March Farm 2016 CSA Registration Now Open

CSA membership for the 2016 growing season is now open! Our third season promises to be our most diversified yet through cooperative growing efforts with local growers Percy Thomson Meadows of Bethlehem & DeSantis Farm of Watertown!  For more information visit marchfarm.com.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a relationship between our farm and you as our customer. By selling membership in advance of the growing season, CSA's reduce the burden of up-front costs for the farmer. Your membership fees provide a degree of cash flow to purchase seed and fertilizer, repair buildings and equipment & pay weekly labor bills before the season starts. This is a huge benefit to farmers, especially those growing produce, who otherwise have no cash flow & need to work on a budget dictated by the previous year's harvest during the winter & spring months. This is difficult enough without considering the many unknown expenses that occur each year, especially in terms of equipment maintenance. Your commitment to a share of the upcoming growing season cannot be appreciated enough; as we will strive to provide ultra-fresh produce with all the flavor & vitamin benefits, exposure to different produce items & interesting ways to prepare them, designated farm visits & tours to see how your produce is grown and the development of a relationship with the farmers growing them.

Our CSA program will span 16 weeks starting in June and running thru September.
Seasonal farm grown produce planned for the 2016 growing season includes:

Dutch Variety Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Plum Tomatoes, Asparagus, English Cucumbers, Mini Cucumbers, Basil & other Herbs, Beets, Kale, Lettuce, String Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Cherries, Strawberries, Summer Squashes, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Peaches, Nectarines, Sweet Corn, Carrots, Peppers, Apples, Pumpkins, various Winter Squashes & more!

CSA's are something that many farms offer, but don't always cater to the participants (i.e. - loading a weekly pickup with excess produce that would otherwise end up in the compost pile). We aim to change that by maximizing the diversity of our produce offerings each & every week! 

We are proud of the significant efforts we employ to minimize our environmental footprint while balancing the need to be economically viable. We have achieved this using a sound, structured Integrated Pest Management Program. IPM is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of scouting, timely action steps & overall knowledge – in regards to both the life cycles of the crops & the pests that prey on them. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the lifecycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

Although not 'Certified Organic' a number of our produce items are grown 
Completely Chemically Free. So what's the difference between growing organically & chemically free? Allot of paper work for one thing. But more importantly produce grown chemically free (at March Farm) is meticulously maintained which lowers the risk of disease & infection to the plant due to human pruning/training errors. The growing area itself is also kept in immaculate condition - no weeds are allowed to grow that can harbor pest insects & no plant material/pruning's are left behind that can harbor disease. Even the environment itself is controlled (for our greenhouse grown offerings) in terms of heating, cooling & humidity to create an ideal growing environment for plants - not insects or disease - many of which thrive in high humidity conditions. Extensive daily scouting is performed to identify any potential issue before it becomes a serious problem with many types of beneficial insects released on a weekly basis to keep pest pressure in check.