Full and half shares available in Farm's CSA program

Full and half shares are still available in the campus's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

As a member, you'll enjoy fresh organic fruits and vegetables grown at the UCSC Farm, as well as flowers and herbs you can pick yourself.

Each week, shareholders pick up a diverse selection of just-harvested fruits and vegetables at the CSA Barn on the Farm. About 40 shares are still available this season, which begins in June and runs through October.

Full shares, which feed four to six people, cost $600, or about $27/week; half shares feed two or three people and are available for $380, or about $17/week. Payment can be made in full or in two or four installments. Low-income shares are available at half the cost.

CSA projects are collaborations between local communities and farmers. Members make upfront payments and in return receive a share of the weekly harvest. CSAs increase community involvement in food production and in the health of the local economy and environment.

The campus CSA is a program of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), which is located on the UCSC Farm. Begun in 1994, the CSA program is an integral part of the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, which trains 40 people each year in sustainable agriculture and organic growing methods.

Members also receive weekly CSA newsletters with recipes, farm updates and events; complimentary membership in the Friends of the Farm & Garden for one year; a 10 percent discount on plants at the Farm's annual spring and fall plant sales; quarterly issues of News & Notes, and biannual issues of The Cultivar.

For more information or to sign up, please contact CSA manager Nancy Vail at (831) 459-4661 or email navail@ucsc.edu.