Sweet Land Farm taking CSA signups

While snow still covered the ground last week, local vegetable farmers were busy starting seeds in trays of dirt. Paul Martin of Sweet Land Farm in Trumansburg said he’s been planting lettuce, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes in his 80-degree greenhouse in preparation for the 15th season of his CSA (community-supported agriculture).

Though most farms won’t begin harvesting until June, planting (and CSA signups) often start in April. Sweet Land is a “free choice CSA,” which means that customers show up once a week for 23 weeks to choose the items they want from a large spread, much like a farmers market. This differs from a traditional CSA model where members get prepacked boxes of veggies.

Martin said that because his barn is like an open-air market, it was relatively easy to make things safe during COVID-19. They require masks, limit people in the barn to four at one time and set up cones to keep people socially distanced.

“For our free choice setup, we bought 40 stainless steel tongs,” Martin said. “We had everybody pick up a set, and it was like being at a salad bar, but instead of there being tongs in everything, everybody had their own and filled their bag with it. At the end, you threw your tong into a ‘dirty’ bin and we washed them similarly to how you do in a restaurant — soapy water, rinse water and then a sterilization tub.”

CSA is a business model that allows farmers stability in a notoriously unpredictable profession. Consumers pay upfront during planting season for a years’ worth of produce and are guaranteed a certain amount of produce on a weekly basis, usually from around June to November.

Martin said that Sweet Land opened up 400 CSA spots this year, with almost 300 already filled.

One thing that sets Sweet Land apart from other CSAs is that members are allowed to pick their own raspberries, strawberries, green beans and flowers on site. The option to ‘pick your own’ can turn a routine errand into a special, memorable experience.

“There’s been this slang of people saying ‘I’m gonna pick up my CSA,’ which has always disturbed me a little bit because then the whole concept becomes a product and not a part of the community,” Martin said of other CSAs. “A lot of people are excited to come to our farm on a Friday and turn their phone off, pick a bouquet of flowers, look at the clouds for a little bit and decompress. I think it’s become more of a selling point for people, having that type of community space.”

Longtime member Kadie Salfi of Ithaca is gearing up for her 14th year as a CSA member at Sweet Land. She said the farm served as a safe place for her and her family to visit over the last year, when many other activities were canceled or felt scary.

“It was so nice throughout the pandemic to go and get the food and be in the fields,” Salfi said. “For me, part of my therapy is going to the farm. It’s very healing for me to do, and during the pandemic, it was extra healing.”

Salfi, who moved to Ithaca in 2008 from the Bay Area, said the community aspect of Sweet Land is one of the reasons she sticks with it. She’s still friends with people she met at a potluck at Sweet Land the year she joined, and over the years, she’s recruited friends to sign up, too.

“Whenever I go there, I always run into someone, and I love it,” Salfi said. “I brought my daughter there from the time she was 4. She’s been going to that farm and picking with me, or playing on the playground, and really understanding where food comes from.”

Martin said he’s continuously expanding the u-pick options because that’s what his customers want, especially raspberries and strawberries. He said this year, they will be growing more sweet peppers and tomatoes, too.

He also said they’ve tried to cultivate community even during the pandemic’s restrictions. Two weeks ago, Sweet Land held its Great Greens Giveaway, an annual event where members usually get to pick free produce from the greenhouse.

This year and last, they adapted it to a drive-thru model to comply with pandemic guidelines. Last weekend, they held a similar drive-thru market, open to the public, as an opportunity for potential customers to check out the farm and to encourage CSA signups.

After 14 successful seasons, Martin said his favorite part about farming is the opportunity to learn from the land and to try different things. He said he enjoys growing cover crops to create not just a sustainable food system, but a thriving one.

“A farmer told me years ago, ‘If you look at every season as an experiment, you only have about 30 or 40 experiments, which doesn’t seem like a lot,’” said Martin. “When you’re a veggie or fruit farmer, the first hurdle is figuring out how to grow a good crop. But then, after that, it’s trying to get cover crops into your rotation to make the soil stronger and more fertile, and I just love playing around with all that.”

Find more information, visit sweetlandfarm.org/home.