Frequently Asked Questions

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CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, sometimes also know as crop-sharing. The beauty of this system is that it connects the farmer and consumers directly, allowing you to truly know where your food is coming from. This also allows for closer relationships with those who grow your food, which we try to cultivate by sending weekly letters of what is happening on the farm, inviting you for harvest, and hosting open-farm events occasionally. The CSA system also allows us to mitigate some of the risks of farming because we won't over grow and we can harvest exact amounts; we know exactly what to grow, when and for whom.

The way that this system works is that the customer pre-purchases a share in the farm's harvest at the beginning of the season. In return for 'subscribing' to a share in the harvest, the customer will receive a weekly box of produce and other farm goods.  

For the 2023 Bird & Bean CSA, our harvest share breaks down as follows: 

Large box - 22 weeks of seasonal vegetables at $40 per week

Small box - 22 weeks of seasonal vegetables at $20 per week. 

The harvest timeline for both the large and small boxes is from mid-June to the end of October. 

Each week throughout this time, you will receive a box of a variety of organically grown seasonal vegetables. For Vancouver Island, this means lots of kale, spinach and radishes in the spring and tons of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and zucchinis in the summer, among many, many other things. :)  

Check out our photo gallery for some examples of a typical weekly subscription box! 

This year our CSA includes six different pick up locations spread through out the greater Victoria region - three on Mondays and three on Thursdays (please see Pick Up Locations link for more details). When signing up, you will be provided with all six options and asked to choose the location and day of the week that best works for you. 

Once the season begins, you will be responsible for picking up your veggie box each week on the day you selected at the pick up location you selected. Vegetable share boxes are guaranteed to be at the location for a 24 hour window each week, which we hope allows people to pick up when it suits their schedule. 

If you will be out of town or otherwise unable to collect your box, we encourage you to let a family member or friend know your pickup location/date details so they can enjoy it in your stead. 

If you do not have a friend or family member who wants a week of fresh produce, you can also e-mail us to let us know! In this case, instead of leaving your box at the pickup location that week, we will donate it to the Rainbow Kitchen (Victoria's second largest soup kitchen).