Saskatoon Farm - Harvest Share Membership - 5 Weeks Remaining

Here’s what you need to know about our harvest share membership: 

During our main harvesting season, from late June to late September, members pick up their weekly harvest share. Pick-ups are on Mondays from 3 - 7 pm at one of our two pickup locations (Highline Brewing in Inglewood, or right here at The Saskatoon farm). We will send weekly newsletters with information about what to expect in the upcoming weekly harvest box and to provide you with recipes and cooking tips to keep you inspired in the kitchen, as well as to keep you informed of what’s happening on the farm. 

By joining our Harvest Share you truly become a member of our farm family. We will see each other weekly for 13 weeks! You will learn about what's going on at the farm, including news about upcoming events, seasonal markets, and exciting new products. 

What’s in a share?

A full harvest share will contain bundles and bushels of 7 different vegetables and herbs grown right here at the Saskatoon Farm. Throughout the season you will have harvest shares full of our delicious vegetables and herbs. We plant a wide diversity of crops to ensure that we can fulfill our commitment to you. Shares will reflect the inherently unpredictable nature of farming. Each season will have its successes and failures for individual crops. 

What if I’m away or forget to pick-up my share?

Many people will have a friend or family member pick-up their veggies for them when they are away - please make sure to have your additional pick-up people listed on your account so we can verify at the weekly harvest share pickups. You can also choose to cancel a weekly share and get a credit to use in our store or on our online marketplace, cancellation of a weekly share must be sent to us on or before Thursday to cancel the share for the following week. Forgotten pick-ups can be saved in our cooler for a few days if you want to come out to the farm to pick it up, but if you forget to pick up your share, you will not receive a credit.

Why support the farm? 

Here at the Saskatoon Farm we grow our crops with low-impact regenerative practices. Regenerative agriculture is an ecosystem-based approach to farming that aims to improve farm resilience, crop yield and quality by improving soil health and water quality, optimizing water use, and enhancing biodiversity. This means that we don’t use any heavy synthetic fertilizers or pesticides on our crops. After all, we love this farm, and as stewards of our land, we do everything in our power to leave it better than we found it. 

Can I add other items to my Harvest Share Box?

Egg Shares

Members can also add a dozen (12) eggs from Mans Egg’s to their weekly subscription share. Additional egg shares can be added at any time throughout the season for $8.00 per week ($104.00 per 13-week season).

Fruit Shares

Members also have the option to add a B.C. and Alberta fruit to their weekly harvest share. Additional fruit shares can be added at any time throughout the season for $12.00 per week ($156.00 per 13-week season)

Other reasons to feel great about supporting the Saskatoon Farm through our Harvest Share Membership: 

• Forge deeper connections with the food that you consume and with your community. Local production of food and harvest shares have been found to improve members’ diet and overall health; to foster relationships between community members and farmers; to promote sustainable production methods; and to create a connection between people and the land, increasing their awareness of the impacts of the food systems that they support. 

• Nutrition - Enjoy more nutritionally dense food than that of produce found in supermarkets and large grocery chains. Locally produced food has been linked with higher nutritional values than food that undergoes storage and transportation over long distances. In contrast to produce found in supermarkets the food that is grown and harvested for our harvest shares is typically picked within 1 - 2 days, or a couple hours of delivery to members.

• Harvest to Table - We harvest our produce in the morning and get it to you before dinner time the very same day. What does this mean? Well for starters, the produce in our weekly harvest shares is going to be much more nutritionally dense because it has the chance to fully ripen and mature in the field before being harvested, which is essential in creating produce that is palatable and nutrient dense. Fruit that is harvested from the plant prior to ripening causes an alteration of the metabolic processes that reduces the quality of the harvest. Produce in supermarkets that have traveled significant distances over long periods of time are usually harvested prematurely, resulting in produce that ripens off of the plant, and is of inferior quality. 

• Reduce Food Waste -  Supporting harvest shares offered by local farms has been found to be significantly better at producing less food wastage than the supermarket system. When all stages of production, distribution and consumption were considered, the CSA system wasted only around 6% of food, while the supermarket system wasted around 45% (Baker et al., 2019). 

• Support a family owned and operated farm - The Saskatoon Farm has been in operation since 1987. Our late founder Paul Hamer and his wife Karen had a dream to start a Saskatoon Berry Farm, and they did just that. With humble beginnings selling seedlings and serving pie and coffee to locals, friends, and family to the multifaceted farm, nursery, garden center, bakery, boutique, and special event venue that operates today, The Saskatoon Farm has stayed true to its roots and family values in the growth and development of the farm.  

• Support the locally oriented economy - The locally-oriented economic system of members providing contributions directly to small to medium sized farms gives farmers security in their operations, and instills a strong sense of community within their localized food system. Not to mention, supporting local farmers provides job opportunities, which is great for the surrounding community and economy.

• Environmental Responsibility - Conventional industrial agricultural systems negatively impact the environment and are attributed with biodiversity loss and impacting non-target organisms and ecosystems, soil degradation and erosion, pollution from leaching and drift of agrochemicals, human health concerns, ethical and social issues, and food safety issues. With our harvest share program, we are invested in growing food in ecologically responsible ways through sustainable land management practices like improving soil structure and health, promoting biodiversity, reducing external inputs, and never using harmful synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. 

• By investing in our harvest share membership, you will have more autonomy over the food that you consume and the practices that go into the production of that food. You can take back your buying power and autonomy over production practices by supporting The Saskatoon Farm and other local farmers.