FAQ
Q. Can I order a la carte retail items if I’m not a CSA member?
A. Yes! You may order items a la carte from our e-store, as long as you meet our $30 minimum. Along with veggies, we have a variety of local goods available like fruit, eggs, mushrooms, honey, sourdough bread, bulk veggies, West Virginia salts and more.
Q. How does pricing and payments work?
A. For weekly payments, no payment is due at time of sign-up. Your card will be charged weekly for your base subscription orders on Thursdays (for Tuesday/Wednesday deliveries) or Saturday (for Thursday/Friday deliveries) for that week's share. If you add on items you will be charged for those on Mondays. To put your share on hold, do so Thursday at noon (for Tuesday/Wednesday deliveries) or Saturday at noon (for Thursday/Friday deliveries) the week before your delivery date.
Q. Do you offer home delivery and where?
A. Yes! For an added weekly fee of $8, we'll bring your share right to your doorstep! Areas that we deliver to include but are not limited to: Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Northern VA, Frederick, Bethesda, Woodsboro, Phoenix, Cockeysville, Columbia & Catonsville. Zip codes are listed on our sign-up page. Please note that since sometimes zip codes cover a huge radius, we cannot guarantee that if you are in a zip code we deliver to that you are in our delivery zone.
Q. How do I pause or put holds on my CSA membership?
A. Follow the instructions below - just make sure to put your share on hold by Thursday at noon (for Tuesday/Wednesday deliveries) or Saturday at noon (for Thursday/Friday deliveries) the week before your delivery date. If you're past that deadline we can always donate your share! If you have any questions, reach out to support@moonvalleyfarm.net!
Click here to access your “Subscriptions” page (make sure you’re logged in!)
Select "Options" from the drop down menu, and then "Create a Hold" for each of your subscriptions.
There you will be able to enter any dates you need to pause your share. Select the entire week (Monday - Friday) of the week you’d like to skip. If you have multiple subscriptions, make sure to create separate holds on all!
Q. What items can I expect in my CSA veggie share?
A. We give you the best of what is ripe and available the farm and also have a swap option available if you’d like to make trades! We grow the most familiar veggies, including tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes and lettuces, as well as some that we think you’ll love if you don’t already, like kohlrabi, Italian sweet peppers and fennel. Your share contents will change throughout the year depending on what is in season. For a full list of what we grow check out our CSA Items Guide here!
Q. Can I swap items in my CSA share?
A. Yes! You can log into your account, see what's in your upcoming box, and make trades to get more of what you want (and avoid those veg you don't prefer)! The swap option will be available from Thursday at noon - Saturday at 11:59pm (for Tuesday/Wednesday deliveries) and Saturday at noon - Monday at 11:59pm (for Thursday/Friday deliveries) for the upcoming week before you receive your share. Follow these instructions to make swaps:
Login and go to the "Overview" tab in your account settings.
Select the green "View Order" button.
Select the drop down of "Items in your Order"
View the preloaded items in your box and select the "<->" icon to substitute a different item.
Confirm your order!
You can also view a video with instructions here! If you have any questions please reach out support@moonvalleyfarm.net!
Q. Can I cancel my CSA subscription(s)?
A. If you would like to cancel your subscription you can submit a cancellation request in your account settings or email us. We follow up with all cancellation requests to ask for your feedback and experiences with the CSA to help us grow and improve or to find out if a different subscription or schedule would better fit your needs. We require notice by Thursday at noon (for Tuesday/Wednesday deliveries) or Saturday at noon (for Thursday/Friday deliveries) the week before your delivery date for cancellation before your next delivery date. If you submit a request after that deadline, you will receive your next box (or you can donate it) and then will not receive boxes after that date.
Q. What happens if part of my order is missing?
A. Email support@moonvalleyfarm.net and we will help coordinate adding the item(s) to your next box, or crediting it for you!
Q. Can I sign up for a subscription, but receive it every other week?
A. Yes! You can sign up for a subscription for either weekly or bi-weekly delivery. At the time of sign up under the Distribution Information section, select either “Bi-Weekly (Evens)” or “Bi-Weekly (Odds)” under Frequency.
Note: Evens and Odds refers to the number week of the year (for example: CSA week 30 is an evens week). See photos below for reference - the number on the left side is the week of the year. You can also click the “Schedule: show/hide” link to view the dates you would receive the share when signing up!
Q. What if I can’t make it to the pick up location in time to pick up my share?
A. When you sign up for one of the pick up sites, you are committing to picking up your order during our listed pick-up window. We can’t guarantee the quality or availability of your box outside of that timeframe.
Q. How do I choose the right veggie share size?
A. We measure shares by "items" - but each week we do a calculation on the worth of each item to ensure the value adds up each time. An "item" is something like: a pint of cherry tomatoes, a bag of lettuce, 2 onions, a bunch of kale or a quart of potatoes. Our Small Share includes 4-6 items per week, our Medium Share includes 7-9 items, and our Large Share includes 11-14 items. We recommend choosing your share size based on how often you cook and how many people you're feeding!
Q. Are you able to reuse the boxes?
A. Due to our food safety plan and to prevent cross contamination, the only way we can reuse boxes is if we empty the box contents ourselves into a cooler. If you’d like to leave a cooler out for our driver to place your produce inside of it, we can take the box back and reuse them for our restaurant customers (and we do so with a liner added inside).
“I’m loving this. I have a subscription for a small box every week. It’s just enough for me and my husband. I’m happy to get this because it’s making me try and cook things that I’ve never eaten before. It’s a great way to add more plants into your diet, which is why I got the subscription in the first place. The veggies are so fresh and I feel so good getting food directly from farms and knowing where my food is coming from specifically. And if there is something you don’t like, they make it so easy to make swaps. I will say that sometimes, I don’t care to cook certain weeks so I’ll have an abundance of veggies left. They make it so easy to skip a week or to donate that weeks box. A simple email. I’m so happy to have become part of this co-op. It’s so worth it. ”
“LOVE this place. I just signed up for the small perennial box and no to be dramatic but it’s AMAZING. Not only is it conveniently dropped right on my doorstep, but the veggies are SO worth it. You can tell they are super fresh, grown without chemicals and grown with love. Highly recommend. Anytime I’ve had questions they are answered super quickly. If you’re serious about eating good food like me then you need to get yourself some weekly veggies. (They also have bi-weekly which is perfect if you live alone) ”
Q. Is all of your produce organic?
A. We are certified organic through the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) and are Real Organic Certified as well. We follow all organic practices under the guidelines of the National Organic Program (NOP) and are proud to steward our land with all organic practices. You can also learn more about our farming practices on here! We partner with 78 Acres for the fruit we offer. Although it's conventional, 78 Acres does use IPM (Integrated Pest Management), which means they only spray when and where necessary to save the crop from pest damage. They have a lot of practices in place to minimize spraying. We searched high and low for organic fruit growers in the area and they just don't exist with the crops and quantities we need because of our climate in the mid-Atlantic. Farmer Emma said that she'd absolutely personally prefer 100% organic as an organic farmer herself, but she's seen how impossible it is to grow organic fruits in this region and will take the higher nutritional value and lower environmental footprint of local IPM fruit. We partner with Sassafras Creek Farm and Next Step Produce for additional produce, which are both organic. King Mushrooms is not certified organic, but employs organic practices. Purple Mountain (oats and beans) and Nick's (eggs) are organic. We also have more information about our producers on our ordering site here!
Q. Do you provide resources to learn how to store or cook certain veggies?
A. Yes, our goal is to provide as much information and material to set our members up for success! On our Veggies Page on our website, you’ll find a guide to the produce that we grow and source from our partner farms. You can click on each item to find specific storage tips, recipe ideas, and the time of year it's in season. CSA Members are also welcome to join our Facebook Group (click here to join!) to see and share recipe ideas, preservation and storage tips, and veggie hacks! Along with those resources, CSA members receive a weekly e-newsletter including a list of what's in the farm share that week with coinciding recipe ideas and farm happenings. Also expect to receive occasional e-newsletters from us full of information about eating locally, gardening, preserving, cooking & more!
Q. Should I wash the produce I receive from the farm?
A. YES, you always should! We follow food safety protocol — our staff is trained on hand washing, we wash and sanitize the surfaces we rinse and pack your food in, we don’t ever sell anything that was dropped on the floor, we rinse off most all produce we send out to our customers, we have a food safety plan we follow (that we developed with food safety experts!), we have committed to taking food safety trainings annually or more - but the LAST part of food safety is in YOUR hands. Please wash your food before you prepare it and eat it- for your safety!
