10 pounds of meat from our farm every month

Monthly share with local pickup

Our year-round CSA (“Community Supported Agriculture”) meat subscription runs monthly, June through May each year. Each monthly share is 10 pounds of chicken, pork, and lamb, depending on the season. The CSA is our priority, so we put the best variety of meats into the CSA shares and only bring whatever is left over to farmers markets. CSA members pick up shares once a month, at the farm (dates flexible) or on designated days at one of several Willamette Valley locations in Portland, West Linn, Newberg, Albany, and potentially others.

Two CSA share options

Full cost CSA. The full cost CSA is $130 per month, plus one extra payment in the winter which helps us buy extra food for our pregnant ewes and sows. (13 payments total). Shares include whole and half chickens and many varieties of lamb and pork cuts, including plenty of bacon (multiple kinds!), multiple kinds of linked and loose sausage, ham roasts, sliced ham, and other fun stuff. We raised the price of the CSA because we got tired of having to forego extra bacon, bratwurst, other sausages, and other fun stuff because we couldn’t afford the butcher fees. This version of the CSA includes some of the rarer cuts of meat, such as leg of lamb or racks of pork ribs. Extra soup bones, organ meats, and other offal are free for CSA members who want them.

Basic CSA. The basic CSA is $110 per month plus one extra payment. This used to be our only CSA option. This version includes all of the same meats as in the full cost version. However, costs have gone up in the past few years and at this price now we can’t afford to include as much bacon or sausage — you might not get bacon or sausage every month, for example — and we can’t afford to include some of the rarer, more expensive cuts of meat. (There are only 2 racks of spare ribs per pig, so not everyone can have them.) This option also only includes whole chickens, not halves. This is a good option for people looking to save a little money, or if you just want a basic meat subscription. If you don’t eat cured pork or sausage and you don’t really care about fancy cuts like a rack of ribs or a leg of lamb, why pay the full cost share for stuff you don’t want?

Basic CSA plus add-ons. If you want the basic CSA but you just really want to make sure you get a pound of bacon (or breakfast sausage) each month, we’ll charge you an extra $5 per payment and we’ll make sure to include that in your share. If we were already planning to include bacon or sausage in that monthly share, we’ll double the amount for you (unless you tell us you don’t want us to do that.)

Discounts

Growing Families Discount. We offer a 10 percent discount on all our pre-order products, including CSA shares, if you or your spouse is pregnant or if you have children at home. If your kids have special nutrition needs we can accommodate, let us know. Yes, you can get sugar-free bacon! We would love to show you and your children around the farm sometime. We can’t let children inside the fence with the pigs and sheep for safety reasons, but they’re welcome to visit the chickens and pet the baby chicks.

On Farm Pickup. There is a 10 percent discount if you pick up your share at the farm. You can combine both discounts for a 15 percent total discount. The purpose of the farm pickup discount is to save gas. Your vehicle surely gets better mileage than our old farm truck, and by coming to the farm you save us from having to make extra delivery trips each month. During the summer farmers market season, you’re also welcome to meet us at the Albany Farmers Market to pick up your share if that’s more convenient.

Our year-round CSA begins in June each year but we will gladly add you to the membership in any month. To join the CSA fill out the form at the bottom of this page. Please note that we bill subscriptions 3 months in advance, such that the June subscription fee is due in March. If you join late there is no penalty, but there will be a period of “catching up” during which your invoices will be higher than normal. We’ll work with you to make that affordable so you don’t have to pay the full amount all at once.

What’s In A Share

Each month, members receive ten pounds of a mix of frozen pork, chicken, and lamb. All the pork and lamb is USDA inspected by law. The chickens are processed in an Oregon state-inspected facility. (Sometimes people ask — no, we are not a butcher shop. We are a farm. Getting a meat cutting license is a multimillion dollar investment, which is way out of our capacity. We have no interest in committing a federal felony and selling unlicensed meat.)

Obviously, we have fences, but none of our animals is ever confined, except for a short time when we’re transporting them in a livestock trailer, or in a “hospital” pen if we’re treating a specific injury. We don’t even own a useable barn. We do lock up our chickens at night for their safety; chickens appear basically “catatonic” at night, and are incapable of defending themselves or running away from predators, so they need to be cooped up at sunset.

We do not habitually vaccinate or medicate our livestock, though we do treat sick or injured animals when necessary; we’re not going to withhold care just so we can say we didn’t use antibiotics. Our chickens receive a Marek’s vaccine at the hatchery because we can’t get chickens that aren’t due to poor decisions made in the poultry industry decades ago. We provide anthelmintics to the sheep and pigs if needed, but mostly we just use rotation and occasional garlic to keep them healthy. Our animals tend to be pretty healthy because they get unlimited fresh air, Oregon sunshine, and good clean chemical-free food.

Chickens for the CSA come as whole or half birds free-ranged on our all-natural pasture and fed a locally-based GMO-free feed mix. We raise meat chickens outdoors in the summer and CSA members get chicken for about half the year. These are cleaned and plucked, shrink-bagged chickens. No, there are no chicken heads. You can get giblets and feet for a slight extra cost because there is extra processing and cleaning involved.

Pork for the CSA is a wide variety of cuts from our forest- and pasture-raised heritage Gloucester Old Spot hogs. We farrow (raise) our own piglets, though we’ll also buy extra weaners from a local breeder if one of our sows has a small litter. The CSA includes cuts of pork year round. We try to make items seasonably appropriate (more cuts of pork for grilling in summer, for roasting or stewing in winter.) Besides foraging in the woods and blackberry thickets our pigs eat occasional donations of apples and a locally-based, GMO-free feed mix. The GOS is an endangered heritage breed that is significantly fattier than conventional pork. Pork fat = flavor, so even if you’re not going to eat the fat, we think it makes the meat extra flavorful and juicy.

Lamb for the CSA is from our completely grass-fed, rotationally-grazed lamb born and raised on our farm. Our lambs are born on the pasture grass in the spring and the largest are ready by November or December. The CSA includes lamb starting about December and until we run out in the late spring or early summer.

For example…

…a winter share for one month might include a 3 pound leg of lamb roast, 2 pounds of lamb chops, a 1 pound package of 4 Oktoberfest sausages, a 2 pound package of thick-cut pork chops, a 1 pound package of side bacon, and a 1 pound package of ground pork chorizo. A summertime share for one month might include a 4 pound whole chicken, a pound of shoulder bacon (great for BLTs), a 3 pound pork shoulder roast, and a rack of pork spare ribs.

We can usually accommodate simple requests…

…the most common, from families with young children, is “no spicy sausage.” However, you cannot customize the share: if you want to custom-order your pork or lamb cuts or you just want chicken, please consider our bulk share purchase programs.

“Extras” from the pigs and lambs such as soup bones, organ meats, skin, and fat are free for any CSA member who asks, when available. Everyone who asks will get a share of what is available each month. Chicken giblets and chicken feet are available at cost.

There is no such thing as “nitrate free” or “uncured” bacon. For the honest take on this mendacious label, please see our “note on cured meats” at the bottom of this linked webpage. Even some of the companies selling “nitrate free” bacon in supermarkets have said they think the label is misleading and only use it because the government forces them to do so. We will never provide “nitrate free” cured meat because we aren’t in the habit of lying to you. If you are concerned about nitrosamines, limit your assumption of cured meats.

A note on starting the CSA early/late

We plan the CSA subscription on a twelve-month basis and our production is seasonal. Our goal is to provide value over the twelve months equivalent to your subscription dues over twelve months. Because our production is seasonal, please be aware that if you start your CSA membership after June, you might miss out on some items until we have those available again the following year. Because of our 3 month billing cycle, your first invoices will be higher than normal until you are caught up on payments.

How It Works

CSA members pick up shares once a month at one of our CSA pickup locations.

We have CSA share pickup locations in Southwest Portland, Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, West Linn, Albany, and on the farm in Scio. In the past we have also had a location in Newberg which we could likely add again if needed. Because these are people’s homes, we try to avoid listing the addresses publicly: simply contact us privately with your address and we’ll tell you the closest one to you and how far it is. We would like to add pickup locations in Corvallis and Salem — contact us if you are interested in hosting in exchange for a 10 percent discount.

On the designated pick up day the freezer will be easily accessible from the street/sidewalk, usually plugged in on a patio or in a shed. You do not need to knock on the door or ask permission, simply find the box with your name on it in the freezer and make sure to close the freezer door. Pickup days are scheduled well in advance and we try to pick days convenient for everyone. Normally the shares are ready by mid-afternoon and we ask that you pick up by 8pm or so. Please do your best to pick up on time; our hosts are very accommodating but they do need the use of their electrical outlet back at some point, they don’t want to keep an extra freezer plugged in all month. However, if something happens and you aren’t able to make it to the pickup, simply let us know so we can make sure the freezer stays plugged in for you. If you know in advance that you won’t be able to make a pickup, just tell us in advance and we’ll either ensure you can pick up when you’re back in town, or we’ll save your share for the following month.

We normally pack shares in cardboard boxes from a local box manufacturing company. If you have clean, reusable, seal-able (e.g., zippered), freezer-safe bags that you would like us to pack your share in, let us know and we’ll see if we can do so. Otherwise, the box you get each month supports local Oregon jobs and is itself reusable and recyclable. Starting later in 2024 most of our pork and lamb will be packaged in butcher’s paper. We’ve found that meat professionally-wrapped with butcher’s paper stores better in the freezer. Vacuum-sealed packages have too much tendency to break and lose the seal. Our chickens are packaged in shrink bags because you can’t wrap fresh chickens in paper.

We’re in this together

Our general policy with CSA members is to be extremely lenient, forgiving, assume the best, and give the benefit of the doubt. If you need to pay your invoice late, just tell us. If you can’t pick up your share, or you forgot, just tell us. If you don’t like something you received and would prefer to get something else in the future, let us know. If you really want a specific cut of meat for some special occasion, we’ll do our best. If you want to switch to a different CSA pickup location, we’ll try to make it work. We want to work with you to make everything work out. In exchange, we expect you to behave as if you are sharing this meat with the other members of our farm community: we are all trying to support the farm so it can provide us all with good, healthy food. Please don’t treat us like a soulless megacorporation and we won’t treat you like a “consumer”.

Subscription

We bill three months in advance

We bill subscription fees three months in advance; this plus the annual membership fee in winter helps us cover some of our costs without requiring you to pay the full year’s subscription up front. Livestock farming takes time and many of our costs are incurred long before the CSA year begins in June. Because we don’t require up front payment in full, we need to collect additional funds to help cover those initial costs.

This means the subscription fee for June is due in March, the fee for July is due in April, and so on. You may cancel at any time but we are not able to give refunds as all of our cash flow goes into caring for the animals and the farm. However, if you cancel we encourage you to keep picking up any shares you’ve already paid for.

Annual membership fee

Our membership fee holds your spot in the CSA for the coming year and is equal to your monthly subscription. We normally send member fee invoices in mid-winter for the June CSA year start. You are all very special members of an exclusive club, but really the “fee” just helps us pay for some of the extra costs of caring for animals over the winter, since by mid-winter we are already well into producing for the CSA the following June. If you sign up to join as soon as possible rather than wait until the following June, we’ll hold off on charging you until we are sure we’ll have a spot for you, and we will pro-rate the membership fee based on how many months are left in that year’s CSA.

Invoices and payment

We email invoices monthly: please ensure you can receive emails from us. Each invoice includes payment links. We accept cash, checks, and major credit cards, but if you want to know, we prefer automated bank transfers. There is a 3.5 percent extra charge for paying with a credit card, because we can’t really afford to keep paying credit card fees. We do happily accept SNAP/EBT.

We know you choose to eat good, locally-raised meat and support local farms. If you have a temporary economic setback and have trouble paying the monthly subscription, please let us know so that we can see if we can work something out.

If you want to save money in bulk, ordering a half hog share or pre-ordering chicken from us is a more cost-effective but less convenient option. Lamb is always limited in quantity but we do offer bulk lamb shares depending on availability.

What if the CSA is not enough

If you have the freezer space, want more of a discount, and want even more control over the cuts of meat you get, you might be interested in placing a Bulk Chicken order or in ordering a Bulk Pork Share or Bulk Lamb Share.

Fill out the form below to be added to our waiting list

Our CSA starts in June each year and it is best to sign up by January if possible, but new members are welcome to join anytime.