Download the Specialty CSA Membership Form (PDF Format)

In 2009, Finnriver Farm is pleased to be offering a limited number of Specialty CSA shares featuring Certified Organic food and beverages grown, tended or crafted with care here on our 33 acre family farm in Center Valley. Our specialty offerings will complement a standard vegetable CSA or your retail produce shopping. What we offer is an array of fine fare items from a healthy and sustainable local source that will provide you with nine months of wholesome and flavorful food, as well as supporting our work here. A CSA connects you to your local farmers and gives you a taste of the elements that nourish the fields.  For a full discussion of the extended CSA benefits, read below.

COST for Full CSA Share: $1,810/year
COST for Vegetarian Share: $1,470/year

(CSA runs April-November. Partial payment due upon sign-up. Payment plans negotiable.)

SAMPLE SCHEDULE OF CSA OFFERINGS

*Subject to change due to seasonal variation and unforeseen acts of nature, fate or fortune.  If Finnriver is unable to produce certain items, we will make all efforts to obtain them from another organic, regional source.

The Specialty CSA will also include a "Key to the Farm" which will allow members spring-summer season access to the farm for u-pick, events, classes, casual visits and private parties.  You will be welcome to consider this your "farm away from home."  We offer the Key to the Farm to CSA members with the hope of a mutually nourishing connection. Farming is a skill and also a leap of faith. There are risks, and CSA members take the risks with us. But the rewards are rich on many levels, and members reap these as well. We will host an annual meeting, volunteer days and farm events to encourage your participation

At Finnriver, we believe that people who participate in the cycle of food production are an integral part of the health and productivity of the farm.  The energy humans bring to the land is a vital nutrient, like water or light.  We also believe that our customers are more than just "consumers." They are our partners, supporting the farm in a process of land stewardship and cultural revival. We call this CSA a form of Community SUSTAINED Agriculture because by signing up to receive the food we produce at Finnriver, you are keeping the farm working. The small-scale, organic family farm is more than just a food vendor; it is an attempt to restore health and wisdom to our relationship with the earth that feeds us all.

The benefits of joining the Finnriver Specialty CSA extend beyond the personal.  Each share is an investment in our commitment to the following:

• Sustainable Agriculture & Ecological Land Stewardship

Finnriver is a Washington State Certified Organic Farm, with a Salmon Safe certification.  We are also in the process of working with the Jefferson Land Trust to place land conservation easements on our entire 33 acre property, linking our parcels together and protecting the farm in perpetuity from development.  Our creek-side land is undergoing salmon habitat restoration and re-forestation, and provides habitat for numerous species of wildlife.  We are developing our own on-site compost system and making a crop rotation plan that will enliven our soil fertility.  We have begun seed-trails for the Organic Seed Alliance and are participating in a local Seed Co-op to develop an organic regional seed source for growers.  We love this land and its inhabitants dearly, even the eagles who eat our chickens!

•  Renewable Energies

Finnriver Farm is home to a 100ft. tall Wind Generator Tower that makes renewable energy for us every breezy day of the year.  We intend to install solar power as soon as it is feasible.  Also, offering a source of local organic food allows our customers to opt out of the unsustainable, fossil-fuel intensive food model that transports food goods for thousands of miles before reaching the plate.  Selling CSA shares also helps us to avoid the resource and energy-draining refrigeration and packaging of goods during long-distance transport, storage and marketing.  We want the food we grow to honor the earth and to energize to our community.

• Lively Local Economy

We consider it our task to make our farm a role-model of a financially viable small-scale organic farm.  By doing so, we not only provide a livelihood for our own family, but are then able to hire local labor and support our neighboring local businesses with our commerce.  We want to be successful so that we share our economic model with aspiring farmers and so that we can support the renaissance of small-scale agricultural producers.  As vendors at the Port Townsend Farmer’s Market, and as an agricultural destination that hosts numerous visitors, we create opportunities for conscientious consumer practices.  We also happily participate in barter exchanges with neighbors and local businesses.  Last but not least, we are aware of the difficult issues related to the cost of access to organic food. We host a Free Berry Gleaning Day each summer and donate half the harvest to the local Food Bank.  We also encourage patrons to purchase a CSA share to donate to low-income families in need.

• Healthy Regional Food Supply

Finnriver Farm is diversifying and expanding so that we can maximize the food production possibilities of our land, while still tending it wisely.  By growing a range of fruits and vegetables, as well as raising live-stock, poultry and bees, we feel we are a well-rounded food source for our community.  We now grow grain on the land, and are establishing leases with neighboring farms as well.  That we are what we eat is the wisdom that guides us here.  Offering nutritious organic food supports the physical health of our customers.  And healthy individuals help create healthy communities of course. We look forward to the day when our schools, hospitals and community centers all offer healthy food from local farms.


• Agricultural & Ecological Education

Finnriver Farm frequently opens its fields to visiting groups for educational farm tours, such as the local library, youth camps, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, schools, and work training programs.  We believe in making the farm a resource to inspire and educate and are pleased to form partnerships with community groups who seek a connection to local agriculture.  Next season we will begin the Farmstead Workshop series (with potential continuing ed. credits) to promote the traditional arts of preparing, creating and crafting from the produce of the land.  We also host a handful of apprenticeships each season, to offer aspiring farmers a chance to live and learn on a working farm.  International WWOFFers get the chance to volunteer short-term on the farm, enjoy the beauty of the land, and see how a small-scale sustainable farm operates.   In this way, we can promote positive international and local relations!


• Thriving Farm Culture

Finnriver Farm is now the hub for an extended multi-generational neighborhood of families that share the daily rhythms of life, as well as gathering regularly for community events.  We also offer a neighborhood animal co-op to share the chores and benefits of eggs, goat milk and produce.  We have developed a service-based U-pick model that allows willing volunteers to develop a relationship with the farm, as well as earning membership in our Berry Collective—an affordable and enjoyable way to harvest the summer berry crop.  In the summer, we set-up the haybales for the Wild Rose Outdoor Theater to show farm-themed films and we host seasonal celebrations to honor the cycles and draw together the circle of community.

When you join this CSA, you join the Finnriver Farm community and you join the creative and conscientious effort to make farming about relationships and not about transactions.  You become shareholders in a vision for sustainable agriculture and social renewal. We are blessed to live and work here, and honored to share the fruits of our labor with you.