Subscriptions (CSA)
Grazing Days sells quality grass-fed Angus beef, pastured pork, and pastured chicken by direct delivery in the Ottawa-Gatineau region using subscriptions. Customers place and pay for their orders in the spring. The order is then home-delivered starting in the fall, until June of next year.
This subscription model is called community shared agriculture (CSA) and it is sometimes also called community-supported agriculture.
The CSA is a better way to buy meat, for the farmer, for the customer, and for the planet. CSA customers order their meats in advance, allowing farmers to focus on farming. The CSA gives us the stability to farm well, act ecologically, and produce better-tasting and more nutritious food. Unlike most conventional farms, we are able to follow organic practices, produce high-quality meat, and offer products (like grass-fed or pastured, for example) that others can't.
By participating in our CSA, you get the opportunity to know and learn about your food much more intimately than by purchasing it at the grocery store. We encourage members of the CSA to visit the farm, and we host activities here to help you learn more about the farm and your food.
The CSA model also helps us get access to capital to invest into the farm. In today’s world, it is quite difficult for small-holder farmers to get loans, especially to grow food for the local market.
Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) Contract
The following outlines a few of the things that we as Grazing Days agree to and what a customer agrees to when they sign up for a Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) share.
Starting:
Middle of October
Duration:
Grazing Days boxes of frozen grass-fed beef, pastured pork and pastured chicken are available for 9 months, from October until June. The deliveries will happen on Saturdays and will vary each month depending on the neighbourhood within which you live. You will sign up for the precise delivery dates at the time of your order.
Grazing Days:
Grazing Days is committed to raising and distributing quality grass-fed Angus beef, pastured pork and pastured chicken to you, our subscription (CSA) member. While providing you with this delicious and healthy beef, we promise to run our operation in an ecologically friendly way that protects our soils and rejuvenates our aquifers. We promise that our beef is 100% grass-fed (no grain) and free from artificial hormones and antibiotics.
Grazing Days will use antibiotics to treat a sick animal if there is no other organic treatment available. This meat will be sold to our customers, but we will fully disclose that the animal has been treated at the time of sale and we will adjust the price accordingly.
Grazing Days promises to provide you with the delivery of frozen grass-fed beef, pastured pork, or pastured chicken as per your order, to an address in Ottawa or Gatineau. The deliveries will happen on or near the dates that you have specified.
Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) Customers:
As a Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) customer, you promise to understand the challenges related to raising and delivering grass-fed beef:
- You will promise to be flexible around the types of cuts you receive in your delivery. At Grazing Days we are aware of the value of different cuts of meat and we promise to make an effort to distribute the beef fairly so that over the course of the delivery season the value of the meat you receive is proportional to the total value of the full animal.
- You promise to work with us to arrange a time to be available to receive your box on delivery weekend. Delivery dates and times will be arranged about 10 days in advance of your beef delivery weekend. Please note that if you miss your agreed delivery time we will charge a $10 delivery fee for each time we need to return to your address to deliver you beef.
As a Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) customer, you promise to read the CSA information found on https://grazingdays.ca (this website) and to stay informed about being a Grazing Days Subscription (CSA) customer. We commit to sharing information from the farm with you throughout the season on our website and through our mailing list. We commit to providing you with opportunities to visit the farm and to learn about grass-fed beef production.
Together we will be making our food system happier, healthier, more safe and more sustainable. We look forward to being part of your local food community and getting to know you better.
We deliver our CSA shares directly. See our delivery page for more information on how we deliver.