What is a Multi-Farm CSA?

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a popular form of distribution employed by small scale, local farms. The benefits are multifold: farmers can collect payment up front to invest in supplies, plan their season according to how many shares they sold, and build relationships with the local community.

However, offering a CSA means incorporating a great variety of crops into your farm plan in order to provide customers with a diverse, interesting box week-to-week. Farmers must also market their boxes, manage delivery and pickup, and field questions and complaints from customers.

A multi-farm CSA can provide all the benefits of a single-farm CSA while alleviating some of the stresses. By combining forces with other farms, growers can specialize in a smaller variety of crops and divide up administrative and delivery duties. Farmers can also partner with a wide variety of producers to offer a more robust CSA by adding things like eggs, dairy, meat, mushrooms, kraut, bread, honey, and more.

Watch our Joint CSA Webinar!

In March 2025, RFC held a webinar with representatives from two Oregon-based collaborative CSAs (Full Farm and Klamath Grown). The webinar is full of rich information for farmers interested in starting a CSA with other farmers, or for food hubs/food aggregators looking to host a joint CSA.

multi-farm Csas in Oregon

A Multi-farm CSA enterprise: FULL FARM CSA

Full Farm CSA was created by Deck Family Farm in Junction City, Oregon.

A family owned farm, Deck formed many friendships and collaborative relationships with other small farms in the Eugene area. Believing farms are stronger when they work together, the Full Farm CSA was born. Full Farm CSA is its own business apart from the farms that produce the goods in the box, and employs staff to handle the administrative and logistical tasks of running a multi-farm CSA.

The CSA is a monthly subscription offering both home delivery and local pickup. Subscribers pay monthly and then shop the online selection of vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, coffee, pastries, and more, all gathered from growers and producers operating within 20 miles of Junction City.

Learn more: Full Farm

coordinated pickups: little wings, pk pastures, and wild pacific foods

Collaborating on a CSA does not necessarily have to involve a large amount of up front labor or behind-the-scenes coordination. Little Wings Farm offers a seasonal cropshare (CSA) and coordinates with PK Pastures and Wild Pacific Foods to offer joint pickup locations. The farms promote one another on their individual CSA sign up pages, and offer convenient pickup options for customers who wish to sign up for more than one subscription.

Learn more: Little Wings

Learn more about starting a multi-farm csa

  • Podcasts

    Field to Fork Tehama, LLC CSA | via Farm to Table Talk Podcast | This 30-minute podcast episode features a multi-farm CSA structured as an LLC in Tehama, CA. The founder is not a farmer, but was interested in starting a food business to support the local food system.

    The Collaborative Farming Podcast has hosted many farmers who operate multi-farm CSAs. Each interview offers a different perspective on how collaborative CSAs might organize and operate.

    Interview with Full Plate Farm Collective | FFC is a cooperatively run CSA that provides hundreds of shares in the NY area. The CSA hires a coordinator to manage the program.

    Interview with 607 CSA | 607 CSA aggregates food from 40+ producers in the NY area. They have a mission centering food sovereignty and equitable access to local food. Recently, the CSA became part of a 501c3 nonprofit to support their work.

    Interview with Boxcar Acres | Boxcar Acres partners with multiple farms in Kentucky to offer a full-diet CSA. Families order what they want on a weekly basis and shares can be delivered or picked up.

    Webinars

    CSA Ideas Lab: Multi-Farm and Cooperative CSA Models | Video Webinar with Black Soil KY & Fresno Farm Box

    City Commons CSA | Video Webinar with Detroit-based urban multi-farm CSA

  • Local Harvest: A Multifarm CSA Handbook (2010) | Guidebook with details and examples about pricing, bidding, administration, bookkeeping, and budgeting