Little City Gardens

UPDATE JANUARY 2013 – Our CSA program is currently on pause while we experiment with which outlets work best for us. Our waiting list is full, but we will keep you all updated when the program restarts and subscription spots open up.

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If you are interested in joining San Francisco’s first city-grown CSA program, please read the description below and download our CSA application. Completed applications can be sent via email to littlecitygardens@gmail.com, or if you have limited computer access let us know and we can arrange to get you a hard copy to fill out and return. If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you for supporting!

Little City Gardens CSA Description
Spring 2012

What will be in the box?
Our CSA box will not be the diverse vegetable box that you may be used to from larger rural farms. Consider this a box of special salad fixings and a little bit more. Because we are a small farm, about 3/4 acre of production space, we have chosen to focus our production on salad crops, cooking greens, herbs and flowers. If you love green things, this box might even compliment your CSA box from another farm.

Each week’s box will include (with some variation depending on the week):

a half pound of our artisinal salad mix
our salad mix is seriously special! it is composed of over 25 varieties of greens, herbs and edible flowers. a complex range of flavors: sweet, nutty,spicy,tangy, fruity and floral.

one bundle of cooking greens
on any given week this could be: kale, braising mix, mustard greens, rainbow chard, or fava greens, or collard greens, pea shoots etc

one bundle or basket of other produce
on any given week this could be: radishes, tokyo turnips, beets, fennel bulb, mixed variety carrots, cabbage, peas, green beans, artichokes, leeks, scallions, green garlic, spring onions etc

one bundle of culinary herbs
this will be a hearty bundle of one or more of: marjoram, oregano, thyme, tarragon, garlic chives, tarragon, cilantro, dill, or parsley. Basil in the summer!

and from time to time
a small garden flower bouquet or a surprise piece of Little City Gardens artwork. This could be recipe ideas, farm notes, a broadsheet, or a poster.

How much does the box cost?
The cost of membership breaks down to $20/week. As an urban farm piloting a business model in San Francisco, it is important to us that we engage in education, policy work, and communications about food, sustainable farming, grassroots economics and labor issues — in addition to our work on the farm. We operate on an urban scale, and therefore depend on our bodies, hand tools and bicycles much more frequently than on machines and trucks. Charging prices on the high end of what you may be used to helps give us fair shot at sustaining ourselves through our work. We hope you can envision the extra few dollars you pay for this food as a gesture towards this process of forging a road for a new type of farming in our city.

What is your Community-helping-Community Sliding Scale Model?
We would like to offer some boxes at subsidized prices to families and individuals who can not otherwise afford them. In order to do this we need your help. We greatly encourage those who can pay a little more to do so. Five extra dollars per week from one person will go directly toward subsidizing a reduced-price box for another. If you or anyone you know would like an application for a subsidized box please see the CSA application for details. (Thanks to some members’ contributions to this CHC fund last season, we are pleased to be able to offer a couple discounted spots for this first session.) Food equity is a real and important issue in our city and we find it essential to engage our CSA community in piloting some grassroots solutions. We are hopeful that this type of community-helping-community sliding scale model will allow a broad range of SF residents to enjoy this healthy, delicious, locally produced food.

Where do I pick up my box?
Wednesday afternoons from 5:00-6:00 at the farm (203 Cotter St in the Outer Mission), or Thursday evenings 4:00-8:00 at the Mission Community Farmers Market (22nd & Bartlett).

What if I don’t want a box every week?
If you feel that you cannot consume this much salad/produce every week, you might consider signing up with a friend and switching off each week. If you will be out of town for a week, or are not able to pick up at the designated time, we kindly ask that you either arrange to have a friend receive your box for that week, or if you give us advance notice we will donate your box to someone who needs it. Unfortunately we have no cold storage and we won’t be able to accommodate pick-ups on days other than what’s designated.

How long is the season?
In order to give ourselves time to incrementally increase our membership while we build up to full production, our season will be broken up into month-long sessions for the time being.

*exact dates for these sessions TBA

How do I sign up?
We’re now accepting applications for our April session! To sign up, please fill out an application and email it to us with the subject CSA APPLICATION. We’ll accept members on a first come first served basis until we reach capacity. If you submit an application but do not make it in this round, we will keep you on a waiting list and give you priority (along with existing members) for the next round.

UPDATE: We are currently at capacity with a waiting list for our MAY CSA . Please do feel free to send an application if you are interested and we’ll add you to the waiting list. We hope to open up a few more spots each month.