Community Supported Agriculture

Stargazer Hollow Farm will have a limited number of 2024 CSA shares available.

We have a diversified farm with vegetables and fruits, microgreens, ducks (and duck eggs), honeybees (and honey), and cut flowers.  We’re not certified organic because our land isn’t eligible for certification yet, but we generally practice regenerative agriculture methods and only treat our plants if absolutely necessary, only with OMRI-listed (organic) treatments.  

Our CSA

CSA shares are weekly distributions of our farm products throughout the harvest season.  Our main season is June – September.

Shares can be picked up at our farm in Berkley on  Sundays 9-12, or at our booth at the Hingham Farmers Market on Saturdays 9-1.

If you need to skip a week and let us know in advance, that is fine, and please let us know if you’d like a double share the next week or want some other plan.  If you don’t let us know in advance but don’t pick up your share, we will donate it.

Benefits of CSAs

For us: CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture”.  When you buy your share at the beginning of the growing season, we farmers are more able to predict sales and cash flow, which allows us to plan ahead on our seed and labor expenses.  When we have unexpectedly successful or unsuccessful plantings of a certain crop, we have a community behind us taking on some of that risk (and the reward of unexpected October strawberries, if we have another fall like the last one!).

For you: CSAs allow you to eat great, local, healthy produce and support the agricultural and environmental practices that you want to see — you vote with your dollars! You also know where your food is coming from, and can often go check out the farm and basically watch your food be created! Our CSAs also include recipes that include not just the produce in your weekly share, but also other locally, seasonally available food; we source a minimum of 80% of our ingredients for the recipe of the week from our farm and the other vendors at our farmers markets.

Share Options

All Shares Include:

• 2 Baskets/Boxes (depends on what we can get this winter) to rotate — each week bring us your basket, and we’ll give you your other basket packed with items
• A reusable shopping tote bag with our farm logo on it
• Produce storage best practices magnet
• A weekly recipe of the week using items from your share
• A complimentary tour of the farm for up to 4 people to be booked during the season

Full Share June – September 16 week $600

• Approximately 7-10 items + 2 salad mix + herbs. 
• Typically feeds 3-4 people, or 2 people who cook regularly and eat a lot of vegetables.
• Example mid-summer share: 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, 1 pound heirloom slicing tomatoes, 4 lemon cucumbers, 2 pickling cucumbers, 1 pint red cipollini onions, 1 watermelon, 2 zucchini, 2 summer squash, 2 salad mix with edible flowers, 2 basil, 1 mint.

Half Share June – September 16 week $400

• Approximately 4-5 items + salad mix + herbs. 
• Typically feeds 2 people, or a family that does not cook often.
• Example mid-summer share: 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, 4 lemon cucumbers, 1 pint red cipollini onions, 1 pint strawberries, 1 zucchini, 1 salad mix with edible flowers, 1 basil, 1 mint.

Add-On Shares

• Flower Share (add-on to produce shares) $300
  • A large bouquet of about 12-15 stems per week + greens
  • A pretty vase from a local glassblower at the beginning of the season (value ~$80) 
• Extended Season May and October 8 week $100
  • Approx 3-4 items + salad mix + herbs
  • Example May share: 2 bunches French breakfast radishes, 1 bunch rainbow carrots, 1 bag kale, 1 bag salad mix, 2 bunches mint
  • Example October share: 1 pie pumpkin, 1 bunch leeks, 1 bag of pears, 1 bag of salad mix, 1 bunch of lavender, 1 bunch of mint.
• Egg Share $80 Main Season / $40 Extended ($120 for full extended)
  • A half dozen free-range eggs weekly 
  • We have ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese, and quail.  Eggs will be clearly labeled each week, and will usually be duck eggs (our specialty!) or chicken eggs.
• Edible Flowers $100 Main Season
  •  A box of edible flowers in your share each week
  • These edible flowers are often used in salads, as garnishes, in cocktails, or on baked goods. Treat yourself!
• Full McGuire’s Mushrooms Share $300 Main Season / $150 Extended ($450 for both main + extended)
  • A pound of fresh locally grown culinary mushrooms from McGuire’s Mushrooms in Hingham
  • This comes out to $18.75 per lb
• Half McGuire’s Mushrooms Share $160 Main Season / $80 Extended ($240 for both main + extended)
  • A half pound of fresh locally grown culinary mushrooms from McGuire’s Mushrooms in Hingham
  • This comes out to $20 per lb
• Double McGuire’s Mushrooms Share $560 Main Season / $280 Extended ($840 for both main + extended)
  • Two full pounds of fresh locally grown culinary mushrooms from McGuire’s Mushrooms in Hingham
  • This comes out to $17.50 per lb
• Friend of the Farm $350 Main Season / $100 Extended (Total $450 Main + Extended)
  • Every week you will receive a small gift from the farm and a hand-written thank you note
    • Potential examples: Wool dryer ball, jams and jellies, pickles, dried herbs, teas, potpourri, soap, honey, popcorn, carving pumpkins, reusable feed bag tote, catnip, dry beans
  • 50% discount on farm events

Payment Options

A primary reason that we are doing CSAs is that we need some farm money over the winter to buy seeds and supplies, just to put that info on the table 🙂 

• Deposit for all payment options: $100 to hold your CSA spot
• Early Pay Discount: Pay in Full by January 15 to save 10% on your total invoice
• Standard: Pay In Full by April 1
• Installments: Pay 50% by April 1 and 50% by June 1
• There is a work share/trade option below if desired
• There is a subsidized option below if needed

Solidarity Shares

Do you require a discount on the CSA share in order to make it accessible?

To be eligible for this program, applicants must have verifiable financial reasons. As an example of ways a person could be eligible, anyone qualified for public assistance programs such as WIC, TANF, energy assistance, or Medicaid is considered eligible.

The form will ask you to indicate a discount percentage that you would need, from 10%-50% off. At 10% off, the farm still makes a profit on the food sold, and at 50% off, the farm is subsidizing the food.  This discount can be used for your entire desired share including any add-ons: We are as happy to subsidize flowers and Friends of the Farm shares as we are to subsidize produce.  Your share will look like everyone else’s shares and we will not make any indication of your discount except for on your invoices.

We have to cap the amount of shares that we can offer this way due to financial constraints on our end, but a top priority of our farm is increasing access to healthy, nutritious, local food. Please be ready to provide some proof of eligibility if asked — we will contact you before sending your contract over if needed

How to Sign Up

Fill out this form, and we will send over an agreement and invoice for the deposit to the email address that you provide on the form. 

Most likely, spots will sell out in March or so.

Work Option

We are re-launching our Work Share program to align better with our mission to bring people closer to their food.

Work Share Basics:

• Time commitment: 4 hours per week, usually done in one weekly shift
• Flexibility based on interests and physical ability
• Possible to barter more hours for CSA share add-ons
• The farm is proudly owned and operated by members of the LGBTQ+ community and BIPOC. We have a commitment to being a safe and comfortable place to be for folks in those communities.

Work Share Benefits:

• Receive a full vegetables share per week during your weeks in the Work Share program
• Learn an area of the farm from an expert
• Flexible schedule
• Be a member of our farm Slack team, which allows you to keep up to date on the farm more generally and learn about all areas
• Attend farm events for free 

 

Educational Work Share Offerings:

• Greenhouse: Seed Starting & Plant Propagation with Synthia & Meghan
  • Help our plants get their best start possible! We have a brand new DIY’d greenhouse that we will need to fill to the brim with baby plants over and over all season long.  
  • May-September
    • Possible to start as early as March, but would need to determine how to compensate since we won’t have produce until May
  • Example Tasks:
    • Start seedlings, learning about our equipment, practices, and soil blends
      • Use Paperpot system, winstrip trays, and soil blocking (all methods will be taught)
    • Mix up natural seed starting blend
    • Water and fertilize seedlings
    • Harden off seedlings
    • Pot up seedlings for plant sales in spring
    • Greenhouse repairs and maintenance
• Field: Growing Produce Naturally with Synthia
  • The field work is what makes our farm a farm! This is the main fruits-and-veggies set of tasks around the farm, and the area we need the most help with.  For someone looking to get some good exercise on the farm, this one can be a great opportunity to get steps in and do some muscle building. For folks who would do better to focus closely on a smaller area instead of doing big sweeps across the field, that’s okay too!
  • June-September or May-Oct
  • Example Tasks:
    • Row preparation
    • Transplant seedlings
      • Learn specialized planting equipment and methods
    • Weed management
      • Try out different weeding tools and learn weed management practices
    • Plant health management
      • Learn about and try our organic and biodynamic methods to maintain plant health
    • Harvest produce
• Livestock: Rotational Grazing & Animal Husbandry with Meghan 
  • We have basically a petting zoo amount of animals, as part of our regenerative agriculture needs as well as just general farm joy.  The animals maintain our pastures, manage invasive plants, contribute to the compost, and keep the levels of some undesired insects lower – did you know mosquitoes are a favorite food for our muscovy ducks? Most of our animals live out their full natural lives on the farm (as long as it’s safe – no bullies!). Learn about holistic and compassionate care of livestock, including care of senior animals. This could be a great move for someone considering adding backyard chickens or a few pet goats to their family!
  • May-October
    • Flexible timing, if starting before May will need to determine a different way to compensate
  • Example Tasks:
    • Daily care & feeding of animals
    • Moving rotational fencing
    • Health evaluations
    • Baby animal care 
      • Includes bottle feeding baby goats, caring for baby birds in brooders, and handling the young animals to help ensure they are friendly pets!
    • Hoof trimming
    • Stall clean outs
    • Shearing Day assistance
    • Learn to administer medications and vaccinations
• Compost: Soil Science & Composting with Meghan
  • Great healthy produce starts with great healthy soil.  We produce our own compost here on the farm, and would love to produce a lot more! We are also running an experiment in co-composting with biochar for drought hardiness and more even nutrient distribution.  This project would be great for a fellow citizen scientist or general nerd who would enjoy learning about soil structure, climate resiliency, soil carbon sequestration, and mycorrhizal fungi. 
  • May-October
    • Flexible timing
  • Example Tasks:
    • Mix and balance compost bins
    • Keep records on health and productivity of compost piles
    • Analyze soil and compost quality (i.e. with microscopy and soil tests)
    • Apply natural soil amendments if needed
    • Monitor biochar program and results
• Pest Management: Pest Scouting & Natural Remediation with Meghan 
  • With natural growing methods comes pests! We follow an Integrative Pest Management approach, and do not progress beyond organic and biodynamic certified options for treatments.  Our most common approaches are to monitor pest populations, to use companion and trap planting to protect important or fragile crops, and to use physical methods (like nets, hand removal of pests, or clays) to prevent pests from setting up a home in our crops.
  • June-September
    • Could start in July if desired
  • Example Tasks:
    • Weekly field walks and insect identification
    • Preventative and corrective pest-related plant care using natural methods
    • Learn about beneficial insects and encouraging other beneficial wildlife
• Markets: Selling at the Farmers Market with Meghan 
  • Join us at our market booth! You’ll be paired with an existing market person (either myself or Hannah) to learn about how we package, display, and sell our produce. Meet our customers and build relationships with other market vendors.  This project comes with a side benefit of being able to barter with some of our produce to enjoy offerings from other vendors!
  • May-October or June-September
  • Example Tasks
    • Meet directly at the farmers market booth
    • Assist customers in selecting and buying produce
    • Maintain a visually appealing display
• Beekeeping: Natural Beekeeping with Jay 
  • We raise locally bred bees from They Keep Bees, local pioneers in queen selection for health and resistance to a common bee parasite (varroa mites).  We maintain a strict testing protocol, and treat with organic options only when needed.  This workshare would be a great idea for anyone looking to get into beekeeping, and we would be happy to sponsor you taking beekeeping classes through your county’s beekeeping association if desired!
  • June-September
  • Example Tasks:
    • Weekly inspection of beehives
    • Bee health management & testing
    • Management of expansion and harvesting 
• Bit of Everything with Synthia
  • Learn about the whole farm, one day at a time. You’ll rotate between different areas, focusing on projects that need more people to complete and areas where an extra push is needed.  You’ll work with various staff and work share members of the farm, and may have your own self-paced projects as well.
  • May-Oct
  • Example Tasks:
    • Packing CSA shares
    • Harvesting cherry tomatoes and pole beans
    • Building a chicken tractor
    • Setting up for a farm event
    • Bottle feeding baby goats
    • Distributing compost on new rows

To discuss a workshare, please use this form and we will be in touch.  Most likely, these spots will fill in March or so.

Questions?

Email us at stargazerhollow@gmail.com