Of Course You Can Barely Wait, But Don't Come Early!

Pickup starts at 5:30 pm. If you come earlier than that, you may interfere with the site workers' ability to have everything weighed and set up for the whole group. Please be considerate.

Don't Know What to Do with a Vegetable?

Our website has a recipes section, http://www.statenislandcsa.org/recipes.htm, in case you need a recipe for an item that you may not be familiar with or if you would like to try something new.

Also, if you would like to send us a recipe, email it in! Send your recipe, tip, link, or helpful hint to recipes -at- statenislandcsa.org.

Farm Visits and Volunteering

Those who wish to visit the farm will have opportunities to visit and volunteer.

• On July 11, help with the garlic harvest.
• On July 18 and 25, help with bean picking.
• On August 8, help with onion harvest (Hardwick).

If you're interested in volunteering, contact Farmer John at kruegerjohn@earthlink.net.

Composter Available

You will see that there is a new compost bin at the pickup site. Members are invited to bring their vegetable scraps for composting. No meat, fish, dairy, bread, oils. Only vegetable scraps. There will be signage and more information to come. As the season progresses, members will be invited to take home finished compost.

Possible Dairy and Bread Shares

The website is http://www.traditionalnutritionguild.org/.

Betsy Rosalen wants to get at least 30 people to join so that we can get a delivery to Staten Island once a month.  Please feel free to spread the word to people outside the CSA.

You pay $20 annually to join if you agree to volunteer five hours year or $50 if you don't want to volunteer. They keep the price list confidential until after you join but Betsy says the prices are much lower than last year's. Also, the dairy products are raw in addition to being from pasture-raised animals.

Everyone who is committed to joining can send Lenny their email and phone number and he will send the names to Betsy until there are at least 30 members. "That way, we can be sure we are going to get a Staten Island delivery before everyone joins," says Betsy. "I will notify everyone once we get at least 30 names and then everyone will need to join ASAP."

Hot Bread Kitchen: There is a possibility for a bread share. Tell Lenny if you are interested in a bread share.

Hot Bread Kitchen is expanding its CSA bread share program for 2010 to include several new CSAs and they would like to invite your members to become one of them!  

Hot Bread Kitchen is a non-profit bakery and job training program for immigrant women.  They bake multi-ethnic artisan breads inspired by the recipes of their bakers, and make it a priority to use high-quality local and organic ingredients whenever possible. 

For example, their Extraordinary Multi-Grain Loaf (a weekly staple in their CSA shares) is made with organic, whole wheat flour from Upstate New York, and their corn tortillas are made with 100% organic, non-GMO yellow corn grown near the Finger Lakes.  After women train with them for a period of time they are supported in securing career-track jobs in commercial baking or launching their own micro-enterprises.    

This year they are offering CSA bread shares in 2 options: 

• a weekly share ($180 for a total of 18 weeks) 
• every-other-week (EOW) share ($90 for a total of 9 weeks)  

In each distribution members will receive one loaf of our Extraordinary Multi-Grain and one additional ethnic or seasonal artisan bread, which will vary weekly.  Once Hot Bread Kitchen has committed to delivering at a CSA, their breads will be available to all members for a la carte purchase regardless of whether they have purchased a bread share for the season. Hot Bread Kitchen will also be able to offer a limited number of reduced-priced shares for low-income members.  

All proceeds from Bread Shares support Hot Bread Kitchen's training programs. Your participation this year will help us scale up and hire 5 new bakers.  Please contact info@HotBreadKitchen.org for an application or with any questions.  A minimum of 30 full shares (or 60 half shares) must be purchased for participation in the bread share program, so let your CSA know if you're interested! 

Join SICSA on Facebook

Staten Island CSA now has a Facebook Fan page. Check it out and join us at facebook.com/SICSA.

What is Staten Island Community Supported Agriculture?

Staten Island Community Supported Agriculture is a group of Staten Islanders who buy shares in a farmer's vegetable and fruit crop for the growing season. We support Starbrite Farm and John Krueger, the farmer, and share the risks and benefits of food production with him.

There are dozens of other community-supported agriculture (CSA) groups in the New York metropolitan area, all coordinated by Just Food. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm or garden pay for a share in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production.

Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. However, by direct sales to community members who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

Another benefit of the program is that farmers can continue to make a living on their land and pass their farms to their chilcren rather than be forced to sell to developers to pay for retirement. CSAs, therefore, help maintain open land near metropolitan areas. They also reduce members' reliance on vegetables and fruit trucked across the U.S. and from other countries.