PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Forget the farmer's market — Central Brooklyn's newest CSAs have got dinner down soup to nuts.
OK, there's no nuts. But the brand new 'kitchen-centric' CSA from Letterbox Farm Collective does offer a soup kit — celery, carrot and onion — as well as shares designed specifically for Brooklyn's picklers and home-brewers.
For the truly bold, there's even a kimchi starter set.
Their 21-week-long Garden Share, which includes the soup kit, is heavy on the kale and other roughage, though it also includes exotics like sorrel and hot peppers. For the more daring, the DIY-inflected Farmhouse Kitchen Share (priced per order) features rabbits, duck and quail eggs, fresh honey and barley for home brewing.
"We offer shares that are structured around cohesive meals, designed to build relationship with the season and build skills in the kitchen," farmer Faith Gilbert said of the CSA's Crown Heights pilot, which will distribute out of LaunchPad on Franklin Avenue beginning in June.
"We have planned our harvests so you'll always get the soup vegetables together: celery, carrot, onion," she added. "You’ll always get fennel with beets, too, since beets and fennel make great friends!"
Letterbox isn't the only new CSA moving into the neighborhood. Hudson Valley's Sweet Holler Farm will debut its Prospect Heights share in June, bringing fancy restaurant fare to local noshers for $475 for the season.
For those hoping to sample the full range of seasonal produce, both the Crown Heights Farm Share and the Prospect Park CSA offer fruit shares. Crown Heights also offers a weekly cheese box, while Prospect Park allows locavores to buy into either eggs or flowers.
"We have a subsidized share program for lower income residents of the community," said Crown Heights Farm Share manager Fran Miller. "We take food stamps."
