Farm-Direct Food & CSA Guide
Get Uber-Fresh Food Directly From the Farm!
For decades, CSA (community-supported agriculture) has been a way for local farms to get better return for their work by marketing directly to consumers. CSA shares typically include a mix of vegetables and fruits grown on the farm with add-ons like eggs, olive oil, nuts, flour, honey, flowers, body products, bread, and meat. Shares may include items from neighboring farm partners, and some farms have joined local consortiums that can give consumers even wider options.
Our top section lists diversified farms. but scroll down for specific categories like meat and fish, medicinal herbs, and cultured and prepared foods.
Please note that this chart was created for our readers in California’s Alameda and Contra Costa counties, but many of these farms and businesses serve a much wider area. If you know of a program that should be added to this chart, please send an email to info(at)edibleeastbay(dot)com.
Click here to read Edible East Bay‘s Spring 2016 article on the concept and evolution of CSA.
Last updated February 2024.
DIVERSIFIED FARMS and FARM CO-OPS with FOOD BOXES (mostly vegetables, fruits, and herbs plus extras and a couple with meat)
TOP RECOMMENDATION! This youth-employment project operates several small farms in Oakland to provide opportunities for youth to plan, plant, harvest, and sell the farms’ produce with 100% of proceeds from subscription sales deposited into individual savings accounts for participating youth. ANV also partners with numerous small regional farms run by people of color in order have a wider variety of produce for CSA members. Subscribers can choose from a wide variety of share options plus add ons of nuts, olive oil, honey, and herbal products. Choose from one of several pickup spots in Oakland and Berkeley or delivery to Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, or San Leandro addresses. Read more about the farm in our 2020 article and another from 2012.
First covered in our 2011 article, this urban CSA program is now run by two young farmers growing hyper-local produce in three backyards around Berkeley. Baskets include weekly seasonal vegetables, and occasionally fruits, flowers, herbs, and value-added products. Low-cost shares available. CSA pickup runs for a 32-week season, from late March through the beginning of November. This small program has a handful of openings at the beginning of each year. As of February 12, 2024, they were announcing on their Instagram that they would let in some new members soon.
This three-generation family-owned organic farm, located in Aromas, delivers produce boxes mostly to South Bay locations, but you’re in luck you can get to the Pleasanton or Danville Farmers’ Markets on Saturdays.
On 10 historic acres in San Mateo County near Pescadero, this group of farmers grows a full range of certified organic row and tree crops, and they have had a delivery spot in Oakland (in addition to lots more on the Peninsula) in past years, with Thursday afternoon pick up between late June and early December. When we checked in February 2024, their site had not yet been updated, but you could contact them to see what’s up.
Avocado and citrus lovers can stock up with one of the assorted boxes from this Ranch in Santa Paula. The fruits change seasonally with what’s being picked. Pick up is at various farmers’ markets.
Grower Ashlee Johnson-Geisse birthed this urban farm in Hayward in 2021 from a belief that queer Black women farmers need more representation and celebration in the growing world. The farm is currently offering a flower CSA subscription with options for adding on seasonal veggies and farm products.
This three-acre family farm in Sonoma offers vegetables, fruits, herbs, and eggs in their CSA. Pick up on the farm in Penngrove, or at sites in Berkeley (and various North Bay locations). No delivery. When we checked in February 2024, their site had not yet been updated, but you could contact them to see what’s up.
Proceeds from a Dig Deep Farms CSA bag help this BIPOC-run enterprise (sponsored by the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League) pay a living wage with benefits to its farmers. The CSA bag comes filled with a rotating assortment of regeneratively-farmed, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. You can pick up your CSA bag at select Kaiser farmers’ markets in Hayward, San Leandro, Union City, and Fremont.
This popular Santa Cruz County farm’s year-round harvests are available by pre-order with East Bay delivery on Tuesdays and Thursdays (plus lots of other drop spots around the Bay Area). You can add on jars of their fabulous preserves and dry-harvest tomatoes.
A San Benito County food hub for local certified organic farmers and small organic food producers and offering vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, bread, cheese, and other products. CSA pick-up from many East Bay locations. Deliveries available.
This small family farm in Dixon offers year-round CSA boxes with certified organic vegetables and fruits from the farm plus extras like granola, flour, olive oil, miso, tofu, and more from neighboring producers. Lots of East Bay pick-up spots.
Capay Organics, a large, second-generation certified organic farm in Capay Valley, offers vegetables, fruits, eggs, nuts, dried fruit, dairy, and pantry products for delivery. Their “Donate-a-Box” program encourages putting your extra dollars toward making food available to families who can’t afford to subscribe.
TOP RECOMMENDATION! Dedicated to working with Black farmers and under-served sustainable farmers around the country, this nonprofit offers a wide variety of healthy produce and value-added items for monthly pickup in Oakland, San Francisco, and Sacramento, and delivery around the Bay Area with charges based on distance. They run year round, so sign up now!
TOP RECOMMENDATION! Covered in our Fall 2015 issue, this two-acre diversified farm is a project of the Alameda Point Collaborative, who provide employment and job training for their supportive housing community. They offer three 10–12 week CSA sessions (spring, summer, fall). Pickup is on the farm: 2600 Barbers Point Rd Alameda on Fridays between 2:30-6:30pm. Check for sign-ups starting in March. “It’s a great CSA with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables throughout the year,” says Farm2Market Manager Johnny Bootlace. “We grew 17,000 pounds of produce in 2023 that were distributed through our CSA and free grocery delivery to our supportive housing residents.”
Read our 2015 article to learn about this legendary certified organic farm in Brentwood and their forward-thinking regenerative practices. You can order various sizes of their fruit (and olive oil) CSA subscriptions or just purchase individual items on a one-time basis. Visit the online store to see all the organic fruits, beans, grains, dairy, pasture-raised meat, eggs, olive oil, dried fruit, preserves, baked goods, and more that they offer.
A founding member of the Ecological Farming Association and a leader in restorative farming practices, this Capay Valley farm offers certified organic vegetables, fruits, flowers, nuts, grains, flour, and wool yarn. Pickup at over 30 sites in the East Bay, plus delivery.
If you live in or around Alamo, Concord, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Pacheco, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek, you can sign up for a seasonal CSA subscription of hyper-local organic produce grown on this microfarm in Pleasant Hill.
CSA subscribers get a box full of “hella flavorful nutritious produce” straight from the farm in Eastern Alameda County, plus extras like olive oil, herbs, and coffee beans. Shares are delivered to drop sites in Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol, Dublin, and Oakland.
Mandela Produce Distribution’s CSA offers a weekly box full of seven different types of seasonal, sustainably grown fruits and vegetables. We offer a pay-what-you-can pricing system and several subscription options to ensure everyone can access our program. Each purchase directly supports our 100% BIPOC farmer network. Boxes can be delivered straight to your home for $5 (free for customers using Calfresh) or picked up at sites across Alameda County.
This small Central Coast diversified organic farm offers a variety of seasonal produce boxes (plus preserved items) for weekly pickup at their South Berkeley Farmers Market booth and several other East Bay locations.
This farm in Sonoma created a winter CSA model as a way to address the climate change realities of smoke and heat waves with a focus on storage crops offered through a three-month season. Monthly winter pickups in Sebastopol include a hefty box of storage crops plus fresh produce, specialty dry goods, and herbs. We learned about this CSA through some East Bay customers who organize among themselves to take turns on the monthly farm pick-up. Other potential East Bay customers could contact the farm about joining that group.
TOP RECOMMENDATION! This beloved Capay Valley farm produces certified organic vegetables, fruits, and nuts plus grass-fed/pastured meats. Shares are delivered weekly to pickup sites throughout Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, Alameda counties and San Francisco.
Star Route Farms is the oldest continuously certified organic row crop farm in California, with over 40 acres farmed in Bolinas and and another 80 acres in Southern California that they farm during the winter months. Most of their pick-up locations are in the North Bay, but they have two East Bay and two San Francisco locations as well.
Located in Petaluma, this ranch focuses on grassfed/pastured poultry, beef, and pork, but their CSA members can also get vegetables, fruit, eggs, dairy products, and bread. As a member, you can also sign up for a Sunday farm visit to hike and fish. Contact for pickup locations or home delivery.
A certified organic farm in Winters, Terra Firma Farm offers organic vegetables, fruits, and nuts in various box sizes with options to add items from their “CSA store.” Delivery to various drop spots throughout the Bay Area.
Since we first covered this urban nonprofit farm in 2013 as part of an article called Richmond Renaissance, Urban Tilth has grown their mission of helping the West Contra Costa County community build a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. CSA boxes include fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Home delivery available.
U-PICK FARMS, FARMSTANDS, and FOOD HUBS
Brentwood U-Picks and Farmstands
Starting in May, many Bay Area families make a trek to the fertile Brentwood growing region to pick their own cherries, peaches and other tree fruits plus a wide variety of row crops as each ripens. Visit the Harvest Time in Brentwood website to check for open farmstands as well as to to see which farms are currently open for u-pick.
Gates open at this urban microfarm in El Sobrante every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 11am–4pm for u-pick and purchase of items like seeds, honey, olive oil, and potted plants. The farm specializes in certified organic, heirloom, and open-pollinated varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs.
Nutrient-dense foods are the story at this Palo Alto–based service offering drops at several East Bay locations. Primarily meat and dairy plus bone broth, eggs, and various prepared foods.
This cooperatively run, worker-owned, community-supported kitchen makes a wide range of nutrient-dense foods on-site and also stocks a wide range of products made by other small producers in their retail shop in Berkeley. They serve as a Full Belly Farm CSA pick-up site, so you can get fresh organic fruits and veggies when you come in to shop. Order online for pick-up and delivery.
This (mostly) woman-powered 34-acre, certified organic and regenerative farm in Brentwood operates a farm store that’s open several days a week during high harvest season (Tuesday through Saturday, 10am–5pm). In winter, you need to place an order for pickup on Saturdays. Updates on Instagram.
MEAT and SEAFOOD
Working out of the Santa Cruz Harbor, this small fishing operation also helps other local fishermen get their catch directly to consumers. Find their booth at the Grand Lake, Montclair, and Temescal farmers’ markets in Oakland, or subscribe and get your order delivered or sent to a nearby drop site.
Foodshed-sourced meats raised 50 or fewer miles from the East Bay. Firm commitment to ecological and ethical livestock management. Offers meat shares for quarter, half, or whole animals. Delivery to many East Bay locations.
Grassfed/Pastured/Holistic ManagementDry-aged beef, cut and wrapped by small-scale, artisan butchers. Deliveries to many locations or pick up in Berkeley, Pleasanton, Fremont.
Seafood sourced locally by small family fishers. Generally, this Monterey Bay–based company works by distributing at neighborhood pick-up sites, but they have just launched a home delivery program serving seven Western U.S. states.
Small-scale fishermen using ethical fishing practices. Subscription packages with lots of East Bay pick-up sites.
“Our primary goal is to regenerate landscapes and restore water cycles by increasing diversity of plants and biological communities,” say the ranchers at this family farm in Valley Ford, where they raise heritage breed cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry. Flat-rate boxes of product can be ordered and picked up in the East Bay at the Saturday Berkeley farmers’ market.
Heritage breeds of sheep, hog, turkey, chicken, and goats from a family farm in Capay Valley. Delivery of special orders and whole and half animals to the Walnut Creek Farmers’ Market and by arrangement.
