Get fresh veggies, support a local farmer

The Journal Square CSA is ramping up to the start of its 4^th season in Jersey City.   We started in 2010 with a coordinator who didn’t want to travel downtown to get her vegetables, a north Jersey farmer, and a living room.  Over the past few years, the CSA has grown slowly but surely.

Nolasco’s Farm, a short hour’s drive from Jersey City, grows all the vegetables, herbs, and melons for the Journal Square CSA.  Every week, CSA members receive 7 items that are in season on the farm, ranging from bunches of greens to squash blossoms to white sweet potatoes to Mexican herbs like cilantro and papalo.  Our CSA members receive the freshest vegetables, harvested the morning they are brought to Jersey City.

Being a CSA member has pushed my boundaries as an eater, a cook, and an informed consumer.  Even a vegetable lover like myself never would have picked up a kohlrabi (even if I could find one in a grocery store), or purchased mustard greens several weeks in a row.  But being a CSA member means you experience the changes in seasons and climate in a way that you can’t with grocery store vegetables.  Knowing you will never have tomatoes in early June, or that a flood from a hurricane destroyed a field full of winter squash, makes me appreciate the vegetables and all the hard work the farmer puts in to get them to us.   Our CSA members may feel more connected to the farm and informed about their foodshed, or maybe they just come up with a creative new mustard greens recipe.  Either way, everyone that participates learns something about the food on their table.

This year we are also able to offer a fruit share from Suka-Di Farm in upstate NY.  In addition to the weekly vegetable share, members can choose to purchase fruit fresh from their orchard and vineyard.  I am personally looking forward to having a weekly supply of fresh peaches, plums, and grapes to fill up my fruit bowl.

We currently partner with Hudson Pride Connections Center, who generously provides their space for the weekly vegetable distribution.  More information about the Journal Square CSA can be found at www.JournalSquareCSA.weebly.com.