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Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters. As a member of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg CSA (GWCSA), you are buying into a direct link with the food you eat. The food you are receiving was picked the day before or morning of the day of delivery at the Garden of Eve Farm.

With every yearly membership, this neighborhood group helps stabilize the farm's yearly operating budget by purchasing in advance a share of the season's harvest. Members help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, and labor when it’s needed most; March--at the beginning of the spring season. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season—otherwise known as the “weekly share”. In practical terms, by having membership in our CSA, you are helping our farmers, Chris & Eve, maintain and sustain a local organic farm, of which there are currently only four on Long Island. Living in a neighborhood once named for its lush banks and rich fishing grounds (Greenpoint was a sailor name for the peninsula stretch of land near the mouth of the Newtown Creek), one can witness the daily urban irony of living so close to rich farmlands but being forced to purchase apples and cheese from Washington, spinach and strawberries from California, garlic and everything else from China; if they are available at all---some stretches of our neighborhood are lined with stores which do not carry much quality produce, leaving residents without healthy vegetable or fruit options. One might hang their head in despair, if not for the weekly green market at McCarren Park where farmers from New York, New Jersey, and our very own Long Island (the largest Island in the continental United States; 149th largest island in the world) set up stands and sell to our neighborhood the ever changing seasonal wonders that can be grown and produced in the Northeast farming regions. We first met our current farmers at that greenmarket.

GWCSA has a partnership with the Garden of Eve Farm. As a member, you and your "farm share family" are creating a responsible relationship between yourself, the food you eat, the land on which it is grown and those who grow it. Our CSA and several others in the city are partnered with the Garden of Eve Farm which is owned by Chris and Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht. GWCSA members make a commitment to support our farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks, and bounty of growing food along with Chris & Eve. This means that the weather conditions that surround you in Brooklyn (like rain, heat, cold, and wind) have a direct relationship with the amount, quality, and variety of food you will receive. Prices are readjusted yearly in order to account for inflation and other cost factors; however Chris and Eve do their best to keep prices reasonable under the real hazards of small-scale family farming. Weekly shares cannot be 100% predicted. With your purchase you are displaying faith that our farmers will bring us a good amount of quality food that is a fair-trade for our payment, fresh picked by a familiar face, hand delivered from the dirt to our own stretch of green parkland. It is the idea that the weekly share will be 10-11 different items, adding up to around $20 dollars worth of vegetable or $10 dollars of fruit. It is assumed that the weekly share will look different than the vegetables one sees for sale in the grocery stores, mini-marts, and bodegas around the neighborhood as our farmers believe in growing for ripeness and flavor, not physical perfection or uniformity. There are plans, seeds of plans—and none of us can wait for tomato season—but the weather and ensuing crop yield will truly determine the size and quality of each week’s pick-up. There is a flow, a seasonal push and pull of a quirky growing region and it will dictate our menu for 24 weeks. For example, in 2006 we had a beautiful warm spring and members received bonus bags of spinach throughout the month of May. In 2004, the weather was so warm the farm threw in an extra share by starting distribution a week early. However, in August of 2005 it rained and rained and rained and the tomato crop got soaked. Unfortunately, it was not a banner tomato season and it was reflected in the amount of tomatoes in the share. (Of course, invariably some other crop liked the rain and there was more than enough eggplants and peppers to go around. Just not many tomatoes…). Everyone must keep in mind that the main point of our CSA is to provide real community support to a local organic farm and create a sustainable community where we live through food choices; for us, that type of connection is invaluable considering our urban surroundings.

For more information about CSA’s:
http://www.justfood.org/csa/
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

For more information on our farmers: www.gardenofevefarm.com