Skip to main
University-wide Navigation

Hello! You've got Vanessa this week, talking all about ways to increase the number of vegetables in your day. One way is by subscribing to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture share. For those who aren’t familiar, I want to briefly describe the concept.

A CSA share is essentially a weekly subscription to a local farm's harvest. You receive a weekly bag or box of fresh, local, seasonal produce for the duration of the growing season, which in KY is about 20-22 weeks and generally May to October. A deposit or full payment for the produce subscription is often requested upfront for the season which provides the farms with working capital for the growing season. Several farms do offer payment plans and we have highlighted that information on our program website in each farm profile.

As a CSA member you are buying into the farm and you become a shareholder. This means that you share the inherent risks farms face, including dealing with weather, pests and other unexpected circumstances BUT it also means that you benefit from being the number one priority when it comes to enjoying the bounty of their weekly harvest. Farms set aside your produce and/or pack your boxes first before they bring produce to market. Other benefits include:

  • Convenient pickups near work or home
  • Knowing your farmer and how your food is grown
  • Ensuring food dollars are kept in your community
  • Eating more vegetables

The variety of items you can expect to see will change from farm to farm as well as during the growing season, but we do have crop lists under each farm description on our program website. You can use this as a general idea, but keep in mind this is not exact as there are a lot of variables that can affect a weekly harvest.

We are excited to partner with 11 farms this year: Barr Farm, Cleav’s Family Market, Elmwood Stock Farm, Hickory Grove Farm, HomeGrown Direct LLC, Lazy Eight Stock Farm, Old Homeplace Farm, Rolling Fork Organic Farm, Rootbound Farm, Sustainable Harvest Farm and the UK Organic Farming Unit. You're eligible to participate in this program if you are an employee or retiree on a UK health plan*.

Interested? Here's the bottom line:

  1. Choose a $100 or $200 voucher depending on the preferred share size.
    1. Some farms do not offer a small size share and therefore only accept the $200 voucher, so please choose accordingly!
  2. Claim the voucher on the UK H&W Dashboard by 4 p.m. on May 5.
  3. Choose a partner farm, CSA share size and convenient pick-up option for the season.
  4. Purchase a share by May 7 at 11:59 p.m.
  5. All participants must enter their Link Blue ID and voucher code at signup.
  6. Subscribe to our CSA blog for recipes, ideas and tips during the season.

 

*Voucher benefit is taxable income for employees and will be reported on your W-2.