Summer CSA 2024
Black Earth Gardens + Trowel & Error Farm Collaborative CSA Share!
Thank you so much for your interest in the collaborative CSA between Trowel & Error Farm and Black Earth Gardens! We have reached capacity for the CSA. If you’d like to sign up for our waiting list, you can do so here. Be the first to know when we open sign ups for the Fall CSA by signing up for our email list here.
In October 2023, we collaborated with our friend Mari at Black Earth Gardens to bring you all a bountiful October CSA. We are so excited to announce that we are teaming up again to bring you the 2024 Summer CSA!
About Black Earth Gardens:
Black Earth Gardens is a small-scale, regenerative farm that specializes in growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits of cultural importance to Black and African Diaspora communities in Eastern Iowa, with a focus on dismantling food apartheid and expanding food sovereignty locally. Black Earth Gardens’ owner/operator, Mari Hunt Wassink, has 4 seasons of farming experience. She is trained in diversified vegetable production and agroforestry using organic and integrated pest management systems.
She grew up in Marion, Iowa, and now lives in Cedar Rapids. While volunteering as a working CSA member at Trowel & Error Farm, Mari realized that her love for nature and her gardening hobby were not incompatible with her lifelong pursuit of racial justice; in fact, they are inseparable. Since then, farming has become a ministry, a tool for antiracism, and a healing practice. Mari is thrilled to partner with Trowel & Error Farm this season to bring you and your families an abundance of delicious, healthy, sustainable, local produce!
We first met Mari when she volunteered at the farm as a working member. It has been moving to get to witness her build and grow her own farm and business. It is a full circle moment for us to be working together to bring you this collaborative CSA share this Summer, and we can’t wait to get started.
What to expect:
- The same bountiful, diverse CSA boxes, now with even more variety and the opportunity to support 2 local beginning farmers.
- 2/3 of the produce will come from Trowel & Error, and 1/3 will come from Black Earth Gardens.
- You’ll still receive the newsletter straight to your email inbox, and it will have updates and recipe ideas from both of our farms.
Share pricing
Full share: $500 for 16 weeks of fresh veggies
Half share: $265 for 8 weeks of fresh veggies
Full share: The full share is our standard share, featuring between 6-10 different kinds of vegetables each week. The full share will meet the produce needs of a household of 3-5 people. It may also be the right choice for a household of 1-2 people who eat a mostly vegetarian diet or who enjoy preserving extra produce. The full share is picked up weekly and lasts for 16 weeks.
Half share: The half share will meet the produce needs of a household of 1-2 people. Instead of offering two different sized shares each week, we offer every other week pick-up. Folks who sign up for the half share pick up the same exact amount of produce as the full share, but they pick it up every other week instead of on a weekly basis, for a total of 8 pick-ups.
Share contents
We grow about 50 different kinds of vegetables ranging from favorites like onions, carrots, and tomatoes to unique offerings like arugula, okra, and swiss chard. Part of sharing the risk with the farmer in a CSA means that we are all – farmers and eaters – subject to nature’s rhythms! So while we cannot guarantee that a particular vegetable will appear in your share in a particular week, here’s an idea of what to expect:
June – spinach, radishes, turnips, bok choy, beets, scallions, kale, snap peas, arugula, lettuce/greens, kohlrabi
July – collards, kale, lettuce, onions, green beans, eggplant, cucumber, carrots, beets, herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil)
August – Tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, zucchini/summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers, garlic, tomatillo, ground cherry
September – tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, garlic, onions, leeks, spinach, melon, lettuce/greens
It is extremely important to both of our farms to make the CSA share as accessible as possible. We know local food can be prohibitively expensive, so we have come up with the following pricing options for Iowans with low incomes. This pricing is made possible by CSA members who chip in at the beginning of the season:
Full share pricing: $500 $400
Half share pricing: $265 $200
All members paying with SNAP qualify to use Double Up Food Bucks, cutting the cost after the above discount in half. SNAP + Double Up Food Bucks pricing is as follows:
Full share: $500 $400 $200
Half share: $265 $200 $100
Due to federal regulations, folks paying with SNAP cannot submit the entire payment for the CSA up front. Instead, folks can use their SNAP card up to 14 days in advance of picking up the share. Full details on how to pay using SNAP and Double Up can be found in the member agreement you will receive after signing up online for the CSA. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions about using SNAP/Double Up, or general questions about pricing, at trowelanderrorfarm@gmail.com.
Pick up location options:
Trowel & Error Farm, 4811 Melrose Ave, Iowa City: Mondays from 5:30-6:30pm
Feed Iowa First, 1506 10th St SE, Cedar Rapids: Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30pm
The CSA will last for 16 weeks, with the first pick-up on Monday, May 27, and the final pick-up on Monday, September 23 with 2 breaks in the middle (no pick-up the first week in July or the first week in August).
More details about pick-up procedures are outlined in our member agreement, which you will receive after signing up online. Please feel free to reach out with any questions about picking up your CSA share.
Working members volunteer at Trowel & Error Farm for 2 hours a week during the CSA season in exchange for a full CSA share.
We have filled all of our working member spots for the 2024 season. Occasionally spots open up as we get closer to the start of the season. Fill out this google form to be added to our waitlist for working membership.
Summer CSA FAQ
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The form a CSA takes varies from farm to farm, but typically a CSA involves a shared risk between the farmer and the eater. The eater offers financial security to the farmer by purchasing a “share” at the beginning of the season, when farm purchases need to be made but there is little income on the farm. In return, the eater receives a weekly box full of the farm’s seasonal bounty, a sense of community, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing the source of their food. Food farming can be a challenging endeavor. The farmer is tasked with growing 50 different crops in an unpredictable environment. The CSA model helps farmers by providing a stable market for their product, and it helps eaters by connecting them more closely to their food source, and offering fresh, healthy, locally-grown produce!
Excellent question! Part of sharing the risk with the farmer means that we are all – farmers and eaters – subject to nature’s rhythms! So while we cannot guarantee that a particular vegetable will be in your share in a particular week, here’s an idea of what to expect:
-
June – spinach, radishes, turnips, bok choy, beets, scallions, kale, snap peas, arugula, lettuce, kohlrabi
-
July – collards, kale, lettuce, onions, green beans, eggplant, cucumber, carrots, beets, herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil)
-
August – tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, zucchini/summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers, garlic, tomatillo, ground cherry
-
September – tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, garlic, onions, leeks, spinach, melon, lettuce/greens
We are not certified organic yet. However, we have always utilized organic practices, and we will continue to do so. We will never spray inorganic chemicals, utilize synthetic fertilizers, or do anything else that would violate organic standards. Our goal is to go through the certification process in the next year or two. Please reach out if you have any additional questions about our farming practices.
The short answer is, no. We believe that one of the foundational principles of a CSA is that the eater is acknowledging and sharing in the risk of farming with the farmer. But fear not! We will do everything we can to fill boxes with diverse abundance each week. In the event that we lose a crop, we will simply pack the boxes with another crop to make up for that loss. Risk mitigation is just one of the perks to growing 40+ crops!
Unfortunately, we cannot reimburse folks who miss the weekly pick-up. If you’re headed out of town, consider having a friend or co-worker pick up your share that week. Or let us know you’ll miss a pick-up and we can donate your share to a local food pantry.
If you will be out of town for an extended period of the summer, our CSA might not be the right choice – or you might consider splitting your share with another household!
In 2024, we will offer our standard full CSA share and a half share.
The full share consists of about 6-12 different kinds of vegetables each week for 16 weeks.
The half share consists of the same amount and variety of vegetables as the full-size share, but it will be picked up every other week. So while full share members will have 16 total deliveries, half share members will have 8.
You should consider our full share option if one or more of the following applies to you:
- You and/or the folks in your household eat a lot of vegetables!
- Three or more people will be sharing the CSA.
- You cook frequently.
- You enjoy preserving excess vegetables for later use (canning, freezing, pickling)
You should consider our half share option if one or more of the following applies to you:
- You participated in the full share last year and loved the fresh veggies, but had a hard time using the whole share each week.
- You live alone or share a household with one other person.
- You and the folks in your household enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables, but you eat out and/or are out of town frequently and wonder if the full share might be too big.
Ultimately it’s totally up to you which share you go with. Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions about our CSA.
Please find this information and more above!