Local Farms Make Meals Meaningful

by Janine Comrie, GreenStar Member

Published in Winter 2023 GreenLeaf Quarterly Newsletter

Janine is a graduate student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Originally from South Florida, she has fallen in love with Ithaca since starting graduate school. She enjoys frequenting GreenStar, along with the Ithaca Farmers Market and various local restaurants. She has been a GreenStar Co-op member since November 2022, and she enjoys using her GreenStar purchases to experiment in the kitchen and try new recipes.

Labels throughout GreenStar Food Co+op’s produce section name local farms that supply fruits and vegetables to the Co-op. What these labels don’t show is all the behind-the-scenes work done to make this a reality.

GreenStar works with each local supplier in a way that suits their unique specialties. Larger farms – such as Stick and Stone Farm, Blue Heron Farm,  Plowbreak Farm, and Remembrance  Farm – consistently supply large quantities of items like carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes. Large deliveries provide GreenStar customers with popular produce at lower prices.

GreenStar also accepts items from local farms, such as Stick and Stone that may be new to some customers.

“Stick and Stone Farm grows a wide variety of produce, [including] specific types of crops, like five types of radicchio [and] lots of Asian greens,” says Chaw Chang, co-owner of Stick and Stone Farm.  “GreenStar has been willing to experiment with those things.”

GreenStar also supports smaller farms. West Haven Farm in Ithaca generally grows produce in smaller quantities and sells directly to consumers. Nevertheless, the farm finds a market for their microgreens at GreenStar.

GreenStar consistently buys 24 bags of microgreens from West Haven Farm each week. This suits the farm’s production style, especially since microgreens need to be harvested and delivered soon after they are ready.

“Our relationship with [GreenStar] is pretty unique. I don’t send them a weekly availability list. I just explain to them this is how microgreens work, and we grow them in small amounts on a tight timeline. And we send [the microgreens] when they’re ready,” says Meagan Wright, CSA manager at West Haven Farm. “GreenStar has been really great about understanding our small scale production.”

Another strategy GreenStar uses is to buy from farm cooperatives, such as Finger Lakes Farm Fresh. In these organizations, multiple farms work together to distribute large quantities of produce. These relationships allow GreenStar to source as many items from local farms as possible, including staples such as onions and potatoes.

GreenStar must still strike a balance between local and non-local products to meet customer needs. Non-local products help stock shelves during seasons when certain items are not locally available or during holidays when customers buy lots of produce for holiday meals.

GreenStar is also dedicated to making produce accessible, so non-local products are sometimes needed to offer staple items at prices that suit customer budgets.

“Local garlic exists for certain, but it’s really, really expensive. That is one thing I will carry in different ways, so I can still continue to provide affordable garlic to the community,” says GreenStar Produce Manager, Andrew Hernandez.

Nevertheless, GreenStar still fulfills many customer needs with fruits and vegetables from local farms. “We have so many strong farms that produce so much produce that we don’t really have a lot of gaps,” says Hernandez.

Local farms benefit significantly from their relationship with GreenStar. “It really lets us stay viable in a way,” says Chang from Stick and Stone Farm. “[The] easiest way to lose money growing vegetables is to grow the vegetables and then compost it. Once you harvest it, you need to find a home for it.”

I also know from personal experience that connecting to local farms through GreenStar makes me as a customer feel more integrated in the local community.

As I walk through the produce section, labels for Stick and Stone Farm, West Haven Farm and other farms remind me of conversations I have had at the Ithaca Farmers Market with the people who manage these farms. Thinking of these encounters, I am glad to know I can support these businesses while enjoying convenient access to nutritious foods by shopping at GreenStar. Meals at home become more meaningful, as symbols of connections I have made since moving to Ithaca.

As Wright from West Haven Farm states, “Having a co-op in town that sources from lots of different places is great for the community and great for the businesses they source from.”