What's New at the Chelsea CSA?

A note of thanks for the 2009 season

Chelsea CSA Seasons in the News

Get Involved!

Welcome to the Chelsea Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project.

Our first Farm Work Visit is scheduled for July 16th. Please look under 'Events' for more details.

We are sold out for the 2010 season, however we are maintaining a waiting list in case of cancellations. 


You can add your name to the waiting list by going to the farmer's website at: www.stoneledgefarmny.com/ and then clicking CSA locations then Chelsea CSA.


The Core group

The Chelsea CSA is a partnership between Stoneledge Farm in South Cairo, NY and community members of Chelsea on the West Side of Manhattan. Chelsea CSA enables members of all economic backgrounds to enjoy farm-fresh organic vegetables while supporting local agriculture.

We receive space and support services for this effort from Hudson Guild, a non-profit settlement house serving Chelsea since 1895. The Chelsea CSA project was begun in May 2000 by a Hudson Guild staff member working with Just Food. Chelsea CSA has since transitioned to an all-volunteer effort which depends on shareholder support for continued success of current “locavore” offerings and development of new ones.

A note of thanks for the 2009 season

First, a big thank you to the Kavakos Family for growing such fabulous food! It was a challenging year to be a New York State farmer and the CSA was with you every step of the way. We felt the pain of the tomato blight and the abundance of the potatoes. And we felt the care you take to feed us well.

Next, at Hudson Guild: Ken Jockers, the new Executive Director who jumped right in to support the CSA and even joined as CSA member. Thanks to Miguel Pedraza-Cumba whose continued support over the years has been unwavering. Helen Paule responds to CSA requests for space & sets the custodial staff in motion to help us with delivery/set up/break down/access to the pantry. She also helped with our finances this year. The Hudson Guild receptionists are unfailing polite - field telephone calls & helping out when we forget scissors or run out of staples (most notably Yvonne who welcomes us every week).

The rest, in no particular order, are: Deb Osborne from P.S. 11 our public school member who leads the third and fourth graders in running a Wednesday morning Mini-Farmers’ Market at the school. The classroom component of which focuses on healthy eating.

Ali Smith and Jim Stein handled distribution this season. Randy Ko backed up Ali and Jim up in distribution efforts. It seems every year distribution gets more complex – this year with the addition of coffee shares. Ali and Jim were always up for the task. Also integral to distribution were Doris Bruntel (distributions sheets), Jason Hipp (hard copy newletters), Debroah Donenfeld and (crate signage). Linda Crosby maintained our distribution volunteers with her sign up book and reminder phone calls; and Connie Carpenter who tracked our volunteers.

Our newsletter team was awesome this year. Chana Neumann’s content, Brad Grossman’s recipes and Simone Wiessman’s layouts made the newsletter a pleasure to read each week. Thanks to AJ Connelly and Elbert Chu for their contributions as well.

2009 was our first year of online registration, the first year of new financial procedures at Hudson Guild and first year for income verification for discount shares! A big thank you to Lily Fisher and Doris Bruntel who spent hours working out all of the details Thanks to Kam Metcalf for handling our EBT vouchers. Thanks to Dore Nash for her institutional memory.

Frances Tesser, and her protégé Beth Formidoni, continued to supervise/organize monthly Pastured Meat & Special Products deliveries year round. A big thanks to Camilla who made everyone smile. Thanks to Jane Wagner and Kathleen Holtzman who made the farm trip happen. Tucked away behind the scenes were: AJ Connelly who managed our google groups. And Serena Jost who finally exorcised the haunted voice mail system.

A big thanks to Mike Truese, who has been our volunteer web guy for over 6 years. He manages our outpost in cyberspace from across the Hudson in New Jersey.

I’m sure that I’m forgetting someone. I’m grateful to each of you who volunteered this year. The CSA would not exist but for your contributions. I enjoyed working with you at distribution and getting to know a little bit about each of you. You may think that your contribution is small, but it is important. In the end the CSA is about community. Community with the farmer. Community with your neighbors. Community with humanity. If that doesn’t appeal to you, as one member reminded me, there’s always the supermarket!

And finally, the core group lost half its members this year and managed to carry on. My gratitude goes out to those of you who hung in here when it would have been easier not to. Your dedication makes me speechless. So, I’ll just quote from the theme song from Gilligan’s Island: “If not for the courage of the fearless crew, The Minnow would be lost.”

I’m looking forward to the 2010 season and hoping that more members will help out behind the scenes. Look for an email in January about that. 

Wishing all of you a happy and healthy off season.

Sincerely,

Lillian Quartuccia

Lead Coordinator

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See The Chelsea CSA Video!


Chelsea CSA Video from Elaine Mak on Vimeo.

Chelsea CSA Seasons in the News (Past & Present, Here & Abroad)

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Get Involved!

We encourage current and prospective members to visit this site and learn more about the Chelsea CSA, a celebration of farming, food, and community! We are always looking for people to coordinate special events and/or otherwise become active volunteers over and above the required minimum hours (six for a veggie share; two for a fruit share).

Visit this site regularly to see new announcements, articles, and recipes, as well as obtain information archived from past newsletters. If you would like to contribute your ideas for the website, please submit via chelseacsa@yahoo.com.

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