Sleeping Frog Farms

Since the beginning of Sleeping Frog Farms, we have been dedicated to providing our customers with a CSA option. We recently expanded our acreage and are feverishly working to provide more high-quality local fruits and vegetables. Our Summer 2010 CSA session begins Sunday, May 9th: (Mother's day! ...in case you forgot!) We plan to continue offering additional CSA sessions throughout the year. To meet the high costs associated with a CSA operation, we need to register a minimum of 100 members.

Once started, our CSA season will run for 5 months (20 weeks) and cost $500 per share, if paid up front. Other payment options (including paying in installments) will also be available. Because harvest amounts fluctuate due to seasonal changes, plant maturity, and unforeseen forces of nature, CSA shares will be valued at an average of $25-35 per week.

Developed in the 1960s in Japan, CSAs are a way for communities to share the risks and the bounty of the harvest with the farmer. CSAs offer a positive alternative to the conventional agricultural system and works to create a viable economic model in which farmers receive 100 percent of the food dollar.

In a CSA, consumers buy shares in a farm's output before the growing season starts, and then reap the benefits of the harvest each week as the season progresses. CSA members agree to share in the fluctuation and variations inherent in farming, and understand that their produce will be grown with sound sustainable farming practices. Members are, in essence, shareholders in the farm, thus becoming invested in its successes and failures.

• A weekly box of fresh-picked, seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs totaling an average retail value of $25-35.
• Weekly newsletters and recipes from your Sleeping Frog farmers.
• Farm volunteer opportunities and special CSA-member farm tours.
• A convenient pick-up location at the Sunday St. Phillips Market (we are also considering additional pick-up locations).
• Discounts and purchase priority on non-CSA items.
• The guarantee that your produce has been grown locally, using environmentally sound and desert-conscious farming practices, thus having a far lower carbon footprint than grocery store produce.
• Since your veggies have been grown, harvested, and processed by the very same smiling folks you see every week at the farmer's market, you have the unique opportunity to get to know your farmers, ask questions, and make suggestions.
• The eager anticipation of your weekly share.
• The opportunity to get involved in your food and to truly eat what is in season—and license to get creative in the kitchen!
• A chance to defy the industrial food system, say "no!" to conventional agribusiness, and vote with your dollar. CSAs offer you—the consumer—the ability to participate in your local food system, which supports local farmers, the local economy, and contributes to the overall health of your community.

Thank you Tucson! Our summer 2010 CSA session is underway!

We are breaking ground on our new property in preparation for the next season, which means more local produce and more CSA sessions to come.

To join our CSA waiting list, please fill in and submit the form below. We need your name, email address, and phone number where you can be reached.

Thank you for eating local!