Our Vision for Apples
What is CSA?
We will offer CSA subscriptions for our apples. They are seasonal, diverse, and cannot be easily found in more traditional venues. (Our honey, candles, and lavender may be purchased directly from our website.)
Outside the Lunchbox
No commitment now! Read about CSA and the CSA agreement. Your information is protected by our Privacy Policy.
Benefits
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a way to connect to local, seasonal food directly from small, local growers. You subscribe to “shares” from a specific grower (typically) at the beginning of the growing season. At harvest time, you receive your share of the harvest from that grower. CSA has a number of advantages for you.
- You have a relationship with a particular grower and a particular farm (or orchard, in our case).
- You have access to local, in-season, and fresh produce that is more diverse than you can find at typical grocery stores.
- You know the way that grower cares for the crop, manages insects and disease, and delivers the crop to you.
- You support small farms that grow locally.
For us, we can care for the crop with confidence and support, knowing that our efforts to produce fresh and high-quality food is valued by subscribers. Further, time is precious during the growing season and the harvest season. CSA relieves some of the uncertainty of selling the crop. CSA also provides us with resources when we need it most — near the beginning of the growing season.
Shared Risk and Reward
“Shared risk and reward” is a cornerstone concept of CSA. The grower and the subscriber are in it together! You are an integral part of the process. Unlike typical transactions, CSA shares support the farming that yields the crop. In an abundant year, you can look forward to a bounty of high quality apples (the reward). In years with extreme weather or heavy disease pressure (the risk), you may receive less or even no produce.
There are typically no refunds on subscriptions — we put in a season’s worth of labor even if a severe late-season hailstorm wipes out the crop. We, like most CSA growers, feel great responsibility to our subscribers. In lean years, CSA subscribers have priority for what crop there is. And at the start of the season, we won’t offer more apple subscriptions than we think we can deliver.
You can learn more from Local Harvest and the USDA, and please read our community share agreement.
CSA brings growers and consumer together to share the bounty (and the risks) of the earth. We invite you to join us!
Outside the Lunchbox
No commitment now! Read about CSA and the CSA agreement. Your information is protected by our Privacy Policy.
How We Grow
Farming is a challenging balance between the weather, insects, and income. We care for the environment that sustains our trees, and we want to keep our trees healthy. That means we need to make scientifically and economically informed choices about handling insects and disease. We want to preserve, enjoy, and share our apples in a sustainable way.
We keep current with contemporary scientific strategies to monitor and control insects and disease at our orchard. These things include:
- Scouting for disease and insects before they become a threat to our crop;
- Using natural insect predators when possible; and
- Ensuring that any treatment we apply is the minimum necessary, and the least hazardous possible, to maintain our orchard’s health.
That’s good for the environment, good for the community, and good for business. It’s also good for our bees!
Given the tightrope that we walk, we use a strategy called “IPM” to provide quality produce and maintain a quality environment. (See here for more resources on the topic. ) This is different than “certified organic,” which is a regulatory term that limits the approaches that growers may use to maintain a healthy orchard. We carefully evaluate current strategies to care for our piece of good earth.
These heirloom and cider apple water colors, used throughout our site, are from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pomological Watercolor Collection, Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705.
Watch our orchard grow …
Our vision for Cider Blossom Farm is to preserve and enjoy heirloom and cider apples through sustainable farming.
Member, American Beekeeping Federation • Member, Wisconsin Apple Growers Association