Tide Mill Farm’s Pasture Raised, Organic Meat:

• Fresh or Frozen Broiler and Roaster Chickens
• Frozen Pork and Grass-fed Beef
• Opportunity to order an organic turkey (orders must be placed by June 1^st)

• Maple syrup from Auger Hill Farm
• Organic Strawberries from Tide Mill Farm or Sand Hill Farm
• Organic Raspberries and Organic High Bush Blueberries from Shore Road Farm
• Wild organic blueberries from Tide Mill Farm or Moon Hill Farm
• Organic Apples from an orchard in Maine
• Organic  Vegetables throughout the winter from other farms in Maine

Educational materials such as farm news, recipes, nutritional information, recommended books, advice, etc.

Working Members:

Tide Mill Organic Farm’s CSA does not require that Shareholders work on the farm.  However, we are interested in a core group that can help us educate and outreach to the local community.  Please let us know if you are willing to contribute your talents, skills, recipes, and stories to help our CSA venture succeed.

There are many different CSA models being practiced all over the country and the world. Tide Mill Organic Farm’s CSA is tailored to best meet the needs of our community and our farm.  CSA’s promote a personal relationship to one’s food and the farmer who grows it.  They are rooted in values, community, and the recognition of the importance of a sustainable local farm and farmers.  We are inviting you to invest in the growing CSA movement to “put a face on your food” and connect with where your food comes from. 

The Agreement:

We as farmers commit to do the very best job we can to grow food that is vitally nutritious for the health of our CSA shareholders, as well as being socially and ecologically sound for the health of our community and our earth. 

Signed by:  Carly DelSignore and Aaron Bell

I (We) as shareholders commit to learn to recognize and attempt to understand the farmer's challenges and to assume our part of the risk and responsibility of our CSA share, and to communicate honestly with our farmer, expressing our joys, challenges and concerns.  

Signed by:  A community member

CSA reflects an innovative and resourceful strategy to connect local farmers with local consumers; develop a regional food supply and strong local economy; maintain a sense of community; encourage land stewardship; and honor the knowledge and experience of growers and producers working with small to medium farms. CSA is a unique model of local agriculture whose roots reach back 30 years to Japan where a group of women concerned about the increase in food imports and the corresponding decrease in the farming population initiated a direct growing and purchasing relationship between their group and local farms. This arrangement, called "teikei" in Japanese, translates to "putting the farmers' face on food." This concept traveled to Europe and was adapted to the U.S. and given the name "Community Supported Agriculture" at Indian Line Farm, Massachusetts, in 1985. As of January 1999, there are over 1000 CSA farms across the US and Canada.

CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food. Supporters help to cover a farm's yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season's harvest. CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and partly assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower. Members help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season. Becoming a member creates a responsible relationship between people and the food they eat, the land on which it is grown and those who grow it.

Food is a basic human need. Yet for most of us in the U.S., it is merely an inexpensive commodity that we take for granted. Issues surrounding how, where, or by whom it is grown are not generally the topic of conversation around the dinner table. Considering the current situation in agriculture, perhaps they should be. Food in the U.S. travels an average of 1,300 miles from the farm to the market shelf. Almost every state in the U.S. buys 85-90% of its food from some place else.
Increased local food production would add considerable food dollars to the economy of many other states. Meanwhile, the nation's best farm land is being lost to commercial and residential development at an accelerating rate. At the same time, the retirement of older farmers, increasing land and production costs, low food prices, competing land uses, the lack of incentive for young people to enter farming, and the fundamental restructuring of the national and global economy all combine to make farming and local food production in the U.S. an increasingly difficult task. Community Supported Agriculture represents a viable alternative to the prevailing situation and the long-distance relationship most of us have with the food we eat.

• CSA models keep food dollars in the local community and contributes to the maintenance and establishment of regional food production systems
• CSA models create opportunity for dialogue between farmers and consumers
• CSA models support the diversity of agriculture through the preservation of small farms producing a wide variety of crops
• CSA models create a sense of social responsibility and stewardship of local land
• CSA models put "the farmers face on food" and increases understanding of how, where, and by whom our food is grown.

Information compiled from the University of Massachusetts Community Supported Agriculture Page who has done a wonderful job to educate people about CSA's.