A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is like a partnership between you and our farm. You sign up for a share in the spring and your investment helps support our early season expenses before the markets get rolling. Think seeds, compost, potting mix, infrastructure projects and early season labor. In return, starting mid-June, you get a hand-packed box weekly of delicious veggies, grown by us. Signing up for a CSA is not only a great way to have a constant supply of local veggies coming your way all summer, but it’s also an excellent way to support us in making this business of farming possible. Thank you.

• Sign Up: Once you click Sign Up above, you’ll be directed to our sales platform, GrownBy. On there, you’ll see the options to pick your share size, payment plan and pick up location. Our pick up location options will be either a central location in Missoula (still TBA but rest assured it will be as central as we can make it) or our Saturday Missoula market. You can always change your pick up location mid-season or for a specific week! See below for more info on what size share might best fit your lifestyle.

• Plan your meals: Starting in June, we’ll send out an email a few days before your CSA pick up letting you know what veggies you might expect in your box in the upcoming week. We’ll also occasionally offer a choice between two veggies.

• Pick Up Weekly: Starting June 12th, swing by your chosen pick up location weekly to grab your box.

• Enjoy: Unpack your box and enjoy!

• Family – A large share will generally have between 6 and 8 items per weekly box. It’ll offer more variety of veggies and likely bigger quantities of each. It’s perfect for feeding a larger crew, splitting between two smaller households, or for the truly-veggie enthused. Considering sharing between two households? We’re fine with two families splitting every-other pick up week! Just let us know what you’ve figured out. A family sized shared will deliver an average of $30 worth produce/ week, depending on the time of year.

• Personal – A personal share will generally have between 4 and 6 items per box, thus will have slightly less variety than the family box but still plenty of veggies! This share is perfect for one or two humans who enjoy eating veggies or for a larger crew who also has their own garden or enjoys supplementing at market. A personal sized shared will deliver an average of $20 worth produce/ week, depending on the time of year.

Each weekly box will be a great reflection of what is growing in our fields throughout the season. Early season will feature more greens, peas, herbs and root vegetables. As the season progresses, the hot crops will start to pop. You’ll open your box to find our season’s first peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplants. Toward the end of the season, we’ll start stocking you up for the winter. Your box will contain more onions, garlic, leeks and squash. Every week, we’ll do our best to include some recipe ideas as well as storage tips – we want you to love these veggies!

We’ll occasionally offer choices between two items and as the season gets rolling, we’ll open up our online store so you can always supplement if you want to add in extra greens, a box of canning tomatoes, a flower bouquet, a garlic braid and more.

We’ll try and give you a heads up a few days before pick up every week about what you can expect in your box, so you can plan your meals, in case that’s your thing! 

Our CSA runs from June 12th to October 23rd, which is 20 weeks.

We’ll occasionally send out a form a few days before pick up asking for you to choose between options, and are always open to feedback if you would never like to see another bunch of carrots again! That said, preferences vary and that’s part of the traditional CSA model. You can always share extras with a friend.

No worries—getting to know new veggies is one of the great joys of a CSA! Each week, you’ll find recipes ideas as well as storage tips in your box, to help you get the most out of your veggies.

We know summers get wild! If you let us know in advance you can’t make a week, we’ll refund the box for store credit that can be used online. If you don’t let us know in advance, we will have already packed the box so unfortunately can’t refund you. Unclaimed boxes will donated to a local food pantry.

Yes! Everything we grow is certified organic by the Montana Department of Agriculture. We are also Real Organic certified, a certification that goes above and beyond certified organic. Click here to learn about our growing practices.

We have a couple options for you! We offer a pay half now, pay half as you go option for both CSA share sizes. If that’s not accessible, consider shopping weekly at our summer Saturday and Tuesday farmers markets instead. We’re happy to accept both SNAP and WIC at all our markets, we just unfortunately can’t process them for the CSA model.

Finally, if you identify with a group of humans that’s been historically or continues to be marginalized, for ex. BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and a discount code would be feed good, we’re happy to offer to it. Please enter the promo code LOVE in your CSA check out for a 10% discount on us.

While we’re not currently open to drop-by visits, we’re hoping to host a few events this summer, including a farm dinner. We’d love for you to come out and see where your food comes from. Keep an eye on our newsletter for dates.

It’s easy! Head to our Sign Up page and choose the share size that’s right for you as well as your payment method. We are running our shares through a program called GrownBy this year, which is a very cool farmer’s coop which has a software that works great for online sales and CSAs. They offer various payment options, including a bank transfer which is still online but saves all the fees! We also accept cash, credit card, venmo and checks.

Send us an email at long.step.farm@gmail.com. For a deeper insight into our farm journey, subscribe to our newsletter, Long Step Chronicles and find us IG @longstepfarm.