Volume 24, Week 1
Full share & 🌿 green 🌿 half shares
218 Gates Avenue between Classon and Franklin
(IMPACCT Brooklyn at the Gibbs Mansion)
5:00 to 7:30 pm
Welcome! We’re so excited to begin our season! A few notes for day 1:
Bring bags! Some items may be bunched or packed in plastic, but you will need tote bags to bring your share home! We’ll have a limited number of Clinton Hill CSA totes available for sale for $10 - cash and venmo accepted!
Be on time! We pack things up at 7:30, and all remaining items are donated to IMPACCT and a local food pantry - please arrive on time to claim your share! If you can’t make it, you can always send a friend (have them give your name) or coordinate a swap via the half share list: CHCSAHalfShare2025@clintonhillcsa.org
The shares get bigger! It’s still early in what has so far been a cold and wet growing season, so your pickup may feel a little light these first few weeks. Fear not, this will soon change!
Extra share info:
Depending on what’s ready for harvest, the fruit share may start a week or two after our season kick-off and will continue for 20 weeks.
A few Extra Shares are still accepting orders:
We plan to host local makers at pop-ups throughout the season where you can purchase items a la carte, such as spices from Sourcery. Keep an eye on the Beet and on Instagram for announcements about other pop-up shares!
Work Shift Reminder: All Clinton Hill CSA members are required to fulfill their work shift commitment:
Members with full vegetable shares are required to complete (2) two-hour work shifts for a total of four hours.
Members with half vegetable shares must complete (1) two-hour work shift.
This is a great opportunity to learn more about how your CSA works, and to get to know other members! Your work shift is a commitment that you agreed to when you signed up, and households that do not complete their shifts will not be able to join the CSA again in the future. Children are welcome on site when their parents are doing their work shift commitment; our youngest members can be very helpful, and we only ask that you bring snacks and other things to keep them busy.
A note about payment: We thank everyone who has made payments early and helped to support Windflower Farm and all our other suppliers of wonderful produce. We encourage you to check your inboxes and make sure you're up to date with payments. Remember that with some extra shares, like bread, mushrooms, or fish, your invoices may not all come from Windflower Farm, so be sure you're opening the emails that tell you how to pay for your share. And on behalf of Windflower Farm and our other CSA suppliers, thank you!
This week’s share
‘Coastal Star’ Romaine lettuce
‘Red Russian’ kale
‘Fordhook’ Swiss chard
‘Astro’ arugula
Baby bunched Dutch shallots
Potted ‘Prospero’ basil
Extras: eggs, bread, granola! Fruit will start in a week or two, mushrooms will start next week, and maple and grain have three delivery dates (June 19, August 21, and October 16). There’s still time to sign up for certain extra shares - more details above!
News from Windflower Farm
Delivery #1, Week of May 26, 2025
Hello from all of us at Windflower Farm! Thank you for being with us for the 2025 growing season. Your first shares of the season will be delivered this week.
Let’s begin by acknowledging that it’s been a miserable spring. I can hardly remember when I last felt the sunshine or was outside in temperatures warmer than 60-something. Yesterday’s high was 59 degrees, and it is the warmest it’s been in a week. I’m still wearing my thermals! Rainfall so far this May has been 5 inches above normal. The average brightness and solar radiation for the month of May has been just 2/3 of normal. It has been a spring unlike anything we’ve experienced.
These cool, wet and generally bleak conditions have presented us with challenges, but we are feeling optimistic. We have done much over the years to mitigate the effects of foul weather on our production. This year, we have deployed every manner of season-extending paraphernalia, from greenhouse plastics and floating row covers to soil-warming black plastic and woven fabric mulches to encourage our crops. And we use a permanent raised bed system to help achieve earliness.
The field season got underway on Earth Day this year and our first delivery will take place on Rachel Carson’s birthday. In those five weeks, we have planted tomatoes in two large greenhouses and 11 smaller greenhouses (which we call caterpillars). We have planted cucumbers in one large greenhouse, one caterpillar and three 375’ long low tunnels. We have planted peppers in seven caterpillars, lettuces in two caterpillars, kale in two more, and zucchinis in three 375' low tunnels. And we have planted numerous beds of greens and early root crops in the field and covered them with floating row covers.
All of this is to say that, despite the cold and gray, the start to this season will appear very much like that of any other year – it’s a time for salads. We are happy to be getting started and hope you enjoy your first share.
Best regards, Ted and the Windflower Team
Recipes
The perfect meal for a rainy spring night? Shallot tart and a simple green salad! Also - tips to get the most from your potted basil
Did you know? Our website has recipes, food storage tips, and information about the vegetables you might come across in your share!