When it comes to buying local produce, there’s only one way to out-Greenmarket the Greenmarket: joining a CSA. The burgeoning movement (the acronym is short for “community-supported agriculture”) connects local farmers to veggie-obsessed consumers. Members buy shares in a farm during the winter and spring ($400–$450 for roughly 24 weeks) and reap the benefits come mid-June in the form of weekly produce pickups at distribution sites scattered throughout the city. But despite the joy of bypassing lackluster supermarket produce for boxes of freshly picked corn, juicy field tomatoes, and every kind of leafy green imaginable, there’s a minor rub: Joining a CSA means you need to come up with a culinary use for whatever happens to be harvested that week—childhood aversions notwithstanding. For a full list of locations, see justfood.org.
Cobble Hill
Pick Up, Sign Up
Congress St. at Court St., Brooklyn; 718-802-1972
Farm
Green Thumb Organic Farm, Water Mill
Lower East Side
Pick Up, Sign Up
53 Stanton St., nr. Eldridge St. 212-696-6860
Farm
Windflower Farm, Valley Falls
Greenwich Village
Pick Up, Sign Up
35 W. 4th St., nr. Greene St.; 212-998-5547
Farm
Norwich Meadows Farm, Norwich
Upper West Side
Pick Up, Sign Up
550 West End Ave., nr. 86th St.; 212-539-3826
Farm
Roxbury Farm, Kinderhook