Is this Organic?

Yes! All farmers follow organic farming practices ! We only offer organic produce on our stores.

Is this 100 % local?

Yes! All produce is from local farmers - for example, Watsonville, San Juan Bautista, Salinas (about 1-2 hours from San Jose approx.).

Where do the payments go?
What shows up on my credit card?

This is an online store and you are buying directly from the farmers. All payments at checkout will be made to Bertha’s farm - Magaña Farm

What are the delivery and processing charges?

None !

Is there a minimum amount for each farm box order?

None! We have a $15 minimum order suggestion. Since we do not charge any packing/delivery fees, this amount makes it more sustainable for our farmers.  However, the $15 minimum is only a suggestion; we do not verify this amount on check-out. 

For orders less than $15, we recommend you coordinate with a friend or neighbor and order together.

When do the boxes arrive?
When do I have to pick them up by?

The boxes arrive on Saturday . In most cases the boxes arrive early morning before 10am and in a few sites they arrive in the afternoon, between noon and 3pm. Please see the Delivery Update Page to know exactly when your site is delivered. We are exploring more efficient ways of getting the boxes to the various locations and so delivery times

To enjoy the incredible fresh vegetables, we recommend you pick up the boxes as soon as possible.

We can not hold the boxes past 6pm, and If not picked up by that time, we are required to throw it away since the produce is no longer of the freshness the farmers want to send to you.

The boxes arrive at a site host’s house. The site host is a volunteer, and is not expected to store your box or its contents for you for later pickup. If you are going to be away, please make alternative arrangements and don’t leave it for the site host to follow up with you. Please see the Shipping Agreement for more. Make sure you provide a valid and current contact information at the time of the order in case we do need to connect with you.

How do I know my order was received ok?

The way this and many shopping sites works, is that after you add to the shopping cart, and before you click on CheckOut, you will select your neighborhood site for the order to be delivered for you. At the Checkout, please make sure to fill a valid email since the invoice is sent to that address. You can save your address etc for future checkouts if you like.

After you complete the order , you should get an email confirming the order with a link to the full order as well as all the details of the neighborhood site location - address, time, introduction to site host etc.

Who do I contact about my order ?

If you have questions about your order, something you liked, something that you did not, you have a produce item missing or anything else- please send email to serviceinfo@terafarm.org and it will be handled and passed on to the farmers as needed. We appreciate your using this process rather than contacting the farmer directly. This helps us make the process easier for the farmers and provides a more consistent way of handling customer questions.

Why do we use a neighborhood site instead of an order that is delivered to my front door?

Using a neighborhood site, reduce the number of miles and stops the farmer has to drive. This makes it faster and more efficient for the farmers, especially on a busy morning after packing and loading. We also reduce the carbon footprint, since many of our customers walk, or even bike to their neighborhood site.

Can I be a neighborhood host for next week?

If you think you have 5 or more friends/family who can pick up the produce from your house, and you want to be a neighborhood site, please let us know. The farmers depend on your support to reach your neighborhood. See details at Host a Site.

Why is the produce not exactly as I ordered - I see you substituted some red beets for my golden beets - I only wanted golden beets.

We are not sending you produce from a warehouse, the farmers are harvesting it just hours before and so we have a little less control. Orders are consolidated only when store closes, so we may not have time to find alternate farmers to get enough of each product exactly as you wanted. For example, an unexpected rain early in the week may have decreased the strawberry harvest or the farmers may decide they want to wait one more week to get a better looking golden beet or celery and would rather send you a substitute. We hope you understand this is part of eating local and seasonal, and not relying on a warehouse/storage system or shipping from farms further away. We hope you will enjoy mixing in the color beets or cooking with a different kind of kale if the product changes a bit from what you expected. We are letting the farmers decide on what they think is their best product to send when a substitute is needed.

Can you take back my order boxes and reuse them or do I have to recycle?

Currently, at most sites, the neighborhood host is able to store the boxes and the farmers pick it up for reuse the next week. Not all sites can offer this due to space issues. Please check your order confirmation email to see if this is available at your site, and you can also email your site host (the email address is in your order email) or email serviceinfo@terafarm.org with your site name. You can of course always recycle the box.

Can you take back the strawberry or mushroom boxes or do I have to recycle?

Unfortunately, the farmers can not reuse the strawberry or mushroom boxes, this is not allowed by their food packing guidelines.

Please recycle them on your own, please do not leave them at the site.

Why is the produce not exactly the same size as I got last week?

The farmers try their best to send you produce of similar sizes each week but it is not always possible to be exactly the same. Produce even at the same farm grows differently and can vary from week to week due to many factors.  In order to offer produce variety, we are partnering with multiple farmers. Each farm operation uses 2 or 3 workers to help them harvest the produce. Sometimes when they hire new people, they take time to become fully familiar with the size of bunches or standard head/ stalk of the produce to be harvested, and so they may harvest produce that is not the matching size.

Since the farmers are not using a warehouse to store the produce but bringing it to pack just before driving it over to you, there is no time to select only some items or change items out, and they can not reject all the produce harvested. Hence they may end up sending items that are not exactly the same in all boxes or from a previous week. Grocery stores buy from large warehouses that stock only pre-selected sizes (they reject any sizes brought by a farmer that do not match their specifications) so it is easier to provide produce that is more consistent in size.

However, the farmers do want to give you a more consistent size each week and are implementing more training and quality checks each week, but sometimes it may not work exactly - we hope you will understand.

Why can I not add a bunch of bananas to my order?

We supply only local produce growing on these farms and do not supplement with other store-bought items.