Summer might be coming to an end, but that doesn’t much fresh produce has to. If you still want a taste of fresh fruits and veggies, check out the new CSA in Bushwick at Montana’s Trail House. Every Sunday until November, you can pick up a box of goodness from Dirty Boots Farm, a two-person organic farm run by Matt Hunger and his girlfriend, Shayna Lewis. They lease almost 6 acres through the Chester Agricultural Center, a group that makes affordable land available for organic farmers. CSA’s go for $312 for the full 13-week season, and $175 for the bi-weekly season (7 weeks). That equals to about $24/pickup for the weekly and $25/pickup for the biweekly.
Pickup available at Montana’s Trail House from 10 -1 on Sundays
As for produce, they’ll be offering an impressive variety of summer through fall produce: cooking greens (chard, kale, collards, spinach), tomatoes (four different heirlooms and four different cherry tomato varieties), peppers (hot and sweet), eggplants, okra, onions, scallions. They have string beans (green, yellow, purple), husk cherries and tomatillos, herbs (cilantro, parsley, oregano, sage, etc), fennel, carrots, beets. There’s also summer squash and winter squash, cucumbers, melons, potatoes, sweet potatoes, leeks, radishes, lettuce, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, and spicy salad mix.
“If you’re a member, you’ll eat well for sure,” says Hunger.
Hunger lived in Bushwick from 2008 to 2014 at 250 Moore Street, in the apartment that doubles as the gallery Centotto run by artist Paul D’Agostino. “Paul has a PhD in Italian and lived in Italy for a while, and on occasion he would cook meals he learned while living abroad for our roommates. At that point I was pretty broke and we’d get our produce from the vegetable stand on Knickerbocker Avenue, stuff that had to be cooked that day because it was past ripe and cost next to nothing,” tells Hunger.
“CSA [are] definitely the best way to get affordable organic food (short of working on a farm).”
Hunger and Lewis started the CSA at Montana’s chef/owner Nate Courtland’s suggestion, whose restaurant they sell to. “Local/sustainable/organic, as food labels, are more than just the trends that supermarkets are trying to pick up on. Many people want to better know their farmers, their farming practices, and to be exposed to produce they may not go out of their way to eat.”
Sign up for the CSA here.