What is CSA?

Community Shared Agriculture (CSA), is a local food option that enables shareholders to participate in a mutually beneficial relationship with farmers. In a CSA, share-holders purchase annual shares of the vegetables, fruit, meat or eggs grown or raised on the farm. Members or share-holders commit in advance of the growing season and then receive a weekly, bi weekly or monthly allocation of seasonal produce.

Shareholders are more than shoppers

Shareholders commit to a new model of food production. This model is designed to create stronger relationships between local farms and local families. By purchasing shares in the farm's annual production, families help cover the upfront costs of production and guarantee a local market for food before and during its production. Shareholders commit to a whole season or year of farm production by paying for a weekly box of local produce and products in advance.

Community-based farming versus industrial farming

By entering into shareholding agreements farmers invite the community to actively support agriculture. The cheap, often unethical, and sometimes unsafe, production of food (often on the other side of the globe) has given large producers and exporters an unfair advantage. This and other commercial farming practices of the last few decades have placed the family farm in great jeopardy. Shareholders in local farms are a key component of "community shared agriculture." At Taproot Farms, and other small farms across Canada, shareholders are helping to stabilize the local farm economy. They are countering the commercial farming practices that are threatening family farms and farmland. As a result they are also assured of produce that is the freshest-of-the-fresh.

The benefits for shareholders

  • Guaranteed access to a wide range of tasty, high quality, local (organic and non-organic) produce from Taproot and associated farms during all 4 seasons.
  • Membership in a caring, fun community shared food system.
  • Increased ability to incorporate seasonal "100-mile diet" principles into weekly meal plans and lifestyles.
  • Great recipes featuring local produce.
  • Seasonal farm-based events.
  • Improved knowledge of the nutritional benefits of local produce.
  • Being part of the solution and stewards of the land.

What is the guarantee?

At Taproot Farms we are committed to continually improving our agricultural methods. This is to ensure the sustainability of our natural resources (water, air, soil, ecosystem), long-term viability of our farm and increase biodiversity. We believe in providing people with food that is delicious, nutritious and ethically produced.

Is the produce organic?

Taproot Farms use sustainable farming practices, up to, and including Certified Organic. Our guarantee to shareholders is to clearly indicate which products are organic and which are not. We currently have 60 acres in certified organic production and are increasing this each year!

A look inside your weekly CSA box...

CSA boxes prepared for pickup.
Spring
peeled squash, apples, sprouts, sweet cider, potatoes, carrots, early greens, rhubarb, asparagus, beet greens, stinging nettles........
Summer
tomatoes, beans, greens, strawberries, herbs, zucchini, swiss chard, sweet corn, blueberries, broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, beets, melon, garlic, green onions, celery........
Fall
leeks, napa cabbage, savoy cabbage, pumpkins, squash, greens, carrots, apples, kale, onions, garlic, celeriac, potatoes, sweet potatoes........
Winter
squash, apples, brussels spouts, parsnips, turnip, cabbage, kale, sprouts, onions, preserved/frozen vegetables, potatoes, popcorn ........

Value-laden deliveries

In the van

Taproot's year begins the first week of April with your first Spring delivery. That week and every week thereafter we will deliver excellent value to our shareholders.

Weekly deliveries will vary based on availability of product. Because Taproot grows produce in greenhouses as well as open fields, you can expect fresh greens earlier in the season. Strawberries and raspberries also come on stream early. At Taproot we also take advantage of Nova Scotia's most abundant months to deliver unique items of high nutritional and taste value.

Each week you will receive a newsletter full of important information on your weekly share, recipes (or links to recipes) and information about upcoming events.

At Taproot Farms we want to hear from you; feedback and comments are always welcome. We are dedicated to forming a mutually supportive, strong relationship with each of our shareholders.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of a work share arrangement please contact me. You could provide work time on the farm in exchange for a portion of your share cost.

Ways to Receive Your Weekly Food Share

If you work in an office and have at least 10 people who would like to have a drop off at your office location we will arrange a time to make the drop at your work place. If your work place is in Dartmouth it will be Mondays; if it is in Halifax it will be on Tuesday.

Your share will be available for pick-up one day per week. Pickup locations are as follows:

Monday
  • Hawthorne Elementary School 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Tuesday
  • Seaport Farmers Market, Noggins Booth Halifax 2 PM - Close
  • The Loop, 1547 Barrington St., Halifax 3PM - 6PM
  • Grainery, 2385 Agricola 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
  • Highland Drive Store House Butchery, 5544 Kaye Street 4 PM-6 PM
  • Edgewood/Oxford United Church (parking lot),
    3055 Connaught 4:30 PM-5:30 PM
Wednesday
  • Noggins Corner Farm, Greenwich 4:00 - 8:00
  • Taproot Farms, Port Williams 4:30 - 6:00
  • Willow Park, Wolfville 4:45 - 5:15
  • Home Delivery, Kings County 12:00 - 5:00
  • Nicole and Wayne Oulton's, 5246 Chester Rd., Windsor
  • Katherine Hutka, 5 Seawood Ave, Sackville
  • Sandra Winters, 59 Douglas Drive, Beford 4:15-5:45
  • Bloom Greenhouse and Garden Centre 1421 Hammonds Plains Rd. 4:30-5:45
Thursday
  • Dartmouth and Halifax Business Deliveries 10 AM – 5 PM
Saturday
  • Emma's Eatery – Eastern Passage 10 AM – 12 PM
  • Hatchett Lake Community Centre 1 PM – 3 PM

To learn more about joining our CSA and enjoying your weekly box of locally produced produce, please contact us.

Share prices and payment options

Veggie Shares

Each week we will provide you with a share of the vegetables that are ripe and ready to eat from the farm. We offer a wide range of veggies. A list of what you can expect during the year can be found in the CSA section of the web page.

We appreciate payments in full, in 4 equal payments or monthly by post dated cheques if you can.

We strive to provide you with as much certified organic produce as possible. You do also get transition to organic, spray free and non organic veggies on occasion. Josh and Patricia are increasing the number of acres they have in certified organic production each year, growing more and more spray free and working hard to build the soils ability to grow wonderful vegetables for your family.

You can review the contents of our shares from the past years by checking out the newsletter section of the website.

For members who join for 52 weeks, the average price per share is $22 per week. This means that sometimes in the winter the value may be a bit less and in the summer a bit higher, balancing out over all. We very much appreciate the 52 commitment to keeping our farm in full year production and keeping our staff in full year employment.

There are three size option – an entree size that we feel can accommodate a veggie eating household of 1-4 people for $22 per week and an appetizer size of $13.00 per week. This year, we are also offering a Staples Only share.

The Staples Only share provides an opportunity to get the food staples to feed your family each week. This share size offers only onions, potatoes, carrots and apples. Each week you will get onions, potatoes, carrots and apples. This is a new share option for 2012.

Entree Veggie
$22 per week
Appetizer Veggies
$13 per week
Staple Veggies
$12 per week

Meat Share

This is our second year of offering the meat share. This year we will provide you with bi-weekly deliveries of meat. The animals on the farm provide us with the nutrients to grow healthy plants. We are also able to use the pigs to cultivate the fields for us – something that we will be branching into more seriously this 2012 season.

Your share will include meat products from: Taproot Farms, WG Oulton (Martock Glen), Longspell Point Farm and on occasion other small local producers.

Meat products included in your meat share will vary each delivery but may include: beef, pork, chickens, fowl, duck, rabbit, goose, and turkey. The price per lb is based on the whole animal and we have the whole animal to share among the members. You will be given a share of the animals on a bi-weekly basis that will be equal or as close to equal as possible to your share value. This will include the not so fun parts like lots of hamburger. We do our best to share the variety of cuts with everyone evenly so you don't always end up with roasts vs t-bone's.

It is important to us that all of the animals have access to space, fresh air and roaming on soil.

Entree Meat
$50 every two weeks
Appetizer Meat
$25 every two weeks

As an example, prices per lb for meat in 2011: beef $5.50-6.00/lb , pork $4.20/lb , chicken $4.16/lb, goose $6.00/lb, turkeys $3.60/lb, ducks $4.30/lb , bacon $5.50/lb, rabbit $6.30/lb. These prices are just examples of what prices were last season. The cost of grain is going up, up , up so they may be higher next season. For items that we purchase from other farmers we put a mark up of between 5 - 30% depending on the item and what that cost will end up being for the share members. We do our best to keep the price as affordable as possible because we are passionate about providing and supporting local meat. Therefore we absorb as much as we can.

Fruit Share

Taproot and Noggins Corner Farm partner to bring you a year-long fruit share. This share will consist of mostly non organic fruit. However we focus on spray free and do have apples in transition to organic, some certified organic raspberries, rhubarb and strawberries that will be included in the share.

Taproot has been growing more and more fruit and Noggins has a long history of fruit production. It is also all in the family as Patricia from Taproot is the daughter of Andrew from Noggins.

Together Taproot and Noggins are able to offer various fruit including: peaches, pears, plums, sweet cherries, raspberries, and over 50 varieties of apples. We are also able to offer dried fruit, fruit juices, and fruit preserves.

You can expect apples year round.

There are two sizes – an entree size that we feel can accommodate a fruit eating household of 1-4 people for $15 per week and an appetizer size of $8.00 per week.

Entree Fruit
$15 per week
Appetizer Fruit
$8 per week

Eggs Share

Receive one dozen or half a dozen certified organic eggs every week. The hens at Taproot spend time outside nearly all day; they are let out of their house first thing in the morning and closed up after dark. This ensures their safety from hungry nighttime prowlers. The eggs are gathered three times in the morning. The hens are fed certified organic grain that comes from Homestead Organics. The breed of hen we have here on the farm is Comet.

Dozen
$5 per week
Half Dozen
$2.75 per week

Delivery Fee

There is a flat fee of $3 per week for delivery locations in Halifax.
There is a flat fee of $5 per week for delivery to your house in the Valley.

Payment Options

We offer various convenient payment options. You can pay by cheque, cash (we like this best) or with Paypal using either your bank account or a credit card.

If you are able to pay all at once, that is best for us. If you would like to pay with quarterly post dated cheques that is great too.

In 2011 we offered the options of monthly payments. This wasn't the easiest to manage, but we are willing to work at it again in 2012. Upon registration, please be sure to send all post dated cheques to:

Taproot Farms
1736 Church St.
Port Williams, NS
B0P 1T0

Administration Fees

A charge of $30 will be applied to your account for NSF cheques. We don't like it any more than you do but it takes us time to deal with and we incur the NSF fee from the bank, so we need to recoup these cost.

What if I change my mind?

If you change your mind and find the CSA is not working out for you or your family there are a few options.

  1. Ask a friend or family member if they might be interested in taking it over
  2. Consider donating it to a family in need
  3. As a last resort, you can ask us for a refund

Refunds may be issued until September 1st, 2012 for 2012-2013 shares. By September we have planted, weeded, and in some cases harvested and are beginning to store crops for the Winter/early Spring shares, so if you leave the CSA after September it is very costly for us. As we share the season and the realities with you, your commitment is critical to our ability to carry on into the next year.

Please read over all of the details, ask questions and discuss joining the CSA with your family prior to registration to be sure you are committed. Get your family excited about eating in season!