Ambrose Family Farm CSA

(Community Supported Agriculture)

Our CSA program provides members a weekly share of our freshly harvested, organically and/or sustainably grown produce during a designated season, Spring and/or Fall Season. Produce is harvested daily, distributed to pick up points through out the Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Downtown, James Island, Wadmalaw Island, and Johns Island areas. Members visit their pre-chosen pick up point, sign in, and take home their weekly allotment of produce.

Box Share Program

With Box Share program, a share of the day's harvest is prepacked in different share size boxes, each designed to feed a specific number of people-from 8 people down to one person.

The Box Shares are delivered to designated Pick up Points on specific days of the week. Pick Up Hosts (All are CSA Members) open their homes or businesses for Members to come during certain hours on a certain day of the week to pick up their Box Share. Each member signs in, picks up their share size box, and takes the fresh produce home to their families.

The following week, same day, same time, same place, members would again visit their pick up point, RETURN THE BOX THEY TOOK HOME THE PREVIOUS WEEK, sign in, and take their share size box home again. This process takes place for the entire length of the Season. Fall season, for instance, will be from about the 1st week in October through the 1st or 2nd week in December - 10 to 12 weeks.

On Farm Pick Up or Stono Market Pick Up

With On Farm or Stono Market pick ups, each member selects a specific day of the week they wish to pick up at either the farm or the Stono Market. Upon arrival, members sign in, and select items from the day's allotment in a fashion similar to the grocery store process. The sweet thing is, there are no prices listed, only the day's allotment for each share size. Above each item, a sign will indicate how much you may choose of each item according to your share size. Signs might say, as an example, "Xtra Large Share - take 4", "Family Share - take 2", "Individual Share - take 1", or "Single Share - take 1". Some crops may be 'grouped' together-like root crops(carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, potatoes). With 'grouped' items, a Member might choose to select 2 bunches of beets, 1 bunch turnips, and 1 bunch carrots-as an example. A lot of Ambrose Family Farm CSA Members find this concept more flexible for their particular family's food preferences.

Pick You Own Options

We also have certain crops that are for "Pick Your Own" only. These items are NOT harvested by the farm crew, but available to any CSA Member who chooses to come to the farm and Pick Your Own. Beans, peas, okra, some cut flower varities, some herb varities...crops that are too expensive and time consuming to harvest by hand. Members will be notified by email when these certain crops are available for harvesting, but will require you to come to the farm.

Risks & Rewards

Please keep in mind that there are RISKS involved for CSA Members along with the CSA Farmer. The CSA concept is for community members to 'share the risks - and rewards - of farming with the farmer himself'. Fall carries a particullarly higher risk factor for complete crop failure beacuse of where we live -Hurricane Ally! In our farming career-since 1976-we have successfully harvested 30 out of the 32 fall plantings. That seems pretty safe odds to me, but the risk still remains.

The term "crop failure" is generally refers to a single crop, not the entire list of crops being grown. For example, we might plant 6 successions of tomatoes. From those 6 crops, we may loose a large portion of 1 planting due to inclement weather conditions or pest damage-crop failure-but continue to grow and harvest from the other 5. The same could happen to any 1 particular crop. We may loose all 6 crops of tomatoes, but still harvest the other 20 crops being grown. If we sould get a direct hit from a hurricane, nothing we planted would be harvestable-complete crop loss. Crops with short growing seasons-summer squashes, lettuces, turnips, radishes, kale, spinach, tat soy, mustard, arugula, cucucumbers, snap beans, and herbs would be immediately replanted and be harvestable in a 30 to 45 day range. This would seriously shorten the CSA season for members, but not leave them empty handed. Farmers have always suffered these staggering crop losses alone. You might be able to understand the financial risks taken by the farmer each season by the growers of your food and know better why farmers just QUIT and sell their land.

There are lots more rewards than risks. Members from the spring took home, on average, 5 pounds of produce more each week than they had expected. They had ample to feed their families and left overs to share with family and friends.

The biggest rewards are QUALITY, FRESHNESS, FLAVOR, and FUN. The single most often made comment from our CSA Members is "I have learned to be a more adventuresome cook. My family has never eaten so good!"

Fall CSA

The Fall Season will begin near the 1st of October through the first week or 2 in December. A list of probable crops: Lettuce(4 to 6 varities), Arugula, Collards, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Beets, Carrots, Turnips, Radishes, Spinach, Tat Soy, Boc Choi, Tomatoes, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Cantaloup, Watermelon, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Patty Pan Squash, Butternut Squash, Acorn Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Egg Plant, Kale, Mustard, Scallion Onions, Basil, Cilantro, Dill, Bell Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Sweet Corn(NOT ORGANIC),and Popping Corn. Beans, peas, okra, some fresh cut flowers, and some varities of herbs will be available for Pick Your Own.

We begin harvest in October with lettuces, spinach, arugula, Kale, Summer Squashes, egg plant, radishes, tat soy, turnips, mustard, cucumbers. We progress throughout the season with other crops becoming available each week, so the vairty stays diverse.

Membership

We are growing for about 1000 members this fall. Membership slots are alloted to existing members first, waiting list applicants second, and then remaining memberships are offered to the general public on a first come first served basis.

We encourage you to complete the "Waiting List" application below if you are interested in joining Ambrose Family Farm CSA Fall Season. If you choose not to complete the Waiting List Application, visit this web site often to keep up with membership openings.

Waiting List Application

Waiting List Application

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.

First Name*
First Name*

Last Name*
Last Name*

E-mail Address*
E-mail Address*

Street Address*
Street Address*

City*
City*

Zip/Postal Code*
Zip/Postal Code*

Home Phone*
Home Phone*

Business Phone*
Business Phone*

Share Size*
Share Size*

I would like to volunteer to be a "pick up point"

	Thursday 3pm to 6pm
	Friday 3pm to 6pm

I understand that, although the grower is committed to the best of his ability to provide the hightse quality produce, there are risks in agriculture which need to be shared by the whole community and may be reflected in the yields of certain crops. I understand that my membership payment entitles me to a weekly share of the produce harvested from Ambrose Family Farm CSA during the Summer growing season, June thru mid-July. I understand that it is my responsibility to become familiar with the rules of the CSA program and my membership may be discontinued for failure to abide by these rules.*
I understand that, although the grower is committed to the best of his ability to provide the hightse quality produce, there are risks in agriculture which need to be shared by the whole community and may be reflected in the yields of certain crops. I understand that my membership payment entitles me to a weekly share of the produce harvested from Ambrose Family Farm CSA during the Summer growing season, June thru mid-July. I understand that it is my responsibility to become familiar with the rules of the CSA program and my membership may be discontinued for failure to abide by these rules.*

	I Agree and Understand
	I Do Not Agree

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