Views from our Farm

Last Tuesday, Fort Greene CSA Coordinator Jen and Bushwick CSA Coordinator Jenny headed to Andover, NJ to see the farm our vegetables are coming from and to help harvest for Wednesday's distribution.

First, we met up at the Bronx Farmers Market where Sergio sells vegetables and honey from a neighboring producer. Sergio, his wife Paz, and another regular market worker sell at this market every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.


Then we rode in his market van out to the farm where we got a short tour, harvested field peas, and chose the vegetables we wanted to include in our shares the next day.

We also discovered why we haven't received any cantaloupes yet this season - so far most of them have been eaten by deer! Thankfully they have left most of the other crops untouched, so our shares haven't been lacking.


When we had finished the farm work for the day, we headed back to Sergio and Paz's home. While Paz made us a fantastic dinner of flor de calabaza (squash blossom) quesadillas, Jenny and I went to work sorting through Sergio's enormous pile of Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) checks.



FMNP is part of the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) supplemental nutrition program that provides financial assistance to pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and women and their children up to the age of 5. Those who qualify for the program receive FMNP checks worth $2 each that can only be used to purchase locally grown produce at farmers markets.

The vast majority of Sergio's customers pay with FMNP checks, each of which has to be stamped by the farmer, and then hand-counted by a bank clerk when he goes to cash them. Participating in the program means extra work for Sergio, but it's both an important source of income for him and a great help to the community, and he was glad to offer his produce to the young families who received the checks.

After a great dinner, we headed off to bed and arose at 6:00 the next morning to begin making deliveries in the city. We arrived in Fort Greene around noon with the bounty for our CSA.

See the CSA's flickr page for even more photos of Sergio's market and his farm. And stay tuned for more information about our farm trip on October 13th so you can come see the farm for yourself!!