Paisley Farm CSA blog

Dear Paisley CSA members,

Thanks to one and all for joining Paisley Farm CSA. I hope it was a positive experience for everyone. It was a pleasure for my staff and I to grow the vegetables that you ate for the last 22 weeks. We enjoyed meeting new people and seeing new faces while venturing into Brooklyn and Manhattan. We never take for granted what great members we have and that we get to share our harvest with the greatest city in the world. It’s an awesome feeling that our agricultural surplus allows you to be doctors, artist, moms, dads, inventors, hairdressers, actors, authors and even… bankers. Personally I enjoyed waking up every day knowing that I had the responsibility of growing good nutritious food for people who really cared and that good food was important to them. You have the right to good local food and thank you for making that choice.

We at the farm have learned a lot this year and have been humbled by mother nature. We know what works and what dosent work when you have 70 days of rain in a 90 day period! We also learned that in the end, the sun and the earth didn’t let us down. Maybe we didnt get every thing we wanted but it gave us what we needed. I apologize to anyone that was disapointed (especially to Allan who got the moldy cucumber). It’s not too late to complain! Just email me. All criticism will be used to make us a better farm and CSA.

I would like to urge anyone to become more involved in what ever way they can. We are limited by a six month growing season but we are unlimited in your ideas and volunteering. Email us if you have an idea for something to grow or a better way for the distribution to run. Or come visit us - there is plenty of fresh air, open meadows and forest to roam and relax in.

A very special thanks to all our site coordinators Meredith TenHoor, Karol Lu, Maia Raposo, Leslie Pariseau, Tuesday Brooks, and Elizabeth Pena. We appreciate the care they gave each week to keep the sites running smoothly. We also owe them a special thanks for their early work in organizing and member enrollment. Because of their hard work in the spring, I was able to sleep at night. More thanks needs to be given to those without titles but worked very hard to get the CSA running - Kelly Geary and Zhanna Gurvich. We are all very grateful to the site owners Jimmy Carbone, Ray Deter, Al Attara, Naomi Smith the principal of CPE II, Sylvia Kopec, and the parents of the Calhoun School. Without their generosity and foresight none of this would be possible.

I can’t measure the amount of thanks that Jan and I owe to Sara Grady who gracefully put up with our old-school, mediocre computer skills for the last year. Sara patiently thought through with great care all the logistgal hurdles of the five sites combined. Most of all she contributed her love of food and devotion to local agriculture that kept us all in focus and working towards a noble goal.

be well,
Mike Kokas
Paisley Farm

Dear Paisley Farm,

Volunteering the week after your harvest party, I heard about the 90 friends who broke bread with you last saturday. If I were able to be there I would have raised a glass to you and said, “thanks”…

“Thanks” for not poisoning the earth while growing and tending what the earth gives forth.

“Thanks” for working all hours, days and nights, for getting good food to those of us without a plot of land but with a burning need to feel connected to the land (and a healthy contempt for agribusiness).

“Thanks” for beautifully bundling all your bounty and presenting it in a way that shows you are as proud to grow it, as we are to eat it.

“Thanks” for lettuce so delicate that no supermarket could ever carry it.

“Thanks” for radishes as big as eggs and eggplants as polished as marble.

“Thanks” for infinite greens that build bodies 8 ways.

“Thanks” for tomatoes both heirloom and roma….(especially the zebras)

“Thanks” for basil that actually got me followed one day by someone who just wanted to keep smelling my shopping bag.

“Thanks” for the one ear of corn (it was delicious).

“Thanks” for the unbeatable beets.

“Thanks” for the squash and the leeks and the kale, and more kale, and more kale, and the swiss chard.

“Thanks” for the tatsoi that was so beautiful i hated to cook it, but any brassy cook can never resist a brassica.

And “thanks” for sending it all to jimmy’s with the best beer in the city to celebrate Wednesdays.

“Thanks” to Leslie Pariseau, always calm, often beleaguered.

And “thanks” Tivoli, for giving us mike, jan, along with Julian and Augusta, who made this CSA, season one, a joy.

Here’s to next year and a little sunshine in the spring. Oh, and happy “thanks”giving.

Jane Talcott,
Paisley CSA member (at Jimmy’s)

We are very pleased to announce that we are offering winter shares! The winter shares will include a variety of locally sourced products assembled from Upstate Farms, our network of local farms.

CONTENTS & COST
The shares will be pre-boxed and delivered every two weeks.
Dates are: Jan 6, Jan 20, Feb 3, Feb 17, Mar 3, Mar 17.
Each share costs $300, and will be assembled with locally produced products sourced from our
network of Upstate Farms. Here are details on what the shares will contain:

The shares will include:
+ potatoes, squash, apples, greens, and add’l produce
+ eggs and cheese
+ honey and maple syrup

If you would like to reserve a spot, email your site coordinator:

Jimmy’s No. 4
CPE School II
d.b.a. Williamsburg
Met Exchange **

As soon as we have sufficient reservations for each site you will be asked to send in your form and check. We need to meet a minimum number of members at each site, so please email your coordinator promptly!

(** Special note for Met Exchange members: We anticipate we will have to move the pick-up site to another location in the neighborhood for winter shares. We are working on this right now, and we will be in touch with details as soon as possible. If you have any suggestions for a potential alternate site, please contact Sara or Meredith.)

For anyone who wasn’t able to make it up to the farm, or those who just didn’t get enough of the autumn bounty, we will be hosting another harvest dinner at our East Village pick up site, Jimmy’s No. 43 on Wednesday November 18th. The three-course prix-fixe will include locally sourced ingredients from Violet Hill, Three Corner Field Farm, Mt. View Farm, Consider Bardwell, Jasper Hill and, of course, our beloved Paisley and Upstate Farms. You can expect a couple of delicious options including a vegetarian menu for $20 (tax, tip and drinks excluded). The one and only charismatic Farmer Mike will be on hand for entertainment and to answer all soil-season-string bean questions.

If you’d like to reserve a seat, you can email Leslie (lesliepariseau@gmail.com) for the specific time slots below. Seating is limited, so an early reservation is recommended. Please include your name, # of people in your party, phone number and time desired.

Fall Harvest Dinner @ Jimmy’s No. 43, November 18th

$20 3-course prix-fixe (appetizer, main and dessert; tax, tip and drinks not included)

Reservations available for 6, 6:30, 7, 8, 9 and 9:30.