Frequently Asked Questions About Our Sustainable CSA Farm

A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is a great way to eat seasonal food with a close connection to the farm growing the food. CSAs provide you the ability to receive high quality, extremely fresh produce grown locally. When you enroll in our CSA, you are purchasing a share of vegetables from One Acre Farm for a season.

Community: When you enroll in our CSA, you join a community of food-loving adventurous eaters who believe in treating our earth with responsibility and stewardship. 

Supported: This farm would not be possible without YOU, our members. By committing to a season, our farm is able to plan and not have to worry about selling produce already grown — it's already sold, to you! This allows us to just focus on growing and providing you with the highest quality, freshest produce we can!

Agriculture: One Acre Farm is a robust farm growing Certified Naturally Grown vegetables on 7 acres. We grow beautiful vegetables because we prioritize soil health. Only naturally derived amendments are incorporated into our fields; we plant cover crops on our fallow fields; and we apply compost to our fields (and make our own compost, too!). Not only does agriculture mean growing methods but also the farm team: One Acre Farm pays, at a minimum, $18/hr (several dollars more per hour than similar farms), and works hard to make our operation as efficient as possible, allowing our teams to go home, rest, and spend time with family.

CSAs are a win-win for consumers and farmers.

In 2010, Farmer Mike started his own farm on one (literal) acre of rented land in in Poolesville, MD. In an homage to his mentors at One Straw Farm in Baltimore, MD and in addition to the reality of the size of his farm, he named his farm, One Acre Farm. In 2018, Farmer Mike and wife, Kristin Protas, were able to purchase the land the farm is situated on now: 34 acres in Dickerson, MD. The farm grows on 7 acres but still has the close-knit feel of that original one acre!

​Depending on the size of your share, you will receive 6-8 items (Small Share) or 10-12 items (Full Share). A good frame of reference for a Full CSA Share is to picture two grocery bags of veggies, while a Small CSA Share would be about the size of one grocery bag. To see what you might receive each season, check out our summer, fall, and winter CSAs. 

You're always welcome to sign up for a certain size and after trying it out for a bit, upgrade or downsize to a different share.

If you're trying to figure out what size to get, think about how many vegetables your family normally eats. We have members who are in a household of two (or one!), yet they love veggies so much that they get the Full Share. For those who cook with veggies a bit less, a Full Share is perfect for a family of four or more; a Small Share is great for families 1-3 people.

Another note: If either of these options feels like too much, we encourage people to share with another family and split the cost. For example, one family can pick up one week, the other family the next (alternate weeks).

One Acre Farm's CSA members get the best produce the farm has to offer. Every week. You are our priority. We don't go to any farmers' markets, so we harvest first and foremost for our CSA members!

We're the real deal. As a CSA member, you are an informed consumer and truly eating seasonally and locally. Education is one of Farmer Mike's top priorities, and you'll be privy to all the happenings on the farm through our newsletters. This CSA is completely transparent. You can trust One Acre Farm knowing you are getting exactly what you have signed up for as well as complete honesty about the farm, how we're growing, the challenges the farm faces, and its successes. This is the real deal. Be part of the farm's future. You make this farm possible.​

As a CSA member, you get access to the goings on of the farm and also, wonderful recipes that you can use your share vegetables for. 

One Acre Farm, in addition to growing with sustainable and transparent practices, is committed to creating a safe and healthy work environment and paying fair wages. In addition to an annual health stipend, our farm pays its team at least minimum wage, $18/hr. That's a large percentage more per hour than other farms of comparable size.

We also offer payment plans in which you can pay in installments. If you require more payment options, email us and we would be happy to work something out!

We serve the following areas: Bethesda, Dickerson, Gaithersburg, Poolesville, Rockville, and Washington Grove. Delivery is available to these zip codes: 20886, 20899, 20877, 20880, 20850, 20853, 20851, 20852, 20016, 20816, 20007, 20057, 20003, 20390.

YES!! We advise that all of our CSA customers wash their vegetables before eating and cooking with them. We wash most of the vegetables we send out to you and have a series of steps we go through to ensure cleanliness. We have written a Food Safety Plan in accordance with GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) regulations and we use a sanitizer solution in our wash water. Our staff is trained on handwashing and cleanliness and we never use anything that has hit the floor.

​However, we cannot ensure that all the soil and potential germs are gone by the time it leaves our farm. Please wash your produce before eating or cooking with clean water - for your safety!

Depending on your pick-up location, we can leave your bag for you to pick-up after the time window. However, if you pick up at a business with operating hours, like 7 Locks Brewery, you will need to arrange for someone else to pick-up your bag as the business cannot extend their hours. If no one picks up your bag at a business location, the bag goes to the business' employees.

​Please email us at least by 2pm the day before pick-up to coordinate an alternate pick-up time or inform us you will be unable to pick up that week. If you cannot pick-up that week, your share will be donated.

You sure can!

When you choose to skip a week, you will be issued farm credit in the GrownBy system that you can use to purchase extra produce. You are allowed 1 skipped week per calendar year. You must claim your skipped week at least one week in advance of pick-up day you will be skipping. If something comes up last minute where you will be away, email us and we'll do our best to make it work. 

• So, if you sign up for the summer share only you get 1 skipped week.

• If you sign up for the fall share only you get 1 skipped week.

• If you sign up for both summer + fall then you get 1 skipped week.

You can certainly skip more if you will be away, but we can only offer credit for 1 skipped week for the total of the calendar year. Once you have claimed your 1 skipped week, please email us for any future times you will be away and we can put a hold on your share for that week. 

We do not issue refunds or make-up dates for skipped weeks.

It is always possible to share a membership with a friend or family member. If you have someone that you want to share with, we ask that you handle the splitting of your share amongst yourselves, i.e., alternate pick-up weeks.  Unfortunately, we cannot coordinate the logistics of both share members coming to the pick-up site on the same day.

Yes, we do offer tours once or twice a year. The best way to get information about farm tours is to sign up for our newsletter.