park- Bright Horizons Daycare Center
• East Downtown-approx. 1300 E 700 S
• Sugarhouse-approx 1700 E 1700 S
• We Are Yoga Studio- 2100 S 2100 E
• Millcreek/ South Sugarhouse- approx 1800 E 2700 S
• Sandy- approx. 1700 E 9600 S

How Much Food Will I Get In My Delivery?

Understand that even with our best planning and farming efforts, mother earth is the real decider on what grows and what doesn't! Each delivery should contain between 5-9 different veggie/greens/herb items. The exact quantity and variety will change each week depending on the harvest for that time of the season. For example, if the slugs and snails decide to eat up a certain bed of spinach, then you may not have spinach for that week.   Generally, one delivery should last 2-4 people cooking at home a weeks worth of veggies. If you are single, think about teaming up with a friend and splitting a Full Share, or try a Half Share where you will have 2 weeks to eat your produce before getting another delivery.

June deliveries could look like this:
4 oz pea shoots
6 oz lettuce mix
6 oz BUG Farms "Brassica" Mix
1 bunch Rainbow chard
1 bunch Red Russian kale
1 bunch French Breakfast radish
1 bunch Green Onions
1 bunch cilantro
 
August deliveries could look like this:
2 lbs Heirloom tomatoes
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch rainbow beets
2 medium zucchini
1/2 lb green beans
1-3 sweet pepper
1 bunch Purplette Mini-Onions
1 bag basil (Purple and Green Varieties)
1 bunch chard
 
October deliveries could look like this:
2 lb potatoes
1 bunch carrots
2-3 bulb onions
6 oz. spinach
1 bunch chard
4 oz microgreens
6 oz lettuce mix                                                                                                                                                          1 lb Eggplant

Exact quantities and varieties can vary a bit, and some weeks you may recieve more different veggies than others.

Don't Forget the Add-On Shares!

NEW! Fresh Raw Juice Share: Full Share $250 Half Share $150 (Including jar deposit) This will allow folks to get the extremely healthy benefits of our ultra-local, ultra fresh greens and veggies in a convenient, drinkable way. In each share you will recieve between 1 pint and 1 quart of freshly pressed juice. The juice combination will change each week depending on what is available from our farm. We may also use local apples Riley Orchards or from local trees that we harvest during the season. The juices will range from sweeter root veggie combinations to health focused green juices to a more savory, V-8 style juice on occasion too, especially during tomato season : ) It will be a juicy adventure! Here are some example juice combinations during the season:

Mid June Juice:Cilantro, Spinach, Apple, Chard, Wheatgrass, Radish Microgreen Juice

Mid August Juice: Tomato, Parsley, Basil, Green Onion, Kale, Carrot, Radish Microgreen Juice

Early October Juice: Beet, Carrot, Apple, Radish Microgreen Juice

NEW! Veggie Soup Share: Full Share $250 Half Share $150 (Including jar deposit) This share is perfect for anyone who would like to support locally grown food, but wants the convenience of a prepared, ready to eat meal. Each share will recieve 1 quart of ready to heat soup freshly prepared from BUG Farms veggies and organic and/or local ingredients by farmer Sharon in a licensed commercial kitchen. Each week will feature a new, BUG Farmer tested recipe based on the veggies we harvest out of our backyard fields. Here are a few examples of the variety of soup you will recieve as the season changes:

Spring: North Indian Palak(Spinach) Soup with Cinnamon

Summer: Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho 

Fall: Moroccan Millet Stew with Carrot, Kale, Purple Potatoes, and Walla Walla Onions

Fruit Share-From Riley Orchards down in Payson. Chris Riley and his brother Jordan Riley are young farmers who are taking over the reigns of their family's orchard down in Payson. They are trying to keep their land in orchard instead of selling out for development, which is a sadly increasing trend as urban sprawl spreads to the best and only fruit growing regions along the Wasatch Front. I felt like it would be a good fit to partner with them to offer their lovely fruit with our CSA Deliveries each week. Expect about 20 weeks of fruit beginning the First week of July until the end of October with types changing each week. Each delivery will include either a 2 lb bag of cherries or 5 lb mixed bag of peaches and/or apples depending on what is available for harvest that week. Full Shares: $120 Half Shares $65

Heirloom Dry Bean Share- I LOVE Dry Beans! I have been eating them all winter and savoring in the many delicious heirloom varieties. One small company in South Central Idaho called Zursun Beans works with local farmers to provide an extensive variety of beans and lentils. I spent a long time picking out the most unique and tasty varieties to offer in the CSA Share. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

What If I Am Out Of Town?

We are hoping to provide veggies for up to 130 members this year, which makes member management a very BIG JOB. So to streamline the member management, and reduce errors, if you know you are going to be out of town, there will be a couple of options: Coordinate with a friend who will pick up your share at your delivery location and eat it or keep it for you for that week. We won't be able to deliver it to a different address though. Another option for Half Share members is to switch your delivery to your "off week". The bottome line is to please LET US KNOW AT LEAST A WEEK AHEAD OF YOUR ABSENCE and we can figure out something for you : ) Remember that even if you miss 2-3 weeks of deliveries, you are still receiving a GREAT DEAL for all of the fresh, local, sustainably grown veggies throughout the season!

How Do I Pay For My CSA Membership?

Currently, we can only accept checks or cash for CSA payment. We understand that paying for the whole season at once may be challenging for some of you. If that is keeping you from joining, send us an email and we will try to work with you in setting up a payment plan. We really want to offer our tasty veggies to as many folks as possible in our community, and offer as low of a price as we can, while still being able to function sustainably as an urban farming business. When writing your checks, please make them out to Backyard Urban Garden Farms and send them to:

Sharon Leopardi

1411 Utah St #21

SlC, UT 84104