Common Ground Farm

I am writing an update, which I so rarely do, because I have experienced one entire full season as a CSA member and will not be returning again next year for the following reasons. First and foremost, someone needs to be on their payroll (or they at least need to get a dedicated volunteer for this purpose) that helps to find them grants to make their members happy. It’s shared by the community (the CS in CSA), but keeping the paying members happy needs to be made a top priority. I’m not bitchin’ about the weekly yield, because they don’t control that. I’m bitchin’ about how they dealt with members after the hurricane. Now, they were royally dumped on because they experienced catastrophic devastation, but since the farm is located in a county that was not declared a federal disaster county, they were not eligible for emergency aid from the federal government. They were able to secure funding to purchase some top soil, but they did not really keep members informed of the process as regularly as they should have (I think I received about 3 emails in a four week time period, and I did receive a phone call from the darling Sam who was literally working probably up until she actually gave birth. She is one heckuva saving grace for that place!!). Because of the damage, they suspended distribution all together for 4 weeks… and when they resumed it, it was as if it was business as usual. Not even a «thanks for being patient» or «as a token of our appreciation for sticking with us, please take $ 25 off the cost of being a member next year, which by the way is going up $ 50 bucks!». I actually missed a couple weeks of distribution because there were no calls made that it resumed (they called me to tell me it had stopped… why couldn’t they call me to come back?) I really wanted to make this work, and tried to make believers out of my family who doubted its value throughout the summer when the yields were small, but I’m not coming back next year. I hope they get a better board of directors because I think those knuckleheads are why the bad decisions are being made.

I joined this CSA and was very disappointed. Got a lot of rotten produce and they lost a lot of crops due to bad farm management. I think they keep the good stuff for the farmer’s markets and give the slag to members.

The produce at Common Ground Farm always looks so beautiful. I bought garlic scapes from them recently. They have vegetables for every season: bok choy, snap peas, lettuce, herbs…
I always find them at the Beacon Farmers Market next to the train station. Last year, I remember seeing them at the Fishkill Farmers Market on Main Street.
Common Ground Farm is always one of my favorites.