CSA

The cost of growing healthy plants by healthy people is expensive. We have priced our CSA to balance providing our neighbors access to fresh produce with the cost of paying our farmers fair wages. Farming is labor intensive, and that’s why agriculture has been subject to human rights abuses throughout human history, and we don’t want to be a part of that, and we know you don’t either!

Also, we are working hard to support the community of seed growers throughout the nation. We pay more for seed because we chose to patronize independent, innovative seed growers who eschew plant patents, like Fedco Seeds, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Seed Savers, Ujamaa Seeds, the Experimental Farm Network, and Truelove Seeds.

This year we intentionally sourced the oldest varietals available, using the Slow Food Foundation’s Ark of Taste as a reference (the Ark of Taste is a living catalog of delicious, nutritious, distinctive foods facing extinction because they don’t work well for the needs of a globalized food systems, which requires maximized volume, minimal attention, ability to handle traveling long distances, and a consistency in product). We can’t compete with the global food system, but we can help preserve agricultural biodiversity by polycropping at-risk plants facing extinction. This also means that we sourced smaller amounts of seeds at higher prices.

We’re glad that so many of our CSA members and supporters are interested in volunteering on the Heritage Farm! We would love for each CSA member, as well as their family, to lend a hand on the farm during the growing season.

All volunteers are welcome at Snug Harbor: individuals, community-based organizations, schools, and workforce development groups serve on the Heritage Farm, with the Horticulture team on our grounds, and in the Arts department. Please fill out our volunteer interest form, or email [email protected] for more information regarding volunteering at Snug Harbor.

We would love to have you! Please fill out our volunteer interest form.

No! Please reach out to [email protected] if you have questions about paying your share. We can discuss making a payment plan. We also accept SNAP/EBT and distribute HealthBucks. If you are paying with SNAP/EBT, please email us so we can reserve your share and accept payment in person.

The Heritage Farm uses techniques and growing strategies that are in line with USDA Organic Certification, but we are not certified. We are a low-till farm that focuses on soil health through the use of cover cropping, crop rotation, low soil disruption techniques, and compost use. We buy non-GMO organic seed. We don’t spray synthetically made pesticides or herbicides–we manage any pest problems through hand removal, beneficial plant integration, and row cover. We plant lots of flowers that attract a variety of pollinators and insects, which keep a healthy balance of detrimental and beneficial critters in the field. If you are curious about some of the other techniques we use, just ask our farmers at the CSA pick-up.

We encourage people to experiment with new or unfamiliar items. Your CSA membership includes a weekly e-newsletter that will have recipes with the crops that are in season, gardening tips, and other exciting information from Snug Harbor. Also feel free to ask the farm staff how they like to prepare and enjoy the produce!  For items that we know may be unusual to some households, we are partnering with community chefs like Pamela Silvestri of the Staten Island Advance and Sarah Kabalkin of the Sylvia Center to provide cooking demonstrations and samples at Farm Stand days.

That’s your business! Food brings everyone together. Each share consists of 5-15 different vegetables or herbs, suited for a small family or an individual who likes to eat a lot of vegetables. If you are splitting a share, we need to know who else might be picking up your share. A neighbor, friend, family can pick up a share if the CSA shareholder cannot make it. Please make sure they know our open hours. Produce does have a limited shelf life, and we ask you to make every effort to communicate a regular weekly schedule for pick up.

Yes! Snug Harbor Members receive a 5% discount on their CSA share purchase. Join as a member here.

Every year, we listen to input from our community on new items to grow and old favorites that they’re excited to see every year, and we try to geta broad selection with a little something for everyone to enjoy. With every product that comes out of the ground, we searched for and selected varietals that have been bred for generations to thrive in our corner of the earth.