Bi-Weekly Casa Cano CSA

When we started our farm ten years ago we set out with the ambition to grow the healthiest food that we could, in the best ways for the planet, and to connect people to the food that they eat.  While our growing practices have evolved, our mission remain the same, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) helps us work toward these goals.  By joining our CSA, you commit to the farm for the season, and we in turn commit to growing food for you–an agreement that comes with humility and trust, and that inspires us to keep growing the best we can year after year.

HOW DOES A CSA WORK? 

You sign up for your CSA in the early spring, which helps get the farm growing for the season as we buy seeds, supplies, tools, and everything else needed to get started in the spring.  As a CSA member, you get a bag full of what is harvested each week.  A CSA works great for households that love their veggies (or love trying new ones!) and want to eat more fresh produce.  Our goal is to create a well rounded diversity of produce each week that changes through the season.  Your CSA is pre-packed, and easy to grab-and-go from your drop point, making it a great option for getting local fresh veggies even when you’re on a tight schedule.

We also offer add-ons that you can order each week.  You can order more produce, Casa Cano grass fed and finished beef, Casa Cano pork, Abundant Family Pasture’s eggs, raw honey from Spangle Creek Honey, fresh fruit from OPMA (an Organic co-op from Okanagan), Organic mushrooms from Happy Mountain Mushrooms, stunning bouquets from Snapdragon Flower Farm, and other items in our online farm store, like soap, candles, and coffee. Order your add-ons by the Monday before your Tuesday CSA pick up, and your add-on order will be at your drop point ready to pick up along with your CSA.

Our CSA has evolved from including just produce that we grow on our farm, and we are delighted to be working with a few other local farms this season that we know and trust to provide even more diversity than what we grow at Casa Cano Farms. When you join our CSA, you are supporting our farm as well as other local family farms that grow organically and care for the environment and about the health and taste of the produce they grow.  These farms include: OPMA, Vets on the Farm, Hirschel Heritage Farm, Happy Mountain Mushrooms, New Heritage Farms, Snapdragon Flower Farm, Fresh Cut Farms, and Dog Wild Farm.

OUR GROWING PHILOSOPHY

Our produce is grown in soils amended to promote a healthy biological ecosystem.  We’ve moved away from tillage and now focus on establishing and maintaining healthy stable soils where biology can thrive.  The biology then works with the plants to help them get the minerals and nutrients they need from the soil, and in exchange the plants pump carbon into the ground for them to feed on through photosynthesis.  We feed the soil (and all the little guys living in it) with calcium-heavy organic chicken fertilizers and with compost produced on the farm from our own livestock.  We also grow cover crops when we’re not growing vegetables to keep the soils alive and to continue cycling carbon.  When its time to plant, we leave the ecosystem in the garden beds intact and seed or transplant directly into the previous crops residue.  Organized chaos at its finest!

Above ground we’ve been working to plant hedge rows around the gardens to act as wind breaks and to attract the birds and pollinators, which help naturally balance out pests.  We also use row cover, insect netting, and beneficial nematodes to help mitigate crop pests, and never use any chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides.

All of this is done with the goal of having strong, healthy plants that can then synthesize the most minerals and nutrients possible out of the soil and into the produce we eat.

DROP POINTS

• Casa Cano Farms (Valleyford), Tuesdays 3pm-6pm
• Spokane South Hill (E 42nd and Havana), Tuesdays 3pm-6pm

You will get a CSA share every other week from the first (or second) Tuesday in June through the second (or third) Tuesday in October, with a one week pick up break the beginning of August. .  This is a total of 9 CSA shares over 20 weeks.  This amount of produce is intended to supply 1-2 people with fresh veggies for the two week period.  Choose your preferred schedule, beginning on either Week 1 (6/4) or Week 2 (6/11), with your following pick-up days being every other week after. Some crops to expect are salad greens (both lettuce heads and baby leaf mixes), roots (carrots, turnips, radishes, beets), large leafy greens (kale, collards, chard), herbs, garlic, onions, summer squash, and seasonal staples like tomatoes, peppers, and winter squash, to name a few.  In October, make room for larger shares with storage crops like winter squash, onions, carrots, beets, and garlic to keep you stocked into fall.

Pay for your full membership ($455) now, or half ($227.50) now and the 2nd half before your CSA begins in June.

By purchasing a 2024 Casa Cano CSA, I agree to the following:

• I understand that signing up for a Casa Cano CSA will give me a seasonal share of produce that is grown locally and sustainably, and that I also share in the potential for crop failure or other crop misfortunes due to environmental and weather conditions.
• I understand that if I cannot pick up my Casa Cano CSA, it is my responsibility to find an alternate person to pick up my share at my drop point.  We are not able to switch weeks or refund weekly shares.
• I understand that if I am paying by check or cash, I must pay at least half of my CSA payment within two weeks of signing up to reserve my spot for a 2024 Casa Cano CSA.
• I understand that if I choose to pay for half of my Casa Cano CSA now, the second half of payment is due on or before my first CSA pick up.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with an email!  casacanofarms@gmail.com