Community Supported Agriculture
Providing the community with fresh produce and items from local businesses.
What is a CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture supports local farms and provides the community with fresh produce.
CSA members pay for a “share” of the farmer’s produce at the beginning of the season, helping the farm plan their harvest season around exactly what is needed. In turn, the CSA members receive freshly harvested produce- usually coming out of the ground the day before!
Members assume the rewards and risks of the growing season. Weather and other factors can mean more or less of specific items, depending on what happens at the farm that week. Prices are generally lower via a CSA than they would be at a farmer's market, and the quality is top notch.
CSA operates basically the same, relying predominantly on volunteers and straight-to-farm practices.
Sunnyside CSA is not for profit and completely volunteer run. This means volunteers do everything from organizing with the farms & businesses, scheduling seasons, running the pick-up site and keeping finances straight. Every member is required to sign up for 2 volunteer shifts throughout the season, or for positions within the core group.
Our Seasons
We have two share seasons, Summer and Winter. Generally, the Summer Share runs beginning of June to end of October, and the Winter share runs December to April. You can learn more about what’s available on our Food We Offer pages.
Any food not picked up at the end of the night is donated to the Senior Program at SCS.
Subsidy Program
A small number of shares are available at a reduced rate through our Subsidized Share Program.
This program is funded through CSA events and fundraisers throughout the seasons.
Our Farmers
We are honored to work with the Golden Earthworm Farm in Springfield, Vermont.
Maggie and Matt have been pioneers in the organic and CSA farming community for the past 30 years. They fell in love with farming and with the idea of growing beautiful, wholesale food for members of the community while building soil and biodiversity on the land.
Farming practices
Golden Earthworm is USDA Certified Organic by VOF (Vermont Organic Farmers), a third party certifying agency. Organic farming is a whole system (or holistic) way of producing food. This means that organic farmers think about the effects of their farming practices on the soil, the quality of the food they produce, the local community and the wider environment.
Organic agriculture seeks to maintain and improve the productivity of the land
by encouraging and enhancing natural biological processes. The word ‘organic’ is a legal term. In the US, all organic farmers, growers and processors must register with one of the organic certification bodies which certifies that they have met the strict requirements.
The farm strives to produce food in the most sustainable way possible. This means that in addition to growing in accordance with organic principles, they do everything to further enrich the soil and build fertility through the use of cover cropping, crop rotation and supplemental application of organically approved amendments and fertilizers. They monitor crops through soil testing, leaf tissue and sap testing, which gives some insight into what’s going on in the plants, and what needs to be done to further improve the soil growing conditions. Nutrient management is a key part of promoting healthy soil with good physical, biological and chemical properties on the farm.
Their History
The Golden Earthworm Organic Farm is a small first-generation family farm that started back in 1994 as the very first Certified Organic vegetable farm on Long Island’s North Fork. Farmers Matt Kurek and Maggie Wood began growing for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), as it provided a reliable market for food and a direct connection to the community who would be sharing the harvest. Today they grow the highest quality, USDA-certified organic produce to feed thousands of families across Long Island through an authentic farm share program.
After leasing farmland for 30 years, they realized a lifelong dream of purchasing land in 2016 in a private fertile valley along the Connecticut River in Springfield, Vermont