![]() “In 2002 we started our first Just Food-coordinated CSA group in Forest Hills, Queens. Everything went well and the CSA expanded each year by word of mouth and some lucky media exposure,” Matt said. “Our CSA program began on a trial basis with just a few members. All the farmers have to do is deliver the produce. The CSA core members are responsible for organizing everything else - money, staffing, site, etc. They advise the CSA core group and the farm about how best to work together and they offer any necessary support. Just Food’s role is to make the link between a CSA group and the farm. Many farms in the New York environs got a start with CSA in those years. Just Food had become active in trying to connect urban residents in the five boroughs of New York City, many of them low-income people, with fresh food. That year, a non-profit organization called Just Food approached Matt about growing for a CSA in Queens, in New York City. The watershed year for the farm was 2002. He also started a small CSA on Long Island. So Matt scaled up to 10 acres and added a few more farmers markets. Because the land was protected by a conservation easement that permanently preserves it for farmland, he was able to lease it for just a few hundred dollars per acre per year. There was a lot of trial and error!” In 1997, he had the opportunity to lease his current farm on Long Island. “I started really small,” he said, “no business plan, no equipment, no knowledge. In 1994, giving in to the siren song of farming, he quit his cooking job and planted about 1 acre of vegetables, which he sold to restaurants, small stores and one farmers market. ![]() He loved vegetables and natural foods, and he found himself spending more and more time at the city’s farmers markets. Matt, a culinary school graduate in his early 20s, was working in restaurants in New York City. ![]() The farm supports two full-time farmers and provides seasonal jobs to more than 15 employees. His farm, Golden Earthworm Organic Farm in Jamesport, New York, has a CSA with 1,350 members, a farm stand, three farmers markets, and restaurant accounts. Thanks to a combination of hard work, great markets, and a bit of luck, he is now one of the success stories. Like many direct-market vegetable farmers, Matthew Kurek had no farming experience when he started farming. ![]()
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