Our 2010 CSA Season has started.  If you are interested in subscribing, please contact us by phone or email before filling out the online form.  Thanks!

2010 SEASON:  The week of June 7th through the week of October 25th.

21 Weeks at $27.00 weekly for a season total of $567.00.

To subscribe to our CSA this upcoming season, please click here.

For important information about our Women, Infants and Children  (WIC) CSA Project, "Fresh Start", please see below.

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In 2007, Riverhill Farm began to offer customers annual seasonal subscriptions in what has come to be referred to in shorthand as “CSA”, or Community Supported Agriculture. There are many aspects to Community Supported Agriculture, but offering subscriptions or shares for weekly seasonal produce boxes has grown in popularity across the US as a measure to help sustain local, community–based small family farms.

How does it work?

You purchase a share of the harvest before the season begins. This provides us with needed capital to buy seed and materials as well as pay our employees and interns as we prepare for the season. Throughout the twenty-one week season, we provide a weekly box filled with wholesome produce. You benefit by receiving a wide variety of fresh, chemical-free produce, while we are assured a market for our efforts.

The subscriber directly supports the farm by providing the farm with a predictable income. The subscriber benefits by intimate knowledge of their food source and through a connection to the natural cycles of our local environment. The subscriber and the community as a whole benefit by keeping land in agriculture in our community, and by supporting a local economy. We at Riverhill Farm benefit by knowing the people who are directly involved as the economic support of our farm. Ideally, participation fosters community in the biggest sense of the term for all involved.

What’s in a share?

Riverhill Farm's CSA provides the consumer with fresh-picked locally grown produce starting in early June and continuing through the end of October.  Joining Riverhill Farm as a subscriber will provide you with a weekly box of seasonal produce, starting in the early season with strawberries, greens, lettuce and salad mix, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic and more, and quickly including other main crop and specialty vegetables—tomatoes, peppers, pears, beans, culinary herbs, eggplant, summer and winter squash, melons and watermelons and more through the end of the season.  Click on the links to last year’s weekly flyers on this page and you’ll see what we offered each week during the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons.  Each season is a little different and, we hope, a little better than the last.

All shares also include:

• The opportunity to purchase at our farm seasonally available fruits and meat from other regional farmers.  We also offer discounted prices on bulk purchases of our produce if you like to can and dry for the winter.
• A weekly newsletter during the harvest season with recipes, farm news, and other good stuff!
• The opportunity for occasional u-pick items (especially strawberries!) at the farm.
• The opportunity for you and your family to participate in seasonal events at the farm, including the season-opening Open Farm day with music and a potluck, an end of season potluck and Gleaning Day, our season-closing event when you get to pick your own produce for canning or simply for pleasure.

How much does a share cost?
The cost of a share is $27.00 weekly. For a twenty-one week season, that’s a season total of $567.00.  A deposit of $275.00, reserves your share.  The balance is due the day you come to pick up your first box of produce.  If you need to pay on an alternative schedule, please contact us and we will accommodate you.

How do I get my produce?

When you subscribe, you will fill out our internet-based subscription form and choose one of three days for pick up of your produce box. Pick up at the farm is available on Monday and Friday from 1:30 to 6:00 in the afternoon.  We offer pick up in town on Wednesdays on Uren Street in Nevada City, courtesy of Melas Engineering.  The hours for Wednesday pick up are 3:30 to 6:00.

Whether you come to the farm or get your produce in town, you will fill your own box with the produce available that week.  We do not pre-pack your box, so you get maximum flexibility and choice in your selection of produce.  We set up the produce like a Farmers’ Market display, and guide you through the process each week. There may be limits on a given day for the quantity of an individual vegetable which you will receive, but we endeavor whenever possible to allow you to tailor your selection to your needs and preferences.

How much produce is in a box?
We offer enough (and often more) produce each week for a family of four.  You will find that you rarely, if ever, need to purchase produce at the grocery store during the farm season.

For a single person or a couple that doesn’t eat a large quantity of produce each week, we encourage those who may be interested to share with a friend or neighbor. Some subscribers do this by splitting up the produce in each week's box; some do it by alternating weeks. If you are interested in splitting your share but cannot find someone to split it with, let us know and we may be able to pair you with someone.

Riverhill's "Fresh Start" Women, Infants and Children Project

Last season, Riverhill Farm initiated a pilot project to supply fruits and vegetables to serve low-income families participating in the local Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program.  The primary mission of the WIC Program is to improve the nutrition and health status of pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, as well as their infants and young children under age 5.  According to the director of the local WIC office, there is indeed a deficit in the fruit/vegetable intake of the WIC families of Nevada County, particularly in the current economy.  Many Nevada County families have seen their incomes plummet in the past year or two.  The need for fresh fruits and vegetables is high in this vulnerable population.  Good health and nutrition status during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and early years of life can set the stage for a lifetime of improved cognitive and overall function.

To facilitate last season’s pilot project, Riverhill reduced the weekly price of a CSA share for WIC clients.  Through an appeal for community support through our email list to private citizens and through other fundraising efforts, we were able to raise sufficient funds to provide reduced cost CSA shares for 20 WIC families.

One of the additional benefits of the Riverhill/WIC pilot program was the interest and excitement of families in bringing their young children directly to the farm for the weekly pick up.  Children enjoyed the activities of the farm, including chances to harvest fruits and vegetables themselves, and watch the produce grow as the season progressed.  One family made a wonderful book chronicling their summer farm adventures at Riverhill, which you can view by clicking on this link: Diego's Summer Picking at the Farm.

This season, we are attempting to increase our program to provide for forty families.  If you'd like to contribute to our efforts to expand our Fresh Start project, you can send us a check in any amount, made payable to Riverhill Farm.  If you would like to contribute as part of your own CSA subscription, we've made room on our online sign-up form for you to indicate an amount you would like to contribute.  You can pay that amount along with your CSA deposit and we will add the additional funds to our WIC project fund.

Other Frequently Asked Questions:

What happens when I go on vacations?
Vacations are a wonderful time to share your CSA farm experience with friends. Unlike chores like watering plants or walking dogs, friends and neighbors actually like to pick up your vegetables! Many go on to become members the next year because they enjoyed the experience so much!

What happens if I need to switch days one week?

Because we harvest the quantity of vegetables according to the number of subscribers picking up each day, random day changes by you will throw off those numbers.  However, if you are going on a short vacation, will be out of town, or for some other reason you can’t make your regular pick up day, and if you let us know in advance (at least one day ahead, please!), you can switch days in order to get your produce for that week.

Why do I provide a first and second choice of pick up days?

We try as best we can to provide you with your first choice of pick up days.  However, it is also important that each pick up day has roughly the same number of subscribers picking up their shares.  This way we are rarely faced with too many people at once to be able to cater to you individually, we get to know you by first name and remember your preferences, and we can usually spend some time visiting when you want to linger.  After our sign-ups for the season are complete, we will confirm your pick up day with you.  If necessary and we have to move your pick up day to your second choice, we’ll provide you with plenty of notice.

What happens if I don’t like radishes (or kale/chard/beets etc.) and don’t want to take them?

There’s usually enough variety each week that you don’t necessarily have to take everything, and there are some choices with certain veggies: for example you can choose broccoli or beets, or you can choose Chinese cabbage or bok choy.  If there is a limit on quantity, the numbers listed on the board for that week are the MAXIMUM for you to take; you can always take less.

The total share price gives me sticker shock!

A better way of looking at the total price of $567 is to divide it by the total number of weeks (21 per season).  On average, our prices are significantly less than what you would pay for the same quantity of grocery store conventional produce which is neither fresh, seasonal, organic nor locally produced.  Our subscribers have told us that they spend less on food during the summer when they buy a CSA share.

Between now and June is a long time—how will the farm keep in contact with me, and how will I be notified once the CSA pick ups begin?
We keep in contact with our members via email.  It is very important that your contact information be filled out completely on your sign up form—email addresses are vital. You will receive an automatic reply once you submit your subscription form.  Once we have received your check, we will email you a confirmation when we have deposited it.

Before pick up begins in June, you will receive an email reminder about the pickup sites and times.

If you do not use email, we will contact you by phone.

To subscribe to our CSA this upcoming season, please click here.