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Denison Farms

                                                                                   Corvallis, Oregon


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Community Supported Agriculture

In this fragmented world, it is good to build relationships,
particularly around something as wholesome and healthy as real food.
Join us this year.

Denison Farms/Riverland Family Farms Harvest Box

OUR CSA is full! We are not accepting any more members for the 2020 season.

However, we have a new option for week-by-week pre-orders. Visit riverlandfamilyfarms.com for full details and access to the availability list.

We have exciting news for you! Tom & I are retiring, and our farm has a new name: Riverland Family Farms.  This is a transition year, where Tom & I will be very involved training the new owners, but most of the day-to-day details will be passed into the very capable hands of Tal and his brother-in-law Inder, our new owners. Their plan is to operate the farm just as we have been doing--growing the same crops with the same employees. Our Harvest Box program should feel much the same as it has in years past. It's the same farmland, and the same high-quality organic fruits and vegetables, just a new farm name.
 
We started thinking about retirement six years ago. Since then, we have been looking for a way to transition our farm to new owners. After years of searching, we are excited to have found a family who wants to take over running our farm so that we can retire. Tal and Inder were 6th generation farmers in Northwest India. After being in the US for almost two decades, they have decided to return to their roots. They are retaining our experienced farm crew to continue our tradition of providing high quality organic fruits and vegetables in your Harvest Box each week.
   

2020 Membership Information

Here's how to join:
    Send your name, address, telephone number, and email address along with a check for the membership fee  (payable to Riverland Family Farms) to Riverland Family Farms, 1835 NE Steele Ave., Corvallis, OR 97330.  Please indicate to which pick-up location you would like us to deliver your box, and whether you prefer to receive a confirmation of registration by email or USPS.  If you are sharing a box, please include name and address information for all families. 
     Your membership fee can be paid by cash, check, or money order. Sorry, we cannot take credit cards.
     We would like to save paper when possible. If you like to read the weekly newsletter on our web site, and don't need to pick up a paper copy, please indicate this on your registration. We will make just enough copies of the newsletter for everyone who wants a paper copy. To read the online newsletter, you will need to visit our web site (CSA Newsletters) every Tuesday. We don't have the capability to email the letter directly to your inbox.

2020 Season Price and pick-up options:
Our Harvest Box season is 25 weeks in length, beginning June 9 and continuing until the week of Thanksgiving.  You can pick up your weekly box in Corvallis, Albany or Salem on Tuesday afternoons, or in Corvallis on Wednesday morning. We are happy to add members during the season. Call or email the farm for information about our pro rated membership fee.

Membership: Our membership fee is $595.00 for the full 25 week season. You can make two payments of $300 each (second payment is due August 1st). If you join and pay your membership fee in full by April 1st, you may pay a discounted membership fee of $575.00. Call the farm for a pro rated membership fee if joining after the start of the season.

Pick Up Sites: Upon registering we ask that you indicate from the following options where you would like to pick up your Harvest Box:

Confirmation
After receiving your membership, we will email you a confirmation letter.  If no email address is provided, we'll send your confirmation by USPS.

What will be in the harvest box?
Take a look at last year's newsletters for examples of what you'll be getting in your box this year.

Vacation Credit
If you're planning to be out of town for vacation, tell us at least a week in advance and we will give you credit for up to two boxes during the season.

If you have any additional questions, please call us (541-752-4156) or email riverlandfamilyfarms @ gmail.com.

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an opportunity for people who like to eat fruits and vegetables (that would be you) and people who grow the same (that would be us) to join in partnership so that all can benefit.

What it means to you:

How the farm benefits from your membership

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What you can expect in your Harvest Box

    Our 2020 Harvest Box should look very similar to last year’s box. Our box relies heavily on familiar items. You can expect tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, garlic or onions, and fruit nearly every week. We grow a lot of strawberries and raspberries. Typically, each box has either a head of lettuce, or 1/2 pound of salad mix, or 1/2 pound of spinach. Potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and (in the fall) sweet peppers appear frequently. The balance of the box will be a carefully selected seasonal assortment of vegetables, fruits, greens, roots, and herbs. Recipes are provided for less familiar vegetables.

All fruits and vegetables in our Harvest Box are Certified Organic.

We may enhance the variety of organic fruits and vegetables in your box by collaborating with a few of our friends who grow high quality organic produce. 

If you want to know more specifically what was in each box last year, check our Harvest Box Newsletters to see the items and quantities for each box.
 

Frequently Asked Questions

When can I sign up for membership with Denison Farms Harvest Box?
    We begin accepting memberships in mid-February each year. If you want to receive a brochure in the mail, send your mailing address to us (riverlandfamilyfarms @ gmail.com).

How many people will this harvest box feed?
    This is by far the most common question we get.  We have found that the amount of produce a household consumes varies greatly. It depends on how often you eat out or invite friends over, whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or omnivore, and whether you are going to supplement your diet with bananas, oranges, avocados and other things that don’t grow in Corvallis.  The best way to decide if our box will suit your household is to spend some time looking through the newsletters from the last couple seasons.  Each newsletter lists what is in the box that week, so browsing through a season or two should give you a good idea of whether our box would fit into your lifestyle.
   
Do you offer half-shares?
    We offer only one size box. Many people who want only a half share find a friend or neighbor who would like to share with them. Before you decide to share, please check our newsletters from the past few years and read what produce was in our box last season. Our box tends to have more tomatoes, sweet peppers,  strawberries, raspberries, and apples; and fewer greens, cabbages, kohlrabi, and lettuce than CSA boxes from many other farms.

Will your box supply all the produce needs of my family?
    Probably not if your household has 4 people who eat as many fruits and vegetables as current dietary recommendations (half your plate should be vegetables and fruits). If your goal is to eat that much produce, you should expect to supplement what is in your weekly box. Hundreds of families find that the box suits their needs. Others love our box, but desire more greens and fruit than we provide, so they purchase additional local produce at the farmers market, or they supplement with bananas, oranges, and other non-local produce from the store. Please check our newsletters from past seasons to see how much produce is typically in our box. 

When can I start getting a box?
    Our season runs from June until Thanksgiving week and you can join at any time with a one-week notice.  You get a small discount for paying in full before April first, and it costs a little more per week to join after the season has begun. The best way to contact us for a pro rated membership fee after the season has started is by email.

Is Denison Farms certified organic? What about Riverland Family Farms?
    Yes, our land has been certified organic by Oregon Tilth since 1988.

Does Denison Farms grow everything in the harvest box?
    No. We grow over 90% of what is in the box.  To increase variety we include some organic produce grown by friends of ours.  Apples from La Mancha ranch, pears from Gala Springs, or corn from Groundwork Organics are some examples from prior seasons.

Is this the cheapest way to feed my family organic produce?
    Probably not. If your primary goal is to get the most pounds of local organic produce for your dollar, it is probably more economical to go to the farmers market and buy what is on special that week. Our Harvest Box has lots of things people love to eat such as raspberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and red peppers, but these cost more than cabbage, winter squash, or russet potatoes.  If you like what we put in our box (see Newsletters), then our box is more economical than buying the same items at the farmers market, and also more economical than purchasing comparable produce at the grocery store. Due to global economics, particularly the low cost of labor in Central America, sometimes imported produce can be cheaper than locally-grown produce. But we think our  produce tastes better than produce shipped from afar, and is better for you because it's so fresh!

Will there be things in the box that I don’t like?
    Good question!  Remember that we will be choosing what’s in your produce drawer for half a year.  This can be very hard for some people.  Be sure to spend some time browsing the newsletters on our website to see if what we have supplied in the past is what you want to eat.  The people who enjoy our box the most are those who enjoy most kinds of produce, or trying new things.  Most of our pick-up sites have a trade box, where you can exchange something in your box with something from the trade box, but we make no guarantees that you will like everything in your box.
    Our box frequently includes  tomatoes, basil, sweet peppers, strawberries, raspberries, and potatoes. If you don't eat one of those regularly-appearing items, then our box may not be a good fit for you.

Is there a way to get extra quantities of berries, tomatoes, peppers, basil etc. to preserve for the winter?
    Yes, you can ask to be notified when we have specials on bulk quantities. Send an email to riverlandfamilyfarms @ gmail.com), and we will put your name on the appropriate list for notification.

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