Community Share Agreement

Updated March 9, 2026

Welcome! We love to share our vision to preserve and enjoy the diversity of apples with sustainable farming. You can be an invaluable part of this commitment through Community Shared Agriculture, or CSA. (You can read more about CSA at Local Harvest.)

What is a CSA share? You pay upfront, and we pack your apples fresh each season. You share in the harvest — bumper crops or tough years alike. In return, you receive heirloom varieties, subscriber discounts, and a direct connection to your food. All of the details follow, and please read them carefully as we need your agreement before you purchase shares.

To be able to buy CSA products (“shares”), you’ll need to register for an account and agree to these terms. This allows us to keep you informed about the availability and delivery of shares.

Risk and Reward

Shared risk and shared reward are at the heart of community shared agriculture. As a subscriber, you are helping to preserve our apple heritage and diversity for our community in a sustainable way. Many of the apple varieties we grow for you were treasured in the past, but are … finicky, which is why many major growers now harvest modern cultivars of apples that are more dependable, less disease-prone, or more tolerant of long-distance transportation. The result is that our orchard takes special attention and effort to provide you with excellent apples.

The success of any orchard depends on many unknowable factors — including what insects find tasty and what havoc the weather might cause. Together, we agree to share the risk and reward of farming through CSA. In a good year, you can expect the reward of exceptional diversity and quality from our orchard. Difficult years — with heavy insect pressure, poor weather, or unusual disease outbreaks — may yield fewer varieties or apples of lesser quality. In extreme cases, such as in the case of an early heavy frost, flooding, tornado, or severe hail, you may receive no further products for the year.

But there is also reward. You can enjoy the abundance of the orchard! Most of our subscribers do not want more apples than we provide in our box deliveries, but we do offer subscribers discounts on bulk apples for those of you who want extra for saucing, canning, or cider making. We also offer a five percent discount (before shipping and taxes) on all non-CSA products in our online shop to subscribers who have purchased a share in the last 12 months.

Share Descriptions

We want you to be informed of the varieties of apples you may receive. Please see our description of the many varieties we grow! Most of our varieties are unlikely to be at your grocery store and will look, feel, or taste differently than more familiar varieties (we think they are better!). You can expect to receive a quality selection of these apples in each box, depending on harvest dates and available quantities (not all trees bear the same). We pick apples that are ready to harvest, but they not always be ready to use immediately — some varieties benefit from aging in your fridge or other storage. In your boxes, we will always indicate any special instructions for the varieties we’ve packed.

We offer four basic levels of apple shares. Our Shop page lists the current rates and availability. The large, small, and winter shares are for eating and baking apples; the other is for cider apples. Shares with more than one box mean that there are multiple deliveries or shipments. You may subscribe to more than one share. We use a subscriber newsletter to let you know when we are harvesting apples or for other apple-share related information. (We use our general farm newsletter for everything else.)

• A winter share will have apples from storage and some varieties may be wrinkled, but they will be wholesome. Both boxes will be shipped.
• A cider share will be primarily cider varieties, and may include seconds.

During the harvest season, we will announce opportunities for subscribers to buy additional bushels of apples (laundry basket-size; about 40 pounds) in addition to your regular share by e-mail newsletter. Bushels are especially useful if you’d like to make apple sauce or cider. As with the cider share, these apples may be seconds. “Seconds” look less-than-perfect but are otherwise wholesome. We will never deliver you apples from windfalls or any punctured apples.

Our orchard is a working farm and not open to visitors, but we’d love to meet you at a farmers’ market!

Payments, Refunds, and Cancellations

When purchasing CSA shares as a subscriber, payments are due in full at the time of purchase. Our Shop page will list the current rates. There is no charge for becoming a CSA subscriber.

In general, there are no refunds. We do not offer more shares than we expect to be able to fulfill (and don’t make them available until late spring for this reason). However, pests, disease, or weather events may destroy part or all of our crop during the growing season. We cannot offer refunds in these cases — we have to care for the trees regardless in hopes of a better next year! This is the meaning of shared risk. Also, we cannot offer refunds for shares that are not picked up; see “Receiving your Shares.” If we cannot fulfill our obligations to you for reasons other than pest, disease, or weather events, you will receive a prorated refund for any undelivered shares.

There are no refunds for already-purchased but not-yet-delivered shares if you choose to end your CSA subscription with the following partial exceptions: If you move out of the area or suffer a hardship that prevents you from using your boxes, you may be eligible for a partial refund of your share purchases. Refunds are given at our discretion, but please do contact us to discuss your options. Our orchard depends on our subscribers’ commitment to cover expenses for everyone’s enjoyment of the orchard.

Receiving your Shares

In general, you may pick up your shares from us at a farmers’ market we attend, another location that we arrange, or you may have them shipped to you. (We use a regional shipper so the costs are reasonable.) The final box of the large share and winter shares will be shipped.

Because our products are perishable and packed for you, you are responsible to come to the scheduled pick-up location at the published date and time for your shares. If you do not pick them up at the agreed time or place, we may donate, sell, or process the produce for others. No refunds will be given.

That said, if something comes up and you know you will miss a pick-up time, contact us in advance of the scheduled date and time, and we will try to make something work, at our option. These may include

• Your authorization of another person to pick up your share on your behalf at the scheduled date and time. We will not release your share to another person without written (or e-mailed) permission from you; or
• Offering to ship you your box at current shipping rates.

Unfortunately, we cannot hold your share. If another person cannot pick up your share and you do not wish to pay for shipping, you surrender your share. No refunds will be given.

Communications

We need good communications for any strong community. Upon subscribing, you consent to receive a subscriber-only e-mail newsletter from Cider Blossom Farm. We will send this when shares are available and occasionally at other times of the year. The newsletter will contain updates about likely harvest dates and delivery plans for apples. We may also provide shorter e-mail updates about the crop when necessary, but we won’t spam you! This e-mail newsletter is different from our general farm newsletter (which we recommend!).

Because we use our CSA newsletter to communicate information about scheduling delivery and pickup, being subscribed to the CSA newsletter is required to remain a CSA subscriber. You may unsubscribe from the CSA subscriber e-mail newsletter at any time, but if you do, you will no longer be a CSA subscriber, nor will you be eligible to purchase shares from us. Any already-purchased shares will be assembled for you under the terms of this agreement.

We will deliver essential information about cancellations, delays, or other problems to the e-mail you provide. We are not responsible for lost or delayed e-mail, or errors in your e-mail address. (Please note that our Privacy Policy protects our use of your e-mail address and other information.)

Of course, we would be delighted to hear from you about our apples! Contact us.

Sign Me Up!

Signing up is free. Create an account, agree to these terms, and you’re eligible to buy shares through our Shop when they are available. The primary account holder will receive all e-mail communications from us and is responsible for payment.

If, at any time, you no longer wish to be eligible to purchase shares, you may update your preferences at your account page.