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Thanks to Nivia from Our Lady of Sorrows food pantry and Heather from Woodbridge Farm for joining us last night at Abrons Arts Center — and thanks to the many new CSA members who showed up and shared some Woodbridge cheese. And of course thanks to Rose Ortiz from Abrons who has been such a good host to the CSA for two years now and running.

I hope Heather was able to speak to some of the finer details of running a small organic/biodynamic farm, as well as the economic role CSAs play in keeping such farms running.

And Nivia addressed the other end of the CSA, where our food goes when members don’t show up. Her food pantry is a great help to the less fortunate in our neighborhood, and the vegetables we contribute are some of the only fresh foods her pantry has access to.

All of which I hope drives home the point that belonging to the CSA is not the same as buying vegetables at the store or farmers’ market once a week. There is a broader community we are attempting to build with your cooperation.

As of this morning we have closed our 2011 registration, having reached the share limit allotted by Woodbridge. With more people picking up half shares this year, and a few people joining only for the fruit, we have our largest CSA yet, 120 families strong.

Tomorrow night is our Meet the Farmers event — Tuesday, March 29 at 7:00 pm at Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand Street).

It’s an important evening for new and returning members to find out about life on the farm and ask questions of everyone involved in the CSA (e.g., “What’s this !@#$ cold doing to our crop?”).

We’ve been specially invited to an event uptown this Friday at 6:30, “Is Local Agriculture Good for the Environment: The Hidden Costs of Food in New York City”. (What does specially invited mean? If you tell them that you belong to the Grand Street CSA you’ll get in at the $6 membership price.)

Here’s the blurb:

When it comes to eating sustainably the question of locally sourced agriculture versus importing food is far from settled. Are New Yorkers willing to eat in season only and only what New York has the comparative advantage to produce? New Yorkers penchant for eating out adds for an additional complication. What does that mean for the city’s carbon footprint, given that restaurants are often more wasteful than home kitchens – even those committed to the new ideal of “farm-to-table” production? What are the real environmental costs associated with New York’s food system? Peter Hoffman, chef and owner of Savoy; Gabrielle Langholtz, editor, Edible Manhattan; James E. McWilliams, author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little, Brown, 2009); David Owen, author of Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability (Riverhead, 2009); and Jennifer Small, owner and farmer from Flying Pigs Farm evaluate the environmental and social costs and benefits of the city’s food infrastructure.

The Museum of the City of New York is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 29 at 7:00 pm for our very important Meet the Farmers event at Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand Street).

Heather DeWolf, field manager at Woodbridge Farm, will be on hand to answer all your questions about this year’s vegetables. We’ll also have representatives from Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Arts Center, and Our Lady of Sorrows Food Pantry, to round out our CSA distribution system, as well as Grand Street CSA core members who help keep this whole thing running.

If you’re a new member, this event is an important chance to learn more about what you’ve gotten yourself into. But we hope returning members will join us as well to get to know the people who grow our food. We believe the CSA is not just a buying club, but a partnership between our neighborhood and Woodbridge Farm.

We’ll have genuine Woodbridge cheese to taste, and a few bottles of grape-based beverages to wash it down. We hope to see you there!

Returning members and people on our wait list have had their chance, but we still have a few shares available for 2011. If you’re interested in fresh, organic, locally-grown produce for the 2011 season, sign up right now.

It’s probably a good idea for you to read a little bit about us first. And take a look at the shares we are offering this year, so you know what you can sign up for.

You can also whet your appetite by looking through our (nearly) complete sharelog from last year (photos taken by core member Michel Walkley):

But don’t take too much time … shares are going quickly. If you’d like to join for 2011, now is your chance.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

This Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm, core members will be at Roots & Vines (409 Grand Street) to accept checks from returning members and sign up new members from our wait list. Please join us if you have not yet had a chance to put your check in the mail, or if you have any questions before signing up.

If you were a member in 2010, check your inbox — instructions for signing up for the new season just went out.

Returning members are given preference only until February 8, after which we will open up registration to our wait list.

We’re just a few days away from opening our 2011 registration to returning members. In the meantime, we’ve collected information and pricing for our 2011 shares — click over and take a look so you can start to decide what you’d like to get this season.

Unlike last year, when our extras were not available for sign-up until later in the spring, we have our offerings all set and are asking that you sign up for everything all at once. If paying everything at once is too difficult, we offer a 3-month installment plan, details of which will be emailed to you after you register. But please keep in mind that part of the economic mission of the CSA is to get money to our farmers as early as possible, so if you are able to pay for your entire membership up front, we would very much prefer that you do.

Just a quick update to let you know that we are almost ready to start registration for our 2011 season.

• All share prices will remain the same.
• We’ll have the same extras as last year: fruit, eggs, pasta, and cheese. (And maybe something new.)
• Returning members will be able to register starting this week. (You’ll be alerted by email when the registration form is open.)
• New members will be able to register starting Feb. 8. Make sure you are on our wait list to be notified.

We got this nice letter from our fruit & egg (& pasta) farmer and wanted to share it with you:

Dear CSA Members,

We at Breezy Hill Orchard, Stone Ridge Orchard and Knoll Krest Farm would like to thank you for an incredible 2010 season. For five and a half months we brought you a selection of the best fruit, eggs, and pasta we had to offer. Your early support enabled us to invest in the vital staffing and equipment that kept us going strong at the beginning of the year. Without your support, the seeds could not be planted and the trees could not be pruned. In exchange we worked week after week to provide a variety of top quality fruit, eggs and pasta and to ensure a smooth delivery. We hope you could taste the result of our great effort in the shares you received every week. Like most years, we faced a few challenges in 2010 including an early frost and a summer drought. With trickle irrigation we persevered. Your continued membership can help us with the challenges we will surely face in 2011.

For the 2011 season, our determination to provide the highest quality product and customer service is even greater. Now that we have completed our sophomore year serving CSAs, our operation will only become more efficient. We’d like for you to join us in our third year of providing fruit, eggs, and pasta to CSA members. Seasonal, local fruit is a healthy part of any diet, and it’s our honor to share it with you. CSAs are a great way to ensure that local farms have a future in New York State, and the most important part of the CSA is your individual memberships.

Along with two years serving CSAs, Breezy Hill Orchard and Stone Ridge Orchard are Eco Apple certified for two years running. The health of our customers, the health of our land, and our own health are the top priorities in our decision making process. Through the Eco Apple program, our environment can continue to be healthy and strong for years to come.

In addition to our many farmers’ market locations, we are excited to announce a new store front location at La Marqueta in East Harlem. With the office space that this store front provides, our NYC based coordinator will improve communication and coordination with CSAs. In addition, this space provides a potential site for a CSA distribution. We have also opened a new store front in our own backyard in the village of Rhinebeck, NY. So if you find yourself in East Harlem or Rhinebeck, please stop by and visit us.

CSAs have become one of the cornerstones of Breezy Hill Orchard’s success, and we owe it all to you. This year many CSA members made it up to the farm, and next year we hope to see each and every member come to see where their fruit grows. So as we celebrate the New Year, please renew your CSA membership. Say yes to local business, say yes to healthy eating, and say yes to sustainable farming practices. With that yes comes months of high quality food delivered directly to your neighborhood. We’d love to work with you again.

Best wishes during the holiday season, and Happy New Year!

Elizabeth Ryan, Anne Diaz-Matos, Stephen Burgess, and Everyone at Breezy Hill