2009 CSA Membership Information

Paradise Gardens and Farm LLC

2771 Paradise Road

Reynoldsville, PA 15851-8621

Steve and Lucinda

(814) 568-1207

ParadiseGardensandFarm@Comcast.Net

Membership Application and Shares

(Back to CSA)

Membership

By subscribing to Community Supported Agriculture, you actively commit to promoting local food, supporting our local economy, and helping to protect the planet. You join us in the risks and benefits of local organic farming. All our fruits, vegetables, herbs, pastures, hay, and feed corn are certified USDA Organic by Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO). By putting your subscription money down upfront, you share in the annual investment in seed and materials. Then throughout the growing season, you share in everything that we produce. subscribe early (December, January) and you can request particular fruits or vegetables and we will do our best to order that seed and plan accordingly. Seed orders are made and organic plans are submitted to PCO by January.

Share Types All memberships start with the Basic Produce Share or Dairy Share. Combinations of Produce, Dairy and Egg shares are all possible. In order to ensure every member a goodly share we have limited membership, so we may not be able to accommodate everyone this year. Please apply early! We will accept applications on a first come, first serve basis until we reach our capacity.

Wait list If we receive your application after our spaces are filled, we will contact you and ask you if you are interested in wait-listing. If so, we will hold your application and check (uncashed) for one month to see if there are any cancellations or changes. If not, we will return the check and invite you to get produce and cheese at the Indiana Farmers Market or at the farm.

We have fewer egg shares than dairy or basic shares. If we can accept your application for other shares, but egg shares are already gone, we can refund that portion of your deposit and put you on an egg waiting list, or cancel your application and refund the entire deposit, as you wish.

FMNP We are authorized to accept checks from the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). If you wish to apply them toward your produce share, let us know and we can credit the $20 to your final payment. This program is intended to encourage consumption of farm-fresh local fruits and vegetables. To further support the program and you, we will discount another $20 off of the season price. Between us and the FMNP checks, that's two weeks of vegetables for free!

Members Spirit members also receive a $20 discount off of the season price. The Women's Health Center of DuBois is a pick-up point Mondays. Call 814-371-WOMN (9666) for information about pickup. Spirit members who also receive FMNP checks get both discounts. Our goal is to get more people eating healthy, local, organic food. We recognize that women are usually at the center of family diet habits. We hope by reaching women to advance the healthy nutrition of women and their whole families.

Too much food? Some CSAs offer half-shares. In the interest of simplicity, we are not doing that, but we can put you in touch with other members interested in sharing a share, or you can find a friend or neighbor to but a share with you. (Back to Top)

Share Pick-up

Weekly shares can be picked up at the the Indiana Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings or at the farm on Sunday or Monday afternoons. We ask you to pick a time and place so that we can have your share there, fresh and ready. You can change your pick-up at any time as long as we have notice by at least Thursday.

Paradise Gardens and Farm

Sunday or Monday afternoons

Indiana Farmers' Market

Saturday mornings

Women's Health Center of Dubois

Mondays

Are you willing to be a pick-up location for neighboring subscribers? If so, you will get your share (and your neighbors') delivered to you and you will get a 40% discount off your basic Produce share for your service. In return, you will need to provide a reliable cooler or refrigerator for egg and cheese shares, and a cool shaded place for produce shares. You will need to be able to provide access for those coming to pick up their shares and drop off their boxes.

(Back to Top)

Member Benefits

Newsletter With each weekly share there will be a newsletter with a list of what we hope will be available for the next week, one or more recipes for items in that week's share, and any of the following: news about Paradise Gardens and Farm, an article on food, health, local economy, and/or the environment, and food handling and keeping.

Farm Visits and Volunteering As a supporting member of our CSA, you are welcome any time to come visit the farm and see where your investment is going. We will happily show you our gardens, greenhouse, harvest shed, chicken house, goat barn, and dairy and creamery. If you have time and interest, we welcome volunteers to help with harvest and packing or other tasks of interest around the farm. Call for a mutual time.

Discount As a member of our CSA community, you get a 10% discount on anything you buy above and beyond what you already receive by subscription. For example, if you have subscribed for vegetables and decide to try some cheese or get a dozen eggs when you come to pick up your share, you get 10% off of those purchases.

Carpooling/Shared Pickup Carpooling or picking up for a fellow member does two good things -- it saves fossil fuel and it brings community members together. We invite you to come together or trade pick-up duties. Please note, however, that organic produce and eggs are fragile and perishable and dairy products need to be kept cold. Treat others' shares as carefully as your own. (Back to Top)

Payment Schedule

You are welcome and encouraged to pay the entire share up front. This helps us with the purchase of seed, landscape fabric for weed control, and this year especially, our bulk tank, milking equipment, vat-pasteurizer, and other dairy equipment and supplies. If you prefer, we can accept payments as follows:

March 25	April 15
One-Half	One-Half

Refunds We cannot offer refunds for cancellations after April 15. The seed is started, the season has begun. Prior to that time, if you find you need to cancel, we will refund any payment less a $15 risk fee. (Back to Top)