CSA
Community
Supported
Agriculture
We are excited to announce we are opening registration for Flatwater Farms 2025 CSA program which will run May 3, 2025 through December 13, 2025. Please join us for our fifth season on the farm!
As always, all of the fruits and vegetables in our CSA are USDA certified organic and are grown on Flatwater Farms in Buchanan, Michigan, also home to River St. Joe brewery and restaurant.
We have some exciting new changes this year to go with our standard operations that our customers have come to know and love. We will be offering extended market hours, 2 different pricing options for shares ($250 and $400), online ordering for mid-week pick up, an easier self service option from our Plants and Pints store, as well as some fun bonuses to show our appreciation!
We love when our friends and family spread the word about Community Supported Agriculture, so this year if you sign up a friend at the higher tier level you can enjoy a small kickback. We are also going to offer for the first time ever, a unique farm dining experience out in the field that will only be accessible to our CSA members.
For more information and details about the program as well as changes we are adding this year, scroll towards the bottom of the page to find out more!
***New Market Hours and Ordering Options***
Saturday 10:30 am - 2:00 pm
Market-style shopping
Tuesday 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Online pre-order pickup
Plants and Pints Farm Store (located in River St Joe’s beer garden)
Weekdays during normal brewery operating hours
Saturday 7:00 am - 1:00 pm
Market-style shopping
We have asked all 2024 members to hold on to their cards so that we can reload them this year instead of issuing new cards. Please let us know if you have lost your card and need to replace it.
For those hoping to join our CSA for the upcoming 2025 season, frequently asked questions and key changes to the program are outlined below. The CSA program is very similar to our previous CSA seasons with the addition of online shopping and pick-up options available. We will be available to walk old and new members through our process so don’t worry if this sounds confusing at first glance
What is a CSA?
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a way to connect customers directly with the farm that grows their food. It is essentially a membership, or a subscription to a farm.
The advantages are: you develop a personal relationship with the farmer(s) who grow your food and can learn about how it is grown or raised; you get the freshest produce possible with the best flavor and highest nutrient content; you become exposed to new vegetables; you get to visit the farm; your children may favor food from “their” farm.
From the farmer’s perspective it is a benefit to receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow; farmers get to know the people who eat what we grow; and we get to spend our time focusing on producing food during the high season instead of marketing it during an already very busy time.
CSA members prepay for the season and pick up their share of the produce harvested each week. Produce varies with the season – tomatoes usually begin in July and are harvested until autumn. Lettuce is a cool weather crop so it is usually available in the spring, fall, and part of the winter. Belonging to a CSA encourages you to eat food that is in season.
The most important concept of the CSA model is the notion of shared risk – it is a sort of “we’re in this together” mentality. We feel a responsibility to supply you with the most products and the best products available each week. However, unplanned events do occur – there may be a drought, a hailstorm, or perhaps deer get into the garden. Regardless of what happens – our CSA members are our first priority.
Our Practices
At Flatwater Farms, we strive to innovate and sustainably produce high quality and nutritious food in a way that enhances our land. While certified organic, the farm also strives to go beyond the certification in our creation of a carbon rich soil full of nutrition for the plants and for us.
Flatwater Farms has always placed an emphasis on soil building practices. These practices include utilizing cover crops for fertility, weed control, and soil health. We intend to build a mulching program to feed earthworms, protect the soil’s fungal web and structure, and to control weeds. We will also fertilize using local and some farm based materials.
We understand that people want to eat locally and seasonally year round, not just in the summer, so we have been constructing mobile greenhouses that extend our seasons on both ends of the year. Our houses will jump from spinach, to tomatoes, to carrots and more, giving each plant the environment that it needs at the time it needs it. Doing this will naturally strengthen our plant’s defenses and make a delicious and nourishing product to be eaten at its peak freshness. At the end of this season, we will likely be adding a Winter CSA addition to this Summer CSA option.
We plant new vegetable crops regularly throughout the season to keep our selection ever changing and to respond to the items that our CSA members appear to like most. We welcome input on what our members like and don’t like.
We at Flatwater view the farm as part of an ecosystem and strive to create a place for a wide diversity of plants and animals. Our hope is that as we build this farm, you will join us on the journey, and in so doing, become a vital part of what we create.
We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto—a recent book written by Alice Waters, talks about how the way we eat is symbolic of how we live our lives, both as individuals and as a culture. Fast food values, like uniformity, convenience, cheapness, and speed, have infiltrated our entire lives, numbing us to natural beauty and our own capacity for change. Her solution? Living by what she calls slow food values, like beauty, seasonality, stewardship, and simplicity. Doing so, she writes, can change our relationship with food, each other, and the planet. We hope to do our part to share the bounty of the farm with you and connect you to our place.
What We Currently Produce for the CSA (with more variety coming every year)
Arugula
Asparagus
Asian Greens
Basil
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Celeriac
Cilantro
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Fennel
Flowers
Garlic
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce
Melons
Mixed Greens
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Radish
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Spinach
Strawberries
Sweet Corn
Sweet Potatoes
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes
Turnips
Watermelon
Winter Squash
Zucchini
blackberries
apples
…and more!!!
How Does it Work?
A CSA Share
By joining our CSA, we will be planting with your eating in mind. We highly encourage you to embrace seasonal eating (and drinking) by coming to the farm each week. The reason for this is that the food we are growing for the CSA is perishable. The availability of produce will depend on the seasonality of vegetables and fruits in Southwest Michigan. We will provide you with weekly updates on what’s available and what’s coming, along with a few recipes now and then to help you navigate what to do with items that you may not have eaten before!
This year, we will offer two pricing tiers for CSA shares, with the top tier share at a price of $400. As a benefit to purchasing the $400 share, Flatwater Farms will add an additional $80 worth of credits to your share for a total of $480. Our second tier will be priced at $250 - as a benefit to buying in at this level we will add an additional $40 for a total of $290. Our CSA essentially functions as a debit card. New CSA members will receive a Flatwater Farms gift card that has preloaded credits in the amount of your purchase level. We have asked previous CSA members to retain their 2024 cards so that we may reload credits this year rather than issue new cards.
CSA Season and Hours
The CSA runs from May 3rd through December 13th. Pick-up will be available to CSA members during the following times
Flatwater Farms Tuesday 4pm - 6pm
Online order pickup only
Flatwater Farms Saturday 10:30 am - 2:00 pm
Market-style shopping
At Flatwater Farms/River St. Joe, we lay out a spread of all of our produce for members, market style, as in previous years. Members shop with their credits and we deduct those credits from their CSA card
Chicago Green City Market Saturday 7:00 am - 1:00 pm
Market-style shopping
CSA members can use their credits at our booth at Green City Market in Lincoln Park, Chicago
For the Saturday CSA hours, we will staff the farm stand and ensure that you receive the best service possible with the option to ask any questions or just a friendly chat with your local farmer.
Non-CSA members will also be able to shop at this time as well.
In 2022, we introduced a farm stand called “Plants and Pints” that is located in the RSJ beer garden. The farm stand will often be open during RSJ’s daily hours except that it will close 1 hour prior to RSJ's closing. The farm stand will again showcase our produce in a smaller display. This building will allow us to extend the hours available for CSA members and brewery customers to shop, however, it will not often be staffed by our farm team. It will usually be self-serve with an honesty and first come first serve policy in place. To use CSA credits when the farm stand is not staffed, members will gather their groceries in Plants and Pints and then check out at River St. Joe’s bar inside the restaurant. In the heat of the season, there may be times when the farm stand runs out of items, so the best bet for the widest selection is to show up weekly during our market times.
Flatwater Farms will also be offering a compost service and have compost buckets available for sale in two sizes. We hope to share the benefits of composting with you and allow you to drop off your collections weekly if you choose. Details about how to compost will be available with the buckets and at the farmstand.
Please note: We do not allow split CSA shares. The credits you purchase are for you and your immediate family only. We believe that a commitment of a full share is necessary for the program to thrive. The reason for this belief is that the year is long and involves many changes. If you feel that the CSA commitment is too big, you are welcome to visit us at our farm stand at your convenience during the hours that it is open.
Incentives
Extra 15%-20% credit added to your card depending on the tier level
A free tour of the farm (dates and times TBD)
A Flatwater SWAG pack - sticker and logo performance buff
For signing up a friend at the top tier price you will receive an extra $25 in credits.
Exclusive access to a ticketed prix-fixe harvest dinner out in the field (date, time, and ticket price tbd) - members and immediate family only
How do I apply to join?
Sign up online by filling out the form via the button below and then either pay online or mail a check.
Questions?
Please email or call Danny Moeller, Farm Manager
(225) 603-9228
We look forward to seeing you on the farm!