CSA Policy & How it Works

Upswing Farm CSA Policy
Subscribing to a share is a commitment to our farm. When you sign up, we reserve products for you for the season and rely on your upfront payment, or commitment to a payment plan, to purchase seeds and supplies early on and to pay our crew and monthly bills throughout the season. We stand by the quality of our products. If you find any items missing or of poor quality, please contact us immediately for a replacement.
Please note that it is critical that you pickup your order during your pickup window. We can’t guarantee the quality of the product outside that timeframe. Please contact us if you can’t make it to your regular pick up (ideally 2 business days in advance!!) and we will do our best to coordinate an alternative.
Payment Options
Upfront payments are a key aspect of the CSA agreement – it is important for us, as farmers, to have the funds needed to purchase seeds and supplies and to pay our employees for all the work that goes into production before our first harvest, and throughout the season.
We don’t, however, need all of the money up front and are happy to offer payment plans that spread the cost of the share out over several months. If you sign up for a payment plan you are required to pay with credit card, as is reduces the administrative burden of offering a payment plan.
Refunds Plans change, we know. Refunds requested at a minimum 3 weeks before a share starts will receive the full amount, minus a $25 administration fee.  Refunds requested after that time frame will receive the full amount, minus a $25 administration fee and a $30 inconvenience fee.  Refunds mid-season will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but we guarantee no refunds after the start of the CSA season. How Pick Up Works You are welcome to send someone else to pick up your share, just make sure they know these details about CSA Pick Up. (Also, you should know them too!) What to Bring: Two grocery bags, extra plastic bags. We will have the vegetables displayed market style, with signs telling members what to take. We will have extra bags but encourage our members to bring reusable bags or containers to pick up their vegetables. Some people use boxes, crates, baskets or tubs instead of bags.
  1. SIGN IN BY CROSSING OFF YOUR NAME – this is a very important step!  If you don’t cross off your name, we will think you haven’t come at the end of the evening and maybe start to panic that we don’t have enough vegetables!!
  2. Collect your vegetables. The stand will be loaded with the CSA vegetables. Please follow the flow of pickup (indicated by staff person) and read the signs in front of the vegetables telling you what to take.
If you would like to make any trades check the trade bin or ask the stand attendant. Please understand that although we do our best to accommodate trades but we cannot guarantee every request. What if . . . ? I’m going to be late? Call or text the farm number so we can arrange a way for you to collect your vegetables. I want to send someone in my place? Great! Just let them know the details of pick up and make sure they CROSS OFF YOUR NAME! There will be someone there to help them. If you email or text after we have already harvested your share, you will need to pick up your share that day, or arrange to pick up those same vegetables later in the week. I can’t make the pick up at all one week? We do not offer a “double up” option for CSA Shares.  We ask that members either gift the week they will miss to a friend or neighbor (like the person who is checking on your plants/collecting your mail!) or we can donate the share to the local food pantry. Weekly Emails We send an email once/week, usually on a Monday, to let you know what will be in the share for the week. Please know that we do our best to be accurate but sometimes during harvest things change, either because yields are lower/higher than we anticipated, or there is a pest or disease issue that wasn’t apparent during field scouting.