For 2025 we are transitioning our 20-week, traditional community supported agriculture (CSA) share to a Market Membership CSA, which will run from April to December.
When you join our Market Membership CSA, you’ll receive a farm debit card to spend down while shopping weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly with us at the Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market on Saturday mornings from 9am-1pm.
Our goal in transitioning from our traditional CSA model is to create a CSA partnership that is more flexible, customizable, and hassle-free for our members, while still facilitating that relationship-building aspect between customer and farmer.
And with any *new* service, we are getting lots of questions, so I wanted to share with you some of the most common questions & their answers.
If you don’t find your question answered in this post, take a look at our FAQs page or send an email to Aurora at schulfarmstead (at) gmail.com.
Why should I join?
This is the most basic question, but ultimately one of the most critical! Our Market Membership CSA allows you to use a farm debit card to purchase items from our stand from April to December 2025.
I think you should join because it’s:
- 100% Customizable – only buy what you want to plan your meals for the week
- Guilt-Free – leave town for that summer vacation or work trip without feeling guilty about the produce that you didn’t finish before you left or that’s going to end up in the compost
- Flexible – only buy what you want & need for the week; especially important when you have a busy week ahead of travel baseball, family in town, or whatever else fills up your calendar
- Skip a Week without the Hassle – life gets busy and the Market Membership allows you to miss a week when you need to, without having to coordinate pick up by someone else or contacting me
- Enjoy the Seasonal Variety – we’ll continue to have a rotation of crops throughout the season, to help you really get to know the best produce available in spring, summer, fall & winter in WNY from our farm
- More Bang for Your Buck – Market Memberships include a 10% bump in the funds on your farm debit card to draw down from
What perks do members receive?
- 10% bump in funds to their farm debit card (so joining at our $500 tier, actually gives you $550 to spend with us)
- Pre-order items that we have a small supply of (like microgreens, berries, & walnuts) & order items in bulk for preserving, canning, freezing, etc.
- Reserve garden seedlings when our Seedling Sale launches and choose where you pick them up (farm or market)
- First-chance to purchase holiday shares, know about special offers, and snag a ticket to one of our classes
- Weekly Wednesday email with a list of what is going to be brought to the market, tips, and recipes
- Plus! I’ll share the list of other vendors that will be at the market so you can get more of your food shopping done in one place.
- Our digital CSA Members-Only Library that includes dozens of resources for you to make the most of your CSA & local food experience, including:
- CSA Recipe E-Book with 150+ recipes, so you can have new recipe inspiration at your fingertips
- A-Z Produce Storage Guide to help you store and prolong the life of your produce, so you don’t waste your money or veggies!
- Veggie 101 documents, detailing the ins-&-outs of new-to-you veggies for cooking, storage, and cooking inspiration
Does the Market Membership CSA only apply to veggies?
Nope! In fact, your Market Membership CSA farm debit card can be used on anything and everything at our stand at the weekly Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market. From veggies to microgreens to flowers to seedlings to organic cheese – you can mix & match all items to fill your reusable grocery bag.
Will you be taking pre-orders of any items throughout the season?
Yes! Our Market Membership CSA members will have a chance every week to pre-order items that we are in short supply of (this will vary each week).
This way you don’t have to arrive at the market at 9:05am!
Where can I use my Market Membership CSA farm debit card?
You can use your Market Membership CSA farm debit card at our stand at the Lewiston Artisan Farmers Market.
We are at both the summer market & winter market, from April to December, on approximately 27 dates. The market is held on Saturdays, 9am-1pm.
The Summer Market is every Saturday, beginning May 31 and ending on October 12 in Academy Park.
The Winter Market dates are April 19, May 10, and May 24 and will resume from October – December (dates being finalized) at 505 Cayuga St (1st Presbyterian Church).
Get detailed locations on our “Find Us” webpage.
I’m interested, but not sure what membership tier to join.
I offer 3 tiers of membership to help you become a part of the farm family at a level that makes sense for you, your lifestyle, and your budget.
The scenarios described below are meant to illustrate how much you might buy each week, if you were trying to divide the cost of the membership tier by the number of market dates. You absolutely do not have to restrict yourself to that amount.
If you want to only use your Market Membership CSA farm debit card from June to October, you can! If you want to use it all season, from April to December, you can! It’s flexible! You choose how you want to & what you spend your membership on.
The smallest membership tier is Radish, for $200. As a thank you for being a member, you’ll actually find $220 on your farm debit card to spend. Since there are approximately 27 market dates, if you shopped every week, you’d be spending approximately $9 at each visit. If you planned to visit the market about every other week (13 market dates), you’d have about $16 available to spend.
A $9 shopping trip might look like a bag of salad mix, a bunch of radishes, and a single onion. A $16 shopping bag could include a bag of salad mix, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of scallions, and a bunch of kale.
Our mid-size membership tier is Tomato for $350 and with the 10% bump in funds as a member you’d have $385 to spend from April – December 2025.
If you came to every market date, you could spend approximately $14 each week – so a bag of microgreens, cherry tomatoes, and a bunch of chard. Or if you think you’ll be shopping about half the time, on your 13 market visits, you’d have about $30 to spend at each visit – this might include a bouquet, a wedge cheese, a bag of lettuce mix, a winter squash, and a bunch of turnips.
The largest membership tier is Celery for $500, which amounts to $550 to spend between the 27 market dates.
If you planned to visit the market every week you’d have about $21 to spend down – a bunch of kale, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of scallions, a container of sweet peppers, 2 garlic bulbs, and 2 cucumbers. And if you’re schedule allowed you to shop at about every other market (13 dates), then you’d have $42 for a flower bouquet, granola, a bag of salad mix, bok choy, a bunch of salad turnips, 3 zucchini, a quart of slicing tomatoes, and a quart of eggplant.
Will I be able to know the balance available on my Market Membership CSA farm debit card?
Totally!
I will be providing members with a balance update at the end of July and end of September. I will also provide you with the instructions for how you can check your balance at any time on your own.
What’s the difference between the Market Membership CSA & just shopping with you at the farmers market?
There are 3 main differences.
First, it’s the personalized support that my CSA members receive. In the weekly emails, not only do they have the chance to pre-order limited products, but they also get tailored recipes (with directions) to add to their meal plan for the week, based entirely on what will be available at the market to purchase.
Second, is the commitment you are making to yourself to eat more fresh produce. It’s so, so, so easy to press snooze on your alarm or make other plans that distract you from achieving your health, wellness, and personal goals. But when you join our Market Membership CSA, you’ve made a financial commitment to the farm and to your future-self –> and you’ll be more likely to “show up”, get your veggies, and then make food to nourish your body.
And lastly, it’s the financial benefit. When you become a member, you receive a 10% bonus of funds to spend. That’s $20, $35, or $50 extra in your pocket to spend on pesticide-free vegetables, herbs, and flowers from April to December from my farm.
I’m nervous about making the investment to join a CSA…
I absolutely understand where you are coming from.
When I am joining something I like to try to identify exactly what I’ll gain from the investment of my time and/or money. What will having that one skill/product/item do to improve my life?
For example, if you acknowledged the relationship you gained by investing in a farm’s growing season, how much more connected would you feel to that basket of tomatoes or the person who grew them?
Or if you knew most of the produce coming into your house from April to December was pesticide-free, how much more confident would feel about feeding your family?
How much more empowered would you feel knowing you had the choice of what vegetables to feed your family each week as well as the resources for recipe inspiration, tips for food storage, and knowing what might be substituted with ease in a new recipe?
What other healthy choices would you make if you knew you had freshly harvested, nutrient-dense, and flavorful veggies in your fridge each week?
It’s totally okay to be nervous or scared. It’s an investment after all! But decide that you’re going to join and invest in a healthy lifestyle for the next year and see what else happens for you.
If you didn’t find your question answered in this post, take a look at our FAQs page or send an email to Aurora at schulfarmstead (at) gmail.com.
Schul Farmstead 