Farming & CSA at Drumlin Farm

Community Supported Agriculture is a collaboration between farmers and their customers to provide an intimate, season-long relationship between the farm and its shareholders. The CSA model creates a direct and mutually beneficial relationship between farm and consumer. Shareholders know exactly where their food comes from and receive a whole season's worth of fresh, sustainably-grown produce. 

To us, Community-based Farming signifies our deep commitment to the people, land, water, and air that support our farm. We grow our produce using organic principles (never any chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers), and we exceed the organic standard in the following ways:

• Building soil health through fallowing and green-manuring. Each Drumlin acre produces crops for five years and then rests (lies fallow) for two years. During those two years, we seed the acre to clover—a green manure—which fixes nitrogen and builds organic matter.
• Getting help from our farm animals, we make and spread our own compost on our fields. The majority of our soil fertility derives from on-farm sources such as cover crops and compost.
• No irrigation. Our focus on building healthy soils allows us to avoid irrigation, which is an energy-intensive method of watering plants and producing food.
• Limiting our energy consumption. In the summer, we harvest early in the morning and distribute food on the same day so as to reduce the need for refrigeration. In the winter, we store root crops in a simple root cellar cooled by outside air—no refrigeration is required.
• Limiting our consumption of non-reusable materials. Beds are covered with straw and bark mulch; we never use plastic mulch. Our market bags are biodegradable and compostable.

Our CSA shares are distributed weekly from our farm in Lincoln, MA. All distributions are held on Wednesdays from 12:00-6:00 pm, and are conveniently located at the Farm Stand, right next to the admissions area and the parking lot.

Spring: Bursting with an array of tender greens, head lettuces, herbs, scallions, and salad radishes, you’ll have the makings for a delicious salad every week. As the fields warm, shares will fill out with the first of the season’s carrots, sweet salad turnips, and (weather permitting) sugar snap peas, strawberries, and beets. Weekly values range from $20-50.

Summer & Fall: Our Full Shares will feed a family of four, or 2-4 adults, depending on how often you cook and how central vegetables are to your diet. You can expect to receive between 8-18 different crops per week depending on the time of the season. Our Half Shares are equal to about half the volume of produce included in a Full Share. Please note that some items may differ between Full and Half Shares in any given week.

We grow a wide and beautiful variety of crops here at Drumlin Farm. Crops will vary from week to week, but here are examples of individual shares in different months to give you a sense of the produce you’ll receive:

May: 1 pound spinach, 1/2 pound mesclun mix, 1 bunch salad radish, 1 bunch scallions, 2 heads lettuce

June: 1 pint strawberries, 1 quart sugar snap peas, 1 bunch beets, 4 heads lettuce, 1 bunch hakurei turnips, 2 bunches garlic scapes, 1 bunch rainbow Swiss chard & 1 bunch cilantro

August: 1 bunch carrots, 5 ears sweet corn, 2 heads garlic, 2 melons, 1 lb. onions, 3 lbs. potatoes, 1 yellow watermelon, 3 sweet peppers, 3 summer squash, 1 bunch basil, 8 tomatoes (mixed varieties), 1.5 lbs. paste tomatoes, 1 bunch broccoli raab & 4 mixed hot peppers

October: 2 heads broccoli, 1 bunch red beets, 3 lbs. sweet potatoes, 2 delicata squash, 1 acorn squash, 1 bunch collard greens, 4 leeks, 1 bunch kale & 1 bunch parsley

Our PYO Veggie shareholders harvest set amounts of our strawberries, cherry tomatoes, peas, and string beans over the course of the season.

We also offer a PYO Flowers share, where you harvest set amounts of our seasonal flower varieties each week, building a large bouquet.

In either case, you must purchase a regular share or a work share to get a PYO share—these are not available as stand-alone options.

While our regular shareholders will receive many of the vegetables that we grow, there are some vegetables that are either limited in quantity or available only if you chose a Pick-Your-Own addition such as strawberries, cherry tomatoes, snap peas. 

We will let you know at the pickup location if there is something different available at the Farm Stand that you might chose to purchase that day.

We do not have the capacity to distribute shares past 6:00 pm on the distribution day. If you cannot make it on a certain week, we invite you to have a friend come to collect your share. Please inform the CSA manager about any substitutions.

Yes, if you are not already a Mass Audubon member, we require that you become one in order to participate in our CSA program. You can sign up at the time of registration or purchase a membership on its own. With your Mass Audubon membership you gain access to over 60 wildlife sanctuaries throughout the state as well as discounts on purchases in the Mass Audubon Shop and discounts if you choose to take a program.