FLATBUSH FARM SHARE

www.flatbushfarmshare.com a partnership of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Hunger Action Network, and Just Food

NEWS
What to Look Forward to this Season Outreach
2.1 / March 2010

Our goal this year is to fill all of our 200 shares. As a CSA we would like to have
Delicious Vegetables ~ Juicy Fruits 40% Level 1, 20% Level 2 and 40% Level 3 memberships. Many of us as members
Farm Trip ~ Potlucks ~ Composting last year learned for the first time what a CSA was but there are still many people
Fundraisers ~ Community Building out there that don’t know what a CSA is. We want to get organic fresh vegetables to
as many people in the community as we can. Spread the word about Flatbush Farm
Share to your friends, your neighbors, relatives, school parents, anyone see in your
daily life. If you’d like to help on a higher level contact our outreach committee
(outreach@flatbushfarmshare.com) for flyers and learn how you can spread the word.
Core Group
We are always looking for fellow members to join the core group and help with all the behind the scenes work that goes on to make the
CSA possible (it is a lot more than you would think!!) We meet once a month and have email conversations in between. If you are willing
to commit some time and help let us know! Contact info@flatbushfarmshare.com
Extra Shares
We are working to develop a selection of additional items that members can purchase through the
CSA. These include fruit, eggs, meat, cheese and other items. Some of these items will be offered as a
seasonal share (i.e. you pay X amount up front for a regular weekly delivery), and some will be offered
on a special order basis (you select items from the provider’s website, pay the provider directly, and the
items will be delivered to you on Wednesdays at the Flatbush Farmshare distribution site).
Last year there were inconsistencies with the fruit shares from Breezy Hill Orchards. They recently
wrote to us indicating they were aware of the problems and were taking steps to address them. In the
spirit of building strong partnerships, we will work with Breezy Hill again this year for fruit shares.
Here are some excerpts from Breezy Hill’s letter:
“As you know, last year was our first experience with CSA, and it was a little rocky...It took us a while
to get a grip on the whole thing, and as it turned out, it was also a pretty challenging year in terms of
the weather, The rain was unprecedented, there were actually only 4 days in June that did not rain.
We learned a lot last year. We will be making some substantial changes in our CSA’s this year. There
will be more fruit, more diversity, better communication and hopefully it will be a successful year. We
have spent the last several months working through the successes and challenges of last year, and have
had some very helpful conversations and feedback from CSA members and lots of great advice from
other CSA farmers.
We have a full time CSA coordinator this year. We will be expanding the diversity of the shares, we
heard a lot that the early season quantities were too small, and the members wanted more diversity of

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fruit on a weekly basis. We think we can do that. We will also be hosting our CSA blog so that member
can have a better idea of what’s ripe and ready each week.
Probably our most important innovation will be a discount program so that our CSA members can get www.flatbushfarmshare.com
an ongoing discount in the farmers markets.”

FUNDRAISER AT SYCAMORE!!
In late April, Flatbush Farm Share will host a fundraising event at Sycamore on Cortelyou Road in Flatbush. We hope to raise substantial
funds in order to support our discounted shares and have a lot of fun doing it! In the coming weeks we need your help for planning and -
most importantly - outreach in order to make this a successful event. Please contact fundraising@flatbushfarmshare.com if you are able to
pitch it, and keep an eye out for more details.
RAFFLE PRIZES NEEDED
We are holding a raffle (the drawing will be held at the spring fundraiser at Sycamore). Do you have any items or services that can be
raffled off ? Do you know any sympathetic businesses (restaurants, boutiques, cafes) that might donate items or a gift certificate? If so,
please write to fundraising@flatbushfarmshare.com (and include the contact information for the donor).
MUSICIANS/PERFORMERS
As part of our fundraiser at Sycamore, we are looking for musical entertainment. If you have musician friends who would be willing to
perform as part of the benefit (or if you yourself are a musician), please contact: fundraising@flatbushfarmshare.com
News from The Farm at Miller’s Crossing Interview conducted by core group member Lisa Maya Knauer
Flatbush Farm Share is a partnership between all of us and a small
family farm in Columbia County – the Farm at Miller’s Crossing,
owned by Chris Cashman and Katie Smith. When we visited the
farm last summer, it was clear that farming is a year-round occupa-
tion. Getting a full season’s worth of tasty organic produce, using
sustainable farming techniques, requires a lot of research. No sooner
does one harvest season end than farmers take stock and start plan-
ning for the next year’s planting. A few of us ran into Chris at the
Just Foods CSA conference on February 28, and I know that I felt a
surge of pride to see “our farmer” on the Farmers’ Panel that was
the closing plenary of the conference. Chris had to rush off to catch
his train, so I called the next day to get an update on what was hap-
pening on the farm.
What’s going on at the farm right now?
Well, we’re working on updating our blog, and we should have it up-
dated by the second week in March. Last year Katie maintained the
blog but this year my sister, who lives on the farm but does not work
on it, has taken responsibility for the blog and will be updating it on
a weekly basis. [Editor’s note: You can find the blog at
http://thefarmatmillerscrossing.blogspot.com/ The farm’s website,
which includes the history and philosophy of the farm, is
http://www.farmatmillerscrossing.com/index.html]
This is the beginning of the farm season, right now. We ordered
all our seed, and now we have thousands of dollars worth of seeds
sitting in our wash area. Seed deliveries are coming in every day. So
all of that stuff is showing up, and we are inventorying all the seed,
and filling flats. We have flowers growing in the greenhouse. Today
[March 1] we shoveled the walls of the greenhouse. The snow was
about 4 to 5 feet high and it was sliding off the roof. The walls of
the greenhouse were like an ice-chest, so we went out and shoveled.
So we had three people on the roof. Last week we had to shovel off
our pole barn roof, and so today I moved the snow that was taken off
the roof. If we leave the snow that was shoveled off the roof on the
ground it can turn into a solid block of ice so I had to move that.
How did the winter weather affect the farm?
The snow was pretty impressive. Trees have cracked. Some barns
have collapsed. We lost power because of the storm. A little south
of us some people still don’t have power, but we’re back on and ev-
erything is fine. But that big snow we had – it’s a week later and we
are cleaning up because it is a big muddy mess. The frost had come
up out of the ground and snow has come on top of that. The pasture
where we keep the cows is completely wet. March is always a messy
month. It was nice to be in the city yesterday and walk on concrete
and not worry about feet and shoes! We are changing clothes three
times a day.
Right now we are boiling maple sap for maple syrup. This is our
second time; we made some syrup last year and this year we started
it a little earlier. So far we have burned about 80 gallons of sap and
have made 2 gallons of syrup.
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www.flatbushfarmshare.com
That’s the ratio: 40 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup. We
are testing the waters of maple syrup production. We have a lot
of maple trees on our farm and we are curious about it whether
we could make it into an enterprise. We have calculated what we
would need for ourselves, and then have a little left to give as
Christmas presents. Last year we didn’t have quite enough to last
us through the year, so we’re planning to make a little more this
year. We made a homemade evaporator, and we’re doing it inside
the barns. In the evening I start making the fire while Katie is
going out in the truck with the kids and collecting the sap. The
last part of the process she does on the stove inside so it doesn’t
burn.
Is there anything new you are trying this year?
We are trying out this heated floor in the greenhouse. It is a
more efficient way of heating the greenhouse, since you put the
flats on the ground, and the heat comes up from the bottom.
The other thing is that we are doing a lot of research on how
we plow, how we work the soil. We are not exactly sure what we
are going to end up doing, but I want to do some things. There’s
a new technology called deep plowing, where you fissure the
ground. One of the big problems in farming is soil compaction.
When you run the plows over the field, you ‘re squishing the soil
down and that prevents the roots from growing. So there’s a lot
of new technology, it’s mostly big pieces of steel. There’s a type
of plow called a subsoiler. But part of this is also about fuel effi-
ciency and fuel consumption. It has to do with the root zone and
the amount of fuel you use when you plow. We’re looking into
zone tillage where you are plowing only where the plants are.
But the organic management is different than the conventional
management. So a lot of this is being worked out in universities.
We are looking at it as a possible investment to make. I was look-
ing at a machine the other day that was about $22,000. We can’t
afford that. You have to look at this in long term perspective. At
some point we could invest money into a system. If you believe
in it and it works, it’s worth it.
How do you find out about these new techniques and
technologies?
There’s a million ways to do things, and there are a lot of
companies out there. I spend a lot of time just talking to other
farmers, but also going on the Internet, doing research there,
and then talking to sales people. The research is fun, and it’s
amazing what you can do today with a computer. There’s a lot
of stuff on Youtube; there are not only pictures but videos and
interviews with farmers. It’s a form of entertainment as well,
However, then it becomes something where you’re spending too
much time doing it.
This interview will be continued in our next newsletter!