Welcome to Agricultural Connections!

Central Oregon's CSA - Bridging The Gap Between Farmers And Consumers

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We are Central Oregon’s first year round community supported agriculture cooperative, a grassroots project working in conjunction with organic Oregon farmers to bring local, organic, sustainable food to Central Oregon throughout the year.

Mission Statement

The goal of Agricultural Connections is to bridge the gap between farmers and consumers by supplying Central Oregon residents with fresh, local, organic, quality produce, dairy, eggs, mushrooms, meats, and other products year round. Our hope is to utilize Oregon’s abundance of agricultural production to feed our community and support local farmers and their families. Ultimately to live a healthier lifestyle it is valuable to know about our food; where it comes from, how it was produced, and how the farm and its animals are cared for during its production.

What Is A CSA

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way for local residents to purchase “shares” of seasonally fresh, high quality produce and other goods from small regional farms. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included such as eggs, dairy products, and meat. Interested consumers purchase a share and in return receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

 Agricultural Connections’ Flexibility Model

  • No Long Term Commitments – Week to week ordering

  • Different Size Boxes – No more one size fits all with our Family Share and Individual Share

  • Side Item Availability - Dairy, eggs, mushrooms, meat, microgreens, and more available

What Does Local Mean to AC

Our 100 Mile Diet

http://100milediet.org/get-started/map

Every Oregon farmer that we have partnered with grows organic seasonal produce within a 100 mile radius of Central Oregon.  Click the link above and type in Bend, OR to see what local means to AC.

Why Eat Local

  • Our local produce and dairy products have been harvested and produced inside of 24 hours.  It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with its full flavor, unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before.

  • When you eat locally, you eat what’s in season. Suddenly Kimberly Orchards Peaches are the taste of summer. Even in winter, comfort foods like squash, potatoes, and beets just make sense–a lot more sense than flavorless asparagus from 1000s of miles away.

  • Discover the tastes and possibilities of foods that you’ve never ventured to experimenting with before.  From parsnips and beets to kale and leeks, trying new foods opens us all up to the endless dietary possibilities that exist within 100 miles of Bend year round.

  • Explore!  This summer, AC hopes to invite its members to our farms in an effort to come together as a community.  Meet your farmers, their families, their agricultural techniques, and their lands to enjoy a day of good food, good fun, and great friends.

  • Help to lessen the impact one mile at a time.  Studies have found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country, let alone across the world.

  • Know about where you food comes from.  Organic dairy is not all the same.   Free range chickens and cattle are not all the same.  How can you compare a milking cow that is force fed organic corn all day to a cow that wanders freely in organically grown grass pastures?  Are chickens that are kept inside all day and only given access to the outdoors the same as those that range free on open pasture?  The answer is NO, but the labels within stores don’t tell you otherwise.  Lesson learned, organic dairy, free range eggs, free range chickens, and free range cattle are not all the same.