Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farms

New Jersey is the Garden State. That’s not what you would think if you’re just visiting – landing at Newark Airport or Penn Station.

The NJ where I grew up is very different from the urban sprawl of NYC. There’s farmland, lakes, rural roads. As I drive back to my family home I pass sheep and dairy farms, a vineyard, fields of corn and a roadside stand that sells vegetables on the honor system.

My sister and her boyfriend have a menagerie of goats, chickens, ducks and dogs. They drink fresh goat milk, make their own cheese, and have the most beautiful and delicious fresh eggs you can ever imagine. And, they are members of the Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farms.

Genesis Farms, located in Blairstown, NJ, was started in the late 1980s. It’s several hundred acres of farm and orchards managed by a small group of gardeners. It is totally supported by the shareholder community.

This year I became a shareholder at the CSG and today received my first bounty. It consisted of fresh greens for salads, herbs, root vegetables, and some greens that are unidentifiable to me! (Will have to start Googling to find out what they are.) Is there such a thing as radish greens?

Herbs (rosemary, oregano, sage, & thyme), greens, and radishes.So, tonight I made my first CSA Salad with fresh young greens and radishes from the Garden and a few veggies I already had in the fridge. It was terrific! Tomorrow night it’s a roasted vegetable extravaganza using the potatoes, carrots, and fresh herbs. Yum.

This should be an interesting culinary summer.

PS - CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. CSG is the Community Supported Garden, which is how the folks at Genesis Farms refer to their shareholder supported gardens. It seems most folks identify with CSA hence the name of this section of my blog is CSA Chronicle.