FAQs

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a partnership framework between producers and customers. We grow and care for the animals, and you receive a share of them at regular intervals. (Think of us as your own personal farmer who specifically tends your livestock).

Ultimately, a CSA helps connect eaters more closely to the farm and knowledge of food production.

The earliest model of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) first appeared in Japan in the mid-1960s, and it has quietly gained momentum worldwide over the last 20 or 30 years. 

By adopting a subscription approach to selling their produce, marketing risks (such as reduced demand over holiday periods) and associated costs can be reduced, and enormous slabs of time saved.

In our case, knowing exactly how many sheep need to be shorn and how many young cattle to have finished helps with forward planning.

The membership fee allows Border Park Organics CSA to be sustainable.

A new approach means a new operating system needs to be developed. We’ve had to commission our ever-patient website developer to build a membership component into our website. This has been a challenging and costly exercise, but we’re confident you’ll love the advantages that come with being a CSA member.

CSA members receive a host of benefits, including freebies, special member pricing, exclusive products, a payment plan and invitation to attend a farm tour, just to name a few!

Once you’ve completed your Order Sheet and paid your Membership fee, you can sit back and relax!

Member’s orders will be home delivered (or to a central collection point) either 4 times a year (Option A) or 2 times a year (Option B).

A monthly payment plan allows you to pay for your order over 8 months, either using either the Manual Payment Method (MPM) or the Automatic Payment Method (APM).  

Talk about convenience . . . one easy order and your family’s organic beef and lamb are organised for the whole year.

See what the 5-step process involves here.

Option A will be delivered 4 times a year (May, July, September, November), and Option B will be delivered 2 times a year (June, October). The same meat packs are available to both.

We’ve designed Option A for those who have larger families, have less freezer space, eat meat regularly or prefer to store their meat for short periods of time.

Option B may suit those who wish to save money on freight costs, have smaller families, have more available freezer space or those who eat meat less frequently.

The Manual Payment Method (MPM) requires manual payment monthly via Direct Transfer or Paypal.Me (after you receive notification to pay). This notification will be sent to you on the 22nd of each month and we ask that you make payment no later than the 26th of the month. The CSA Membership for 2018 requires your order paid in eight (8) monthly payments. Your first payment will be due by 26 April 2018 and your eighth and final payment will be due on 26 November 2018. There is a 2% transaction fee when Paypal is used.

The Automatic Payment Method (APM) allows an automatic monthly payment via eWay only. This payment will take place on the 26th of each month. For peace of mind and your records, you will receive notification once the payment clears. Again, the CSA Membership for 2018 requires your order paid in eight (8) monthly payments. Your first payment will be due on 26 April 2018 and your eighth and final payment will be due on 26 November 2018. There is a 2% transaction fee when eWay is used.

Paypal.Me is a useful, quicklink to enable payments via Paypal. Border Park Organics now has a unique PayPal.Me link so that you can pay via Paypal without going through the website’s Cart-Checkout process.

By clicking on our link (https://www.paypal.me/BorderParkOrganics), you’ll be redirected to this secure webpage:

Simply add your amount and follow the prompts.

This option is only available to CSA members, and specifically those who select the Manual Payment Method (MPM).

Download the Order Sheet and use the online CSA Member Product Menu as a guide to complete the Order Sheet.

Return your completed Order Sheet via email by Wednesday 28^th March 2018 and we’ll get back to you with confirmation of your order. At this point, we’ll ask you to pay the Membership Fee online, which secures your CSA share. Once your Membership Fee is paid, we then set up your membership subscription for 2018.

So to be clear, while the Membership Fee is paid via the website’s Cart-Checkout process, a Member order is submitted via email when you return the completed Order Sheet.

Our deliveries are made during business hours. Wherever possible, it’s best if you’re home so you can quickly get your order into the fridge or freezer.

In the event you won’t be home, you can request your order to be left with a neighbour or at a workplace if this is more convenient. Alternatively, if absolutely necessary, you may leave an esky in a safe place and we’ll request the courier to transfer it for you (though we don’t recommend this in the warmer months).

Once your order has been confirmed and your CSA membership fee paid, we will be able to give you an exact date and approximate time for each of your deliveries for the remainder of the year. This will help with forward planning.

If you know in advance that you’ll be away on a delivery month, we ask that you find someone to collect your order on your behalf.

Should you be away for an extended time, we may be able to suspend your share until your return – we need at least one month’s notice. Please contact us to confirm this is possible.

You’re welcome to alter your delivery address or collection point. We do ask that you contact us at least 3 weeks prior to your scheduled delivery so we can notify the couriers.

Our livestock will continue to be slaughtered by the team at Loxton Abattoir, but will be processed by a team of specialty butchers in Strathalbyn. All orders will be sent out from Strathalbyn and on-forwarded to customers.

Residents living in the Loxton district will now have a freight charge for their orders. Find details of all our available collection points here.

Although we will continue to sell meat directly to the public through our website, we’ve learnt a thing or two over the past few years.

Firstly, we’ve discovered that time is a limited resource. (We’re sometimes slow learners!) We want to invest in meaningful relationships with those people who value what we do and what we produce. Taking this extra step in the direction of a solidarity economy will allow us to concentrate on farming and looking after our family (rather than the continual demands of marketing ourselves online).

Stock permitting, yes. We will still be opening orders for regular sales throughout the year.

If you’d like to purchase from us as a public customer, by signing up to our mailing list you will be notified when we open orders. In this instance, it pays to place your order quickly, otherwise you risk missing out 🙂

However, please be aware that at the beginning of the season, our CSA Members have first preferences of packs. Therefore, we anticipate there will be very few (if any) products left for sale on our website once our membership program closes on Wednesday 28th March 2018.

The focus at Border Park Organics is on providing delicious, affordable, organic meat that can be enjoyed by all, including those on special food diets.

While we could feature more gourmet, specialised cuts in our meat packs, these take our butchers longer to prepare. We’ve chosen to keep prices down and provide you with a range of cuts that will satisfy, but also expand your cooking skills.

Each animal is unique, including their weights. We lamb only once a year, so if you receive lamb earlier in the season (such as August), your lamb pack will weigh less than they will later in the season. As the lambs age, your lamb pack will weigh more, but your pack price will be the same. (See our detailed explanation here.)

We only have one drop of lambs per year (as opposed to continuous lambing). Once these lambs have lost their ‘baby teeth’ around the age of 12 months, they are then classed as hogget or 2-tooth.  When we’ve come to the end of our supply of lambs, we’ll instead send in hogget—which tastes equally delicious—but may weigh just a bit more. (See our detailed explanation here.)

Changing your order after confirmation would be tricky for us as we’ve allocated a specific number of meat packs to our CSA Members to avoid over-selling or under-supply.

If, however, you have a change in personal circumstances, please contact us as early as possible so we can make alternative arrangements with you. Please note that there will typically be a charge equivalent to one month of your membership should you withdraw your CSA subscription.

It’s our sincere hope that you’ll be very happy with both our products and our service. However, we realise sometimes unexpected situations arise. (Hey, we’re farmers remember!)

While we are happy to negotiate should you need to cancel your subscription early due to personal circumstances, there will typically be a charge equivalent to one month of your membership should you cancel before your subscription is up.