This guide is written for people joining a CSA. Farms are welcome to link to it from their own sign-up page.
A CSA — community supported agriculture — is a season of vegetables bought in advance. You pay the farm before the growing year, and collect a box every week or two through the season. The farm gets working capital when they need it; you get produce you can't buy at that quality and you share the year's risk with the people growing it.
If your farm runs on TallyTill, here's what joining looks like.
What the form asks
Use an email address you actually check. It's your sign-in for the whole season — there's no password, so that address is your account.
What happens next
A sign-in link arrives by email, and you can use it to get into your member page and see your share.
Depending on how the farm bills, you may then owe money straight away — a share paid in instalments puts each one on your balance on the day it's due, and you can pay from the member page if the farm takes card payments. Or the farm may bill you another way entirely. That's their choice, and they'll tell you.
"I signed up and heard nothing"
This is worth explaining properly, because it happens and the reason isn't obvious.
The sign-up page shows the same acknowledgement whether or not your request went through. If the pickup site filled up in the seconds before you submitted, or the farm already has you on file, you see exactly the same screen as somebody who joined successfully — and no email arrives.
That's a deliberate privacy decision. If refusals looked different from acceptances, somebody could work out who is already a member of a farm by submitting addresses at it. Closing that hole costs the occasional confused new member, and the farms we build for would rather pay that price than leak their members' details.
So: if no email arrives within a few minutes, check spam, then email the farm. Don't assume you're signed up and don't assume you're not. The farm can see immediately and will tell you.
Is there a contract?
Very likely, yes — and it will come from the farm, not from this software.
Most CSA farms run a membership agreement for the season. It typically covers your responsibility to collect during the pickup window, explicit language about sharing the risk of a bad growing year, and — importantly — whether shares are refundable. Many are not, and that's normal rather than sharp practice: the farm spent your money on seed in March.
Read it before you pay. If your farm hasn't sent you one, it's a fair thing to ask for.
TallyTill doesn't store or handle that agreement, so it will reach you separately — a form, a PDF, an email. Keep your copy.
What you can do yourself afterwards
Once you're in, your member page lets you see this week's box contents, see what you owe, pay your balance if the farm takes cards, and swap one item in your box if the farm has enabled that.
Everything else is a conversation with the farm — skipping a week while you're away, changing where you collect, or leaving the season. There are no buttons for those, by design. Email them; they'd much rather know in advance than pack a box nobody comes for.
Before you commit, ask the farm
A short list worth running through, whatever software they use:
- How long is the season, and which weeks exactly? You should be able to see the collection dates.
- What happens if I'm away? Most farms will hold that week's box if you tell them in advance.
- Where and when do I collect, and what if I'm late? Pickup windows are real; boxes nobody collects are usually held, donated, or written off.
- Is the share refundable? Usually no. Know before, not after.
- How do I pay, and when? Up front, or two to six instalments across the season.
A good farm will have quick answers to all five.
Next: signing in to your member page and what you can do with your box.
Run a farm and want online sign-ups? TallyTill's CSA tools are included on every plan, including the free one — no credit card required to start. Create an account.