What is a CSA?

When you join a CSA, you are purchasing a “share” in a local farm. This means you are helping to pay for a portion of the farm’s expenses, and in exchange, receive a share of the farm’s bounty. Typically, CSA shares are purchased before the growing season, in order to help the farm pay for seeds, supplies and staffing. In order to make Beech Hill Farm’s CSA more financially accessible, we also offer weekly payment plans.

We offer two different CSA options, a traditional Box Style CSA and “Beech Bucks”, a debit style, free choice option.

For our Box Style CSA, customers can pay using our sliding scale pricing options. See below for more information on our sliding scale pricing options. 

Beech Hill Farm’s Box Style CSA

Each week you’ll receive a box with a variety of the best crops on the farm. Due to the nature of the growing season, shares will be a little lighter early in the season, and heavier in late summer and fall. We aim to provide 8-10 different items each week, with plenty of favorites and some things that may be new to you.

Sample share in June: Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Carrots, Herb bunch, Radishes, Scallions, Rhubarb

Sample share in September: Lettuce, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Chard, Beets, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Basil, Onions, Garlic

Box Style CSA members ALSO receive 10% OFF in our farm stand.

Schedule:

Summer Share: June 20 - August 22

Fall Share: August 29 - October 31

Pick-Up:

Pick up Thursdays from 3pm - 7pm either at Beech Hill Farm or at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

Beech Bucks - Free Choice, Debit Style CSA

Beech Bucks allows customers to purchase shares in increments of $100. For every $100 spent, you will receive $110 on a gift card to use in our farm stand.

How does it work?

Select the amount you want to purchase in increments of $100.

Pick up your Beech Bucks card with your first purchase at the farm stand, starting June 15th. 

You can use your card for meat, dairy, preserves, gifts and baked goods in addition to farm produce.

If you run out of funds, you can always re-up in the farm stand throughout the season.

Sliding scale pricing

We offer our Box Style CSA on a sliding scale. Our hope is to make our CSA more economically inclusive, and enable more members of our community to join. For the sliding scale to work effectively, we’ll ask you to do some active participation in deciding what your CSA share cost will be. Please take into consideration your income level, as well as any other factors that might affect your ability to pay for a share.

Consider contributing more when you:

  • Own your home,

  • Have retirement accounts, investment, or inherited money,

  • Have access to family money and resources in times of need

Consider paying less when you:

  • Are supporting children, other dependents, or sending remittances,

  • Have significant debt,

  • Have medical expenses not covered by insurance,

  • Are on fixed income or receive public assistance

Sliding scale cost options for our 10 week Summer and 10 week Fall Box Style CSA Shares:

  • well below median income/wealth - $200

  • below median income/wealth - $275

  • median income/wealth - $325

  • above median income/wealth - $375

  • contributing neighbor - $450

Payment plans and paying with EBT/SNAP 

If you would like to pay for your CSA in installments, or pay using your EBT/SNAP benefits, e-mail us at beechhillfarm@coa.edu to sign up and set up a payment plan. 

SIGN UP HERE