Members' Guidelines

Our Members’ guidelines are really important as they explain how our community works. Our model is a bit unusual for Singapore, hence we strongly recommend you read them to have a good understanding of how we work. Hopefully, it will suit you! 

'Shiok' is commonly used in Malaysia & Singapore. Expression of happiness, pleasure. It conveys a feeling of strong taste buds tingling (when used with regards to food).

1. STEP ONE – LEARN ABOUT HOW OUR PROGRAM WORKS

At ShiokFarm, our focus is on delivering organic grown farm fresh food at affordable prices to families in Singapore. We identify Singapore farms, as well as farms in South East Asia that are growing beautiful organic produces for our members.

Each week we take a survey of their fields, and they harvest the crops that are at their peak and ready to be picked. The farm packs the produce into bags for every member and has them ready for pick up on appointed days. The harvest season runs all year long, thanks to our climate in this region.

This program is a Partnership between the Members and the Farmers
. At the core of this partnership is the idea that members support their farmer by sharing in the inherent risks of agriculture (poor weather, drought, disease, early frost, crop failure and so on) and rewards (the bounty from a good season!). Therefore while ShiokFarm will act in good faith to provide fresh organic produce for its members, there is no guarantee of quantities or contents of weekly shares, or bags. You might like to note that we have been running since November 2015 and have never been running short of produces to put in our bags! 

ORGANIC FARMING IN SINGAPORE:

Singapore currently does not have its own organic certification standards. Nevertheless, the farms we work with have been employing state of the art organic farming methods and are in the process of getting their organic certifications. Farming at the farm is carried out without any synthetic and chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides or pesticides. Instead, it relies on a combination of strategies to maximize productivity and quality of the crops, to minimize pests, weeds, diseases, wastage and pollution. And of course, all the seeds are organic - no GMOs. 

2. STEP TWO – CAREFULLY READ OUR POLICIES 


MEMBER RESPONSIBILITIES

STAY INFORMED!

The single most important responsibility of all members is to educate themselves about the workings of our program by thoroughly reading through our Guidelines and reading the weekly news posted both on our Facebook Group and your local WhatsApp group. The news contains important information about what is in the bag, news from the farm (such as ongoing improvements or dates for the next visit) and details about the harvest.

On our Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/shiokfarm), we also post a weekly menu along with the content of your bag. We will suggest a few recipes in English but we depend on you to grow our recipe list. Please do share on our Facebook group your favorite recipes with the community: you will allow bringing variety to everybody’s plates!

PICK UP YOUR BAG!

As a member, you must pick up your bag on your chosen pick-up day during the pick-up window. Please choose from one of our seven available pick-up locations. You must pick up your bag on the day you have chosen each week. If you cannot pick up your bag (you are busy, sick or on holidays), you are welcome to have a friend or neighbor pick up your bag that week. Please login to our website and fill up the Holidays form to let us know your friend's name, phone number and email. Let them know we will be in touch to share with them information about the collection point and other logistics aspects.  If you do not pick up your bag and make no arrangements to have someone else pick it up for you within the two hours each Collection point is open, then you forfeit your bag that week and it will be donated to local charities, after-school programs or elder care facilities, at our absolute discretion. There is no refund for unclaimed bags.

COLLECTION POINTS*:

☐ Mondays from 9 am - 11am @ Serangoon

☐ Mondays from 9:30 am - 11:30am @ Kovan

☐ Mondays from 10 am – noon @ Holland Village

☐ Mondays from 11 am – 1pm @ Tanglin

☐ Tuesdays from 9:30 am – 11:30 am @ Katong

☐ Tuesdays from 10 am – noon @ Joo Chiat /Siglap

☐ Tuesdays from 10 am – noon @ Bukit Timah x Farrer Road

☐ Tuesdays from 10:30 am – 12:30 @ River Valley

☐ Tuesdays from 10:30m – 12:30 pm @ Harbour Front

☐ Tuesdays from 11:00 am – 1:00pm @ Novena

☐ Day & time tbc: Caldecott

☐ Day & time tbc: Clementi

☐ Day & time tbc: Bedok

*Exact times and locations may change

View a map with our Collection points here.

Once you become a member, make sure you have joined the Whatsapp group that corresponds to your collection point and read the messages sent by the member who manages this collection point (ie: your host). Your host will use this Whatsapp group to let you know when delivery has occurred. Do not show up to the Collection point earlier or later than the agreed time. Please, do not ask the host to keep your bag if you are late, ask someone on the WhatsApp group to help you out. Note that your host is doing this on a voluntary basis so that we do not have to pay for storage costs; your responsibility is to be on time.

A Collection point needs to have at least ten members to be operational. In the event that a Collection point gets less than 10 members, ShiokFarm reserves the right to close it down without notice.

BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN THE PROGRAM!

We encourage all of our members to become active participants in the Program. You can do this by staying up to date with the news from the farm and keeping in touch with the farm. Communication is critical! Please e-mail us often with your comments, suggestions and concerns. This is one of the great perks of this program- you can actually exchange with the farmer who grows your food! We will centralize your messages and get back to you with his answers.

We also invite you to visit the farm to see just where your food comes from. Dates are confirmed on our Facebook Group. Please bring your family. Different activities are available: seeding, planting, watering and harvesting.

Please, let us know by the Wednesday before the visit if you decide to join the next visit so that we can get organized to host you. To let us know you are joining/not joining, please answer the event invitation on our Facebook Group.

3. OUR BAGS


ShiokFarm program is a 26-week (6 months) membership program.

Organically grown produce is picked fresh from our partners’ fields, sorted and delivered at your collection point. This share/bag contains approx. 10 to 15 items grown organically, depending on the availability. All seeds are organic. We practice biodiversity and bio-intensive gardening methods.

We have two sorts of bags, with approximately 60% vegetables and 40% fruits:

• the 5kg ($158 per month) & 10kg ($288 per month) bags 

These prices include delivery at the collection point.

If you are happy with these guidelines and want to become a Member, please register to become a member here.