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R E A D O N L I N E
49
Grow
Your
Business
with a
CSA
By Tonneli Grüetter
In recent years, small-scale fl ower farmers have
gained a new secret weapon: code-name "CSA,"
which is an initialism for Community Supported
Agriculture. e basic function of a CSA is to
create a season-long stable and predictable
stream of income for farms or farmer co-ops
by advance-selling their products directly to
customers. Customers become "subscribers"
of a farm and receive regular shares of the
farm's produce. Historically, CSAs were mostly
associated with small to midsize produce farms,
but in recent years, the concept has gained
viability for other farmed items, namely locally
grown cut fl owers. A fl ower CSA, which is also
sometimes called "subscription" or "share,"
operates similarly to produce CSAs, but instead
of receiving weekly boxes of kale, squash and
the like, fl ower CSA subscribers receive regular
bouquets or arrangements of farm-fresh blooms.
