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WHAT IS CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you join a CSA you are purchasing the food you eat directly from the farmer who grows it. No distributers, warehouses or flights from South America. Just fresh, local, organic fruits, herbs and vegetables grown by someone you have the chance to meet.
Generally you sign up for a CSA for a whole season, giving the farmer a known market for her or his food. In return, the customer knows the source of their food, receives fresh, local food, actively reduces greenhouse gas emmissions and supports the stewardship of the local environment.
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE LOCAL CHOICE FOOD BOX?
The Local Choice Food Box is the only CSA in Washington that lets you choose EVERY item in your box each week. No surprises, no substitutions, only the food you choose. Each week the customers of the Local Choice Food Box hop on-line and fill their boxes with the fresh vegetable, fruits and herbs they want from the more than 100 crops we grow. We harvest the food you want and have it to your table in less than 36 hours. Taste the difference that fresh local organic produce makes!
Further, all of the food we provide comes from LOCAL growers. Much of your produce comes from Alm Hill Gardens, a sustainable family farm in Bellingham that has been producing delicious food for over 30 years. Other things we can't grow, mostly perennial fruits, come from other organic growers in western Washington. Other Seattle CSA's buy food in from a distributer and put it in a box for their customers. That food can come from Oregon, California, even Chile! Everything we provide comes from a local, Washington farmer.
HOW MANY ITEMS COME IN A BOX?
We have 4 different box sizes to accommodate different sized households. Click here for a link to our cost page that goes over our different box sizes.
Flowers
Theflower share, like the Combo and Vegetable Shares, runs eighteen weeks. At $144 for the season it is an inexpensive way to put a little happiness in your house all summer long. The flower share begins June 13 and ends October 16.
HOW DO I SIGN UP?
Find the Sign-Up tab at the top of this page.
WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM?
We provide over 100 different varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs for our customers to choose from each week. Most of those are grown at Alm Hill Gardens, including their famous Toulameen raspberries. Apples, pears and stone fruits come from other organic growers in Washington. See our Farm Partners page to learn more.
WHERE DO I PICK UP MY FOOD?
Your food box can be picked up at neighborhood and business locations throughout Seattle. When you sign up for your food box, you will select the location that works for you. We try to provide enough locations to make pick-up as convenient as possible. If you don't see something that works for you on our Pick-Up Location page, feel free to give us a call or e-mail. We are always looking for more pick-up locations. Volunteer your home or business as a neighborhood drop-off location and save 5% on your CSA share for the privilege of having your food directly to your door.
CAN I CHANGE MY PICK UP LOCATION?
A customer can change his/her pick-up site at any time during the food box season, but must notify us at least a week in advance of any permanent changes (this is so we can make changes in our system before the customer's next ordering window opens). If a customer wishes to pick up his /her box at a site other than his/her designated weekly pick-up site for a single week, he/she must notify our customer service team at least a week in advance and can do so no more than three times throughout the season.
WHEN DO I PICK UP MY FOOD?
Your pick up time is determined by the location you select. Deliveries are usually Wednesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays or Sundays. Specific times will be determined as the season nears. Check out the Pick-Up Location page to see when the sites closest to you are open for pick-up.
DO I NEED TO RETURN MY BOX?
Yes. Each week your food will come in a waxed cardboard box. We ask that members return their box from the previous week to their pick up location. Boxes need to be broken down flat and stacked to keep the pick-up sites clean.
CAN I GET MORE THAN ONE OF THE SAME ITEM?
Yes, you can. We do ask that you request no more than two of any item, so all customers have a reasonable choice of food and we don't create a lot of waste.
WHAT IF I WANT SOMETHING I DON'T SEE LISTED?
There are three possibilities…one is that the crop you desire is out of season. For example, we won't have melons in June. You can only get those from nearer the equator. Two is that we don't grow the crop. Give us a call and we will see if we can grow it for you or find someone who does. Third is that we have some of what you want, but other customers have already cleaned our fields of the items you were looking for. Be sure to register early in your order window for the best selection possible.
WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO CHOOSE MY OWN FOOD EACH WEEK?
If you like surprises, are intimidated by making decisions, or want to fully test your culinary ability, we are happy to build a box for you each week of the best, freshest food on the farm. We call it the Farmers Choice box and it is the stuff we will be taking home to our families.
WHAT IF I FORGET TO ORDER?
We will send you a weekly e-mail reminding you to order your food. However, if you should forget, we will pack you a Farmers Choice box full of the best food on the farm that week. It might not be exactly the food you wanted, but you know it will be great food, because it is what we will be taking home to our families.
WHAT IF I FORGET TO PICK UP?
An e-mail will be sent to you reminding you to pick up your food box. However, should your forget to or be prevented from picking up your box, you can call and see if arrangements can be made.
WHAT IF I NEED TO SKIP A WEEK?
If you will be out of town or need to suspend your service for a week for any reason, please call and see what arrangements can be made.
We would like customers to let us know when they will be on vacation as far in advance as possible. If customers know which week(s) ahead of time, it makes it easier for us to make special arrangements. No more than two times during the 18 week season will each customer be allowed to postpone his/her order and receive a double order the proceeding or following week. When a customer wishes to do this, he/she is required to notify the Local Choice Food Box at least one week in advance. Customers must shift orders one week back or one week forward and cannot save double orders for later in the season. If a customer does not let us know in advance that he/she will be on vacation or if he/she has already received two double boxes, his/her box can be picked up by a friend or donated to a low-income family.
WHAT IF I NEED TO MAKE CHANGES TO MY ORDER?
Call or e-mail our customer service team to see if changes can be made. We want to do everything we can to get people exactly the food they want. However, late changes will depend on the amount of time we have for harvest and ability to coordinate changes with our other farms.
WHAT IF SOMETHING I ORDERED IS MISSING FROM MY BOX?
The Local Choice Food Box staff does its best to minimize mistakes when packing food boxes. If we mistakenly leave an item out of a customer's box, we will include the item in the following week's order (in addition to the customer's designated weekly number of items). Customers should notify us as soon as they notice missing items.
We reserve right to substitute varieties when necesary. We anticipate there will be rare occasions when we have the crop you would like, but not the variety. For example, you may want a yellow slicing tomato and we only have red, orange or purple. Or you want green leaf lettuce and we have only red. We do reserve the right to substitute varieties in these situations, after trying to get you exactly what you want from one of our partner farms.
What we will NOT do it substitute a different crop for something we don't have. You won't get a radish instead of a tomato. In fact, you won't even get a cherry tomato instead of a slicing tomato.
WHAT IF SOMETHING IN MY ORDER DOES NOT MEET MY STANDARD FOR QUALITY OR FRESHNESS?
We constantly strive to bring you the best local food possible. All of the food we harvest is at the height of freshness. However, if you receive something that does not meet your standards (bruised, wilted, etc.), please notify us as soon as possible if/when you notice an unsatisfactory item. Your feedback will help us provide better service to all of our customers in the future. It will also allow us to make things right with you.
Normally, an unsatisfactory item will be replaced the following week. If the customer would prefer not to be given the same item again or in the rare case that the particular item is no longer available, we will ask the customer to select a different item to receive in its place. However, if needed, other arrangements can be made.
WHAT CROPS DO YOU GROW?
We are very proud of the wide variety of local, organically grown crops we are able to provide our customers. Follow this link to see the great selection of wonderful food available to you in the Local Choice Food Box.
CAN I JOIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON?
Whenever possible, Growing Washington is welcoming of late-comers to our food box program. If you or someone you know would like to sign up for a food box after the season has already begun and we are able to accommodate you, the cost of your order will be prorated to reflect the number of weeks remaining in the season. This said, we have filled up prior to the start of the season the last three years. We recommend you register as early as possible to guarantee your participation in our program.
CAN I CANCEL MY PARTICIPATION DURING THE SEASON?
We ask that all customers let us know if, at any point during the Food Box season, your circumstances change and you need to cancel your Food Box. Further, if you find our program is not the right fit for you, or you are unsatisfied with the quality of food or service you have received, we will be happy to cancel your participation and refund your money for the boxes you did not receive.
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