Community Supported Agriculture is a business model that ensures a just, transparent and symbiotic relationship between farmer and consumer.Introducing:
The Alprilla Farm Winter Share
We close the gap in eating seasonal and local by focusing on growing certified organic vegetables just for winter distribution. The winter share is our favorite part of the farm, and we want to provide local food to our CSA families through the holidays and the cozy, dark part of the year—the very best times to be in the kitchen, we think, with hearty food at the ready! We try to grow pretty much anything that can either store well in the root cellar or hold in the field during the winter in northern New England. We strive to diversify the options and provide fresh green things whenever possible, but the bulk of the share will be roots, tubers, bulbs and squash.
Our winter share is 14 pickups from October to March. We have weekly pickups until the New Year, with every-other week pickups thereafter. Our pickups are on Wednesdays from 2:30-6:30pm—at the farm in the greenhouse by the toasty wood stove.
There are a few things that make the Alprilla Farm share stand out. We offer a volume-based, farmer's market style Winter CSA: We lay out crates of all the kinds of vegetables we have on tables, and you can choose what you want that week. You can, for example, load up on squash for a particular recipe you have in mind one week and then not take squash for a while if you don’t want to. You will receive your wooden Alprilla Share box, which is about the same volume as a standard brown paper grocery bag on its side. This is your “share” of the harvest that you can fill with what you like. Occasionally, items will be limited and posted as such (ie, in a given week we might only have enough leeks for one per share) and sometimes large items, like brussels sprouts on the stalk, will be given outside the box.
Interested in a Winter Share?
Please let us know! We’ll be offering a Winter Share in Warner, NH for the ‘25/’26 season. Please click below to add yourself to our interest list.
We are able to offer a number of subsidized CSA shares thanks to our generous CSA community. If you are interested in a share and find paying for one difficult, please get in touch. We are also happy to offer payment plans.
How the CSA Model Works
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You are our community and we are your farmers! We love this model of distributing food, which we find builds a rich, place-based, intricate and mutual relationship between consumer and farmer and land. You invest in a “share” of the harvest at the beginning of the season. In exchange, you come to the farm regularly to pick up your portion of the harvest.
As farmers, we benefit by having cash flow at the beginning of the season when expenses are greatest. Additionally, we can focus on growing food instead of marketing, which makes it possible to offer our veggies at a cost lower than could be offered at a farmer’s market or retail venue. Shareholders get to experience a full fall and winter of the local diet and the changing mosaic of available veggies. Our pickup takes place at the farm, creating a space where shareholders can connect with their neighbors, with where their food comes from and who grows it.
Intrinsic to the CSA model is shared risk
We always plant more than we anticipate needing for our shareholders. When conditions are good, there is a bounty available and the shareholder benefits. When conditions are unfavorable, certain crops may underperform or even fail. We try to ensure that our shareholders get a good value by planting many different crops. If conditions are bad for one crop, they are probably ideal for another.
being flexible helps everyone
In the case of a snowstorm, we may move the pickup day or pre-box shares for flexible pickup. Depending on how a major holiday falls within the week, we may move that week’s share to a different day with plenty of heads up. If you have a summer share at another farm that finishes after we start, please let us know if you would like to prorate our share for up to two weeks. It’s important for you or a friend or family member to come pick out your share of vegetables. However, if there’s a Wednesday that you just can’t make it, you can let us know before we close and we will happily pack up some veggies for you to pick up later. If you don’t let us know by the time we pack up, we can’t make your share up later.
Our share provides a lot of vegetables
If you think it will be too much for your household to consume, you are welcome to find a friend, neighbor or family member to split a share with. We welcome this practice; we’re happy the food is going home with so many people! For logistics sake, remember from our end we are not selling half shares: please come at the same time to fill your one box together, or switch off who picks up.