Perennial Roots Farm

biodynamic farm & garden

What is a CSA?

SIGN UP NOW FOR OUR 2024 Veggie Box CSA

This is probably one of the most common questions I receive right around this time of year, when we are launching our shares. Simply put, a CSA share stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

During the winter months, you invest in your local farm by purchasing a CSA subscription and then come spring, depending on what you signed up for, each week you'll receive a “share” or box of the freshest vegetables from your local farmers. At its heart, a CSA is a collaboration between the farmer and the community who purchases a share with you, the consumer, helping to change the food system, one vegetable at a time.

When you join a CSA you are supporting your local community and your local farmer but you're also making a commitment to eat seasonally, rooting yourself to a particular time and place, to that very soul of the soil that your food is grown in.

To me, the value and true magic of a CSA lies in its ability to foster community and local food. As farmers we are not only growing food for our community but trying to heal the earth in the process through regenerative biodynamic farming practices. When you sign up for a CSA you are helping us heal the earth while enjoying fresh produce.

We do something a bit unusual here on our farm: animals and vegetables are integrated forming the beating heart of our operation. In the process, soil life thrives, animals exist not simply for food for us, but food for the field and garden. The vegetables flourish on the rich soil and microbial life. And each year, the process just keeps getting more magical. On an integrated animal and vegetable farm, harmony in chaos exists in full view for anyone who cares to observe and soak it up. Here on our farm small miracles transcend the every day.

A CSA is for you if:

  • You love eating lots of fresh organically grown vegetables

  • You are vegetarian or vegan and/or you love eating lots of vegetables.

  • You love to cook and experiment with new flavors and maybe a few vegetables you haven't heard of before.

  • You want to support your local community.

  • You care about the earth, soil, climate change and what goes into your body.

  • You LOVE good food. 

The flavors, nutrients, color, variety and freshness from a CSA is mind-blowing. Grown from seed right here on our farm, these vegetables are very different from the jet-lagged food you get at the grocery store, including the ones labeled "organic" or "all-natural." Food harvested the day or day before you receive it is the freshest, most nutrient-dense food you can buy, and you will taste and feel the difference.

When you sign up for our CSA, you aren't simply feeding yourself with locally grown vegetables, but you're supporting our farm, animals and becoming a part of our community. When you eat vegetables grown here from the land you live, not trekked across hundreds or thousands of miles, you connect just a bit more to this spot of earth that you reside on. You become a part of the terroir. 

I only grow what I love to eat, so each vegetable that you receive in your CSA or at the market, contains a bit of me, farmer Natalie, and my love of food and passion for fresh ingredients.

Some of my favorite vegetables that I grow for you include bok choi, fennel, leeks, tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce, but here's a little outline of just some of the different vegetables you can expect when you join our CSA.

Springtime Veggies

  • Spring Onions

  • Leeks

  • Sugar Snap Peas

  • Snow Peas

  • Head Lettuce

  • Salad Mix

  • Kohlrabi

  • Radishes

  • Hakurei Salad Turnips

  • Bok Choi

  • Arugula

  • Dandelion Greens

  • Parsley

  • Spinach

  • Assorted Asian Greens

  • Garlic Scapes

  • Fava Beans

  • Fennel

Summer Veggies

  • Napa Cabbage

  • Rainbow Beets

  • Cucumbers

  • Green Beans

  • Garlic

  • Basil

  • Leeks

  • Italian Red Tropea Onions

  • Summer Squash

  • Zucchini

  • Okra

  • Cherry Tomatoes

  • Heirloom Tomatoes

  • Eggplant

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Chile Peppers

  • Shiso

  • Salad Mix

Look for lots of greens, radishes, peas and spring onions when the CSA first begins, as we transition closer to summer you'll receive fennel, cabbage, broccoli and beets. Then finally the height of summer arrives highlighting cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers and basil.

We're excited to be offering our meat CSA again this year which includes beef, pork, and lamb!

Starting at the beginning of May and continuing into September we're offering twenty weeks of fresh vegetables for our spring and summer CSA. Each week features a bounty grown by farmers you know. By choosing a CSA not only are you guaranteed safe, nourishing vegetables, but you are supporting your community and local economy. Eating foods grown right where you live is a joy and with it comes the special gift of connecting you to a sense of place within your community.

Each box is designed to feed a family of 3-4 people OR a couple who eats a lot of vegetables. 5 to 9 different varieties of vegetables and herbs are included in each box every week.

Holla at me for any questions you might have. Here's the link to our website and to sign up for our CSA. Head on over to our website for more details on box sizes (we have a couple different options this year!), payment plans and what you can expect when you sign up for our CSA. We are looking forward to providing you with a steady supply of fresh food this year!

Subscribe to our Emails

 
Agriculture is the noblest of all alchemy; for it turns earth, and even manure, into gold, conferring upon its cultivator the additional reward of health.
— Horace Smith, The Tin Trumpet; Or Heads and Tales, for the Wise and Waggish Alchymist (p. 28)
 
 

The Seed

Natalie McGill and Stewart Lundy founded Perennial Roots Farm in 2010 as both a business and a home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. We began as a homestead, concerned foremost with reducing waste and providing enough food for our own needs. Over the next few years a garden grew up into a farm. We share a passion for animals, ecology, alternative farming methods and homesteading. Most days on the farm Natalie can be found working in the vegetable garden, checking in on the animals, or tending trees. Stewart’s enthusiasm centers around managing the pasture and soil fertility, composting and forever researching new farm methods. Natalie likes to think about this year’s yields. Stewart likes to think about next year’s yields. Together, they make a pretty good team.

Goals

Our goals and practices are a synthesis of biodynamic rhythms and principles of permanent agriculture. We are committed not only to nominal “sustainable” practices, but to regenerative practices that increase fertility with every season. We use intensive multi-species rotational grazing which keeps our animals healthier and nurtures our soil. We use cover crops to enliven the soil, build carbon, and provide habitat for beneficial insects. We compost as much as we can. Even the weeds are all an integral part of this process of healing the Earth.

Style

We grow exclusively non-GMO open pollinated heirloom plants and raise heritage breed pigs, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and turkeys. Most of our vegetables and animals that we raise are listed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste for their unique history and superior flavor. Most of the animals we raise are part of an effort to preserve the genetic heritage of heritage breeds listed as “at risk” or “critical” by the Livestock Conservancy. We are an agri-artisan on the Virginia Eastern Shore Artisan Trail, a certified Bee Friendly Farm and a mentor farm in the North American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program.

Our produce and livestock are also Certified Naturally Grown.