North Star Orchard

Fruit Share Options

Entering its 7th year, the Fruit Share is a very popular option for folks who are looking for more than mediocre grocery store fruit. Members sign up and pay in spring, and then pick up a weekly bag of fruit at their chosen location during harvest season. Pickup locations include Eagle, Phoenixville, Havertown, London Grove, Cochranville, Kutztown, Horsham, and West Chester (details below).

Note: There are no Fruit Shares left for 2010. You are welcome to learn more about the Fruit Share on this page, however.

Please let us know if you would like to be put on our waiting list for possible membership in 2011. Please email us, and in early February we'll send you an email with all of the details for the 2011 share; you'll be able to sign up at that point.

The Fruit Share runs for 12 or 15 weeks (depending on your pickup location and preference), starting the week of August 2nd and continuing through the third week of October or into November, and will include a variety of the finest fruit our orchard has to offer. Selections include new and heritage varieties of apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears, and Asian pears. 2009 member Taylor took pictures of all the fruit she got in her share; the slideshow here shows Week 2. You can look here for pictures from the other weeks.

Some background: Farmer Ike's experience growing fruit dates back to his high school days when he worked at a small local orchard. Since then he has been growing fruit wherever he has been able to. After starting North Star Orchard in 1992, he has been able to focus his interests not only on fruit growing in general, but on growing very unique and heritage varieties, fruit breeding (to develop his own varieties), and using the newest technologies in training and pest management systems. The Fruit Share was started in 2004 to supply members with some of the finest and most unique varieties grown at North Star Orchard. The fruit is grown using what we call "Certified Sensible". We select what we consider to be the most sensible approach to crop protection to protect ourselves, our customers, and the environment. In some cases that means using approaches that are traditionally considered organic methods, and sometimes that means using Integrated Pest Management (IPM)methods. For more info about our growing practices, see our FAQs page.

Share Details

1. When will the share run? The share will start during the week of August 2nd, and run for 12 or 15 weeks (depending on your pickup location and preference). Although we have some fruit earlier and later in the season, starting in August enables us to provide you with a nice assortment of fruit in your weekly share. The 15-week option is great for people who particularly love apples and Asian pears, and will include varieties (like Gold Rush and Niitaka) which are not ready to be picked during the regular 12-week season.

2. Where are the pickup locations? There will be several pickup locations offered in 2010. Specific directions to the locations will be provided prior to the start of the share. You will need to choose the location that is most convenient for you:

Eagle on Tuesdays from 2 to 6 PM. In the Eagleview development located just around the corner from the Downingtown Exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Chester County Economic Development Council Building. Both Fruit and Veggie Shares are available at this location
Oakmont/Havertown on Wednesdays. Pickup time will mirror market times (3PM to 7PM in August, 2PM to 6PM from September on). Located at the Oakmont Farmers' Market, just near the corner of Darby and Eagle Rds.
Inverbrook Farm on Wednesdays from 2 to 7 PM. Located in West Marlborough Township, off Rte. 926. Inverbrook Farm offers its own vegetable CSA share. (You need not be a member of their CSA in order to pick up a Fruit Share at this location).
Pennypack Farm on Mondays and Fridays from 2:30 to 7:30 PM (12-week share available only). Located on Mann Rd. in Horsham. Pennypack Farm offers its own vegetable CSA share. (You need not be a member of their CSA in order to pick up a Fruit Share at this location).
Cochranville on Thursdays from 4 to 6:30 PM. Located at our farm located near the intersection of Rte. 10 and Rte. 41 in Highland Township, Chester County. Both Fruit and Veggie Shares are available at this location
West Chester on Saturdays from 9AM to 1 PM. Located at the West Chester Growers' Market at the corner of Church and Chestnut St. You can do all of your other food shopping at the market when you pick up your share!
Phoenixville on Saturdays from 9AM to 1PM. Located at the Phoenixville Farmers' Market at Taylor Alley and Bridge St. You can do all of your other food shopping at the market when you pick up your share!
Charlestown Farm (for members only) on Tuesday or Thursday, whichever corresponds to your CSA pickup day at Charlestown Farm (near Phoenixville). This option is open ONLY to Charlestown Farm members.
Quiet Creek Farm (for members only) on Tuesday or Friday (12-week share available only), whichever corresponds to your CSA pickup day at Quiet Creek Farm (at the Rodale Institute). This option is open ONLY to Quiet Creek Farm members.

3. What is the size of a share? A share contains a nice amount of fruit each week(about 8 1/2 pounds) for two fruit-loving adults (who each eat about 1 or 2 pieces of fruit per day), or for a small family. If you have a larger family, eat a lot of fruit, or tend to do a lot of entertaining, you may wish to consider buying an additional share. Our experience has been that most folks find one share to be a fine amount for a couple or small family. We do have some members who use essentially one share per person, and order accordingly. Our suggestion? If you’re just not sure, buy one share this year and see how it goes.

Additionally, members are able to order additional fruit to be delivered to their pickup location, if they need more of a particular item, or can purchase extras directly if their pickup location is at one of the farmers' markets or at our farm. This is handy if there is a favorite item they want to order more of, or if members need extras for pie-making, freezing, canning, etc.

4. What will be in a share? Ripening dates vary depending on the type of fruit, so what you receive each week will change over time. Rest assured, we will do our best not to inundate you with any one particular item. We wouldn't want to have 5 pounds of ready-to-eat peaches on the counter all at once, and we're sure you wouldn't either! We try to make sure that you have at least two kinds of fruit each week (for example, peaches and apples), and that there will be different varieties of each type.

The fruits in the share will include white and yellow peaches, plums, nectarines, apples, pears, and Asian pears. All of these come in many different varieties. Depending on growing conditions in a given year, the mix of varieties/fruits in the share will vary.

Examples of fruit varieties available in 2008:
mid-August:	early September:	late October:
'Delight' European Pears 'Summer Blaze' apples 'Glowing Star' yellow peaches 'Castleton' plums 'Vanier' plums 'Chehalis' apples 'Ichiban' Asian pears	'Hosui' Asian pears 'Vision' plums 'Encore' yellow peaches 'Honeycrisp' apples 'Stars' apples 'Schoolhouse' plums 'Snow King' white peaches 'Gras Romanesc' plums	'Magness' European pears 'Sugar Snap' apples 'Yoinashi' Asian pears 'Stellar' apples 'Golden Russet' apples 'Hosui' Asian pears 'Nova Spy' apples 'Roxbury Russet' apples

5. What is the price of a share? In these troubled economic times, we have decided to keep the cost of the share the same as the previous two years. By signing on and paying for your share early, you'll lock-in your price for fruit for the season, regardless what happens to prices at the grocery store or farmers' market.

12-week Fruit Share: $225.00
15-week Fruit Share: $275.00

We accept personal checks or you can use your bank's free online bill pay system. We also accept credit card payments online via Paypal (you need not be a member of Paypal to use their service). A 2.9% convenience fee will be added to the total if you use the Paypal option (this is to cover the fees credit card companies charge vendors for using the service). Details about submitting your payment will be provided after you fill in the membership application.