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Announcing 2nd Tuesdays

This year, on the “2nd Tuesday” of each month, the Grand Street CSA will hold a community event during distribution, with the dual purpose of increasing our members’ knowledge about cooking, eating, and food AND giving us all an opportunity to hang out and get to know each other. We’ll have music, a topic table with helpful CSA-related information (“How to Care for Your Share” is the first one on June 8), cooking demos (we hope), and … whatever else you can help us with!

Please use the form below to let us know if you can participate.

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Update from the Farm

Julia from Woodbridge Farm writes:

The vegetables are looking beautiful, lush and green, and it appears that this spring a lot of leaf crops are exactly 10 days early. This means I am going to send a lot of lettuce and boc choys your way next week. There will also be some herbs and a mild salad greens mix with spinach, as well as kale and swiss chard.

On the dairy side of our operation, things are looking fabulous as well. The pastures are lush, cows and calves are happy and healthy, and we now finally have our official raw milk license.

See you all Tuesday!

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Surpise!

We just got this note from Farmers Julia and Dave:

We are actually coming next Tuesday a week earlier then you thought. Last pick up will be the last Tuesday in October.

We will work on a farm update and send to you asap. Looking forward to another bountiful season!!

“Know Your Food!”

So there you have it — first distribution will be Tuesday, May 25!

A few things to remember:

  • We’ll be at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street, on the stepped plaza outside the main entrance.
  • Come between 5pm and 8pm.
  • Bring your own bag.
  • Clean out the veggie bin in your fridge.

See you on Tuesday!

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Volunteer Schedule Is Set

Our first distribution is just a few weeks away, so it’s time to start getting ready. First thing to take care of is scheduling members for distribution shifts, which is almost completely done and can be viewed on our calendar page. To find your shifts, you’ll need to scroll through the whole calendar to pick out your name (which will be the first name and last initial with which you signed up for the CSA). You’ll get a reminder email a week before your shift, but we’d prefer you stick it in your calendar now so you don’t forget.

We’ve split distribution into three shifts this year, which we hope will be more convenient for more people: Set Up is 4:30-5:45; the Bridge is 5:30-7:00; and Closing is 6:45-8:15.

Our first distribution on June 1 will be staffed entirely by the core group, so we should be able to answer any questions from new members. Though if you have any questions before then, don’t hesitate to send us a note.

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LES Food Coop Meeting and Potluck: May 4

The next general meeting of the LES Food Coop will be held on May 4 from 7:30 to 9:00 at the Educational Alliance (197 East Broadway). They’ll present preliminary results from their survey, and give updates on their progress so far. There will also be food to share, so feel free to bring something from your own kitchen. (You’re welcome without food, too.)

And do be sure to fill out that survey — they’re counting on feedback from everyone in the community to learn what food choices are important to you.

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Hester Street Fair Opens This Weekend

Not sure it’ll look like this, exactly, but there should be a crowd this weekend, weather permitting, at the new Hester Street Fair (where Hester St. ends at Essex).

This plot of land, part of the Seward Co-Op and smashed between the tennis courts and Seward Park Playground, has been empty a long time. It’s been repaved, new gates have been constructed, and this weekend is the coming out party for what organizers hope will be a new neighborhood institution.

the Hester Street Fair focuses on curated local goods, food and most importantly, highlights the vibrant spirit of the community.

Check it out on Saturday and Sunday, 10-6. And let us know in our bulletin board what you find.

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Give Us Bread — Free Shows 4/17 & 4/18

CSA Member Jesse Ash passed along an invitation to a free production of Give Us Bread, about the food riots in NYC circa 1917 in Rutgers Square.

Presented by The Anthropologists as part of the 7th Annual Immigrant Heritage Week, the show can be seen Saturday, April 17 at 8pm and Sunday, April 18 at 2pm at The Milagro Theater/Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk Street (between Rivington & Delancey).

Food prices shot up overnight.
Starvation threatened families from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the Lower East Side to the Bronx.
A group of women came together to demand action.
Boycotts accelerated into riots.
The year was 1917.

Tickets are free, with a suggested $10 donation.
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La Tiendita at Essex Market Now Carries Breezy Hill

This morning I noticed Knoll Krest eggs & pasta at the La Tiendita stall in the Essex Street Market, as well as some (stored) apples from Breezy Hill Orchards. Turns out the Lower Eastside Girls Club is hooked up with Breezy Hill this year to bring some of the same good food we’re eating to more people in the neighborhood.

Not only is the Essex Street Market my favorite place to shop, but the Girls Club is a great organization with a bakery called Sweet Things on Ave. C.

When you buy from The Lower Eastside Girls Club you are doing more than consuming a cookie. Your purchase supports programs that teach inner-city girls culinary arts and business skills. Girls in the Sweet Things Company also participate in educational support and leadership training programs.

(Though, just to be fair, you should also know about the great eggs from Indian Run-Shady Maple Run available at Saxelby Cheesemongers just a few stalls down from La Tiendita at Essex Street.)

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Henry St. Settlement Supports CSA

Those of you who came to our Meet the Farmers event last month got to meet David Garza, Chief Administrator of the Henry Street Settlement Workforce Development Center. This year, WDC will be supporting Grand Street CSA by purchasing two full shares for participants in their job training program.

The CSA is helping this partnership by contributing half the cost of those shares, made possible by the $15 admin fee charged to each member, the contributions many of you have added to your share price this year, and the canvas bags we’ll be selling again this year.

But, if you can, you may also contribute directly to the WDC to support the outstanding work they do in our neighborhood.