Winter Organic CSA Coming to BIG!NYC Gowanus
Good news for the New Year for residents of Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and other Brooklyn neighborhoods: The Full Plate Farm Collective, a group of farms that is growing produce for a shared Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership, is now making available bi-weekly shares to new members in the above mentioned Brooklyn communities. CSA members will be able to pick up their CSA share boxes at the BIG!NYC Gowanus warehouse anytime during regular store hours from Thursday afternoons until Sunday evenings, beginning this coming January, 2012.
The Full Plate Farm Collective is a network of farms founded in 2005 by Remembrance Farm in Trumansburg, and Stick and Stone Farm in Ithaca, both in upstate New York. Together with other producers the two original farms are able to provide a large variety of organic produce to their 500-member summer CSA and to their 300-member winter CSA throughout the Ithaca area. Residents of New York City have been able to share in the benefits of CSA membership during the winter with the Full Plate Collective through the Hawthorne Valley CSA located in Ghent, N.Y. This winter, beginning in January, 2012 the Full Plate Collective will be working with CSA members in NYC directly for the first time.
The farms of the Full Plate Collective are situated in New York’s fertile Finger Lakes Region close to Ithaca, about four and one half hours by car northwest of New York City. This area of New York is the home of many innovative small growers of organic produce, milk, cheese and meats. The farms feel a strong sense of fellowship as they are involved in this special project. It is not unusual for the farms to share resources, equipment, and sometimes their labor, including childcare! Most of all they share an active commitment to food justice. (See www.healthyfoodforall.org for more info.)
Those who become members of the Winter CSA in Brooklyn will receive a box of vegetables twice a week. Included in the box will be 2 pounds of carrots, 2 pounds of potatoes, onions or leeks, 2 pounds of other root vegetables, 2 bunches of cooking greens, and a mix of other items like baby spinach, kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, and winter squash. Also included will be some special tasty farm treats such as lacto-fermented pickles, apples and tender baby salad greens straight from the greenhouse.
All of the produce from the Full Plate Collective is organically grown in the Finger Lakes region and packed one day before being shipped down to BIG!NYC. One of the collective’s farmers, Chaw Chang, visited the BIG!NYC warehouse recently to reach out to potential new members in the City. While there he noticed that,
“People are really excited to hear how flexible our share is in terms of the pick-up schedule: you can swing by any time during BIG’s regular business hours to pick up your share. We’re really grateful to BIG!NYC for hosting us here.”
For more info or to sign up for a Winter CSA Share: Katie Church, CSA coordinator
fullplatefarms@yahoo.com or 607.342.7632
www.fullplatefarms.org
