Wishful Acres Farm offers a CSA program - this is an opportunity for you to receive vegetables & eggs delivered to your home weekly! A CSA is a way for community members to support their local farmers by signing on as a "shareholder" of the farm for a season. As a shareholder, you receive a "share" - 3/4 of a bushel basket of produce each week as well as optional add-on share of brown eggs from our hens. A share is enough vegetables to feed a family of 2-4 for a week. Additionally, we offer a half-share option for those who may not require as much food or have a smaller budget (a single couple, for example). There are opportunities for shareholders to purchase other farm products throughout the season as well.
Our Fall 2011 CSA runs from September 23 - November 25, and you can learn more about the fall vegetables here.
The vegetables received weekly will change throughout the season, depending upon what is ripe & in season each week. All shareholders receive a weekly email newsletter with recipes and ideas for every single vegetable received in the weekly share. You may not be able to decide what you receive each week, but there should never be a problem with identifying a vegetable or herb, or wondering what to do with it. To view our past weekly newsletters, click here.
Our farm vegetables, herbs, and fruits are Certified Naturally Grown - this is the more affordable, grassroots alternative to Certified Organic. We grow all vegetables according to strict organic standards. You may rest assured that no chemical or genetically-modified seed will be used here.
Our CSA offers something unique - delivery right to your home! Our delivery service is on Friday afternoons to residents of Freeport, between 12-2 pm. If this time doesn't work out for you, or if you don't live in Freeport, scheduled farm pickup is available at your convenience. Our farm is located between Freeport & Lena, Illinois. If you will be gone for a weekend, we can keep your share in refrigeration here at the farm for you to pickup when you return. If you'll be gone for a week or more, or need to miss a weekly share, we can issue you a credit for the week missed. You can then use this credit to buy vegetables from the farm, at farmers market, or can request they be delivered with your weekly share. Don't worry, we won't let you lose out on any of your pre-paid vegetables!
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs operate under a pre-paid model. A customer pays up front for an entire season of vegetables. This provides money for the farmer to prepare for the season - purchase seed, equipment, etc, and lets the farmers know how much to plant. In addition, this is your guarantee to a farmer that you'll buy from them each week! The cost for a CSA full share is $300 for a 10-week season delivered each week, or $150 for a half-share 10-week season with every other week delivery. This breaks down to $30 per week (or $15 per week for a half share). This is a great deal on a large amount of organically-grown vegetables! Some weeks, the share weighs over 20 pounds!
We offer big brown eggs from our free-range hens as well. "Free-range" by definition means the hens will have access to the outdoors all day long. These delicious nutritious eggs are available as their own "Egg Share", which can be purchased in addition to your weekly vegetable share. 1 dozen eggs each week for 10 weeks (a full egg share) is $30. For those with a half-share option, 1 dozen eggs delivered every other week is $15.
Here is an example of a recent full share in our CSA:
-1 dozen brown eggs (eggs are an add-on option)
-2 bags lettuce mix (washed)
-2 bulbs gourmet garlic
-1 bag sweet onions
-1 bag leeks
-1 bag sweet bell peppers
-1 bag of hot peppers (jalapeno and chili)
-1 bag baby summer squash
-3 zucchini
-1 large Asian burpless cucumber
-2 Lemon cucumbers
-2 regular cucumber
-1 bag mixed colors cherry & pear tomatoes
-6 full sized tomatoes
-1 bag fresh basil
For a complete list of vegetables we are growing this fall (fall shares still available!), please click here.
If you have any additional questions or wish to sign up, email Penny at wishfulacres@gmail.com.
