Heirloom Gardens - CSA/NSA Community Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides consumers with a direct connection to the farm that produces their food. CSA members make an upfront financial contribution to the farm, and receive education about local food production and weekly shares of the best the farm has to offer. The Heirloom Gardens CSA produces food grown within Northwest Denver, so the harvest travels just a few miles (or a few blocks!) to reach the members. This model of neighborhood production is often called Neighborhood Supported Agriculture (NSA).

An Opportunity for Learning

Participation in an NSA allows members to learn about local food production. Members will have weekly opportunities to ask questions about organic gardening and biointensive growing techniques. The NSA will also provide information about methods for cooking/preparing local vegetables, and offer recipe sharing for its members.

A Shared Commitment: Shared Risks, Shared Rewards

NSA allows members to support farmers by agreeing to share in the risks and rewards of food production. The Heirloom Gardens farmers and volunteers will utilize organic, biointensive and sustainable growing methods to produce a wide variety of crops for the community. In a well-functioning NSA, with Mother Nature's cooperation, shareholders can expect to receive more than their money's worth of fresh vegetables and herbs throughout the growing season. However, since nature offers no guarantees, Heirloom Gardens cannot guarantee its weekly or seasonal offerings although every effort will be made to do so. Members understand that NSA share payments are non-refundable.

A Season's Bounty

The 2010 Heirloom Gardens harvest season runs for 20 weeks, from May 26th - October 6th. We specialize in heirloom varieties and will be planting vegetables and herbs. Our NSA members are always our priority when we harvest, receiving the best the farm produces in each week. You can click here to view a list of the vegetables and herbs we will be planting in 2010. Eating locally is, by definition, eating seasonally, so we will only produce food in time with nature's calendar.

Some Special Benefits of NSAs

Your food is not just local, but ULTRA local! You have the ability to, any time you'd like, visit the "farm" and see for yourself how your food is grown.
Your food is always handed to you by someone who actually grew it, so you have a face-to-face connection with your farmers, and have someone readily available if you have any questions about your vegetables or how to prepare them.
Your food is grown by community members -- young adults, retirees, families, etc. -- who want to get hands-on experience in gardening. You never have to worry about the labor practices on your farm.
You get to enjoy heirloom varieties, and discover the wonderful tastes that go along with them!
Your food is grown on land that was previously resource-consuming lawn, or weedy open space -- now transformed for food production.
You're participating in something that is helping to build community in the place where you live.

Know Your Food, Know Your Farmer!

NSA members are welcome to make an appointment to come by and visit the garden sites anytime. They are also welcome to join our volunteers in the different farming activities - including seed starting, transplanting, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting. Click here if you would like to volunteer.

Many thanks to Community Roots, Angelic Organics, Grant Family Farms, and Abbondanza for providing inspiration and examples of how CSAs can be structured.

303.956.7203 ~ info@eatwhereUlive.com

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Heirloom Gardens is an organic, multi-plot urban farm. We run an NSA (neighborhood supported agriculture) program specializing in ultra local vegetables and herbs.