Growing Together CSA box
The Nashville Food Project is perhaps best known for its efforts to alleviate food insecurity in our city. But the organization also takes on important work specifically within immigrant communities. One initiative of the organization falls under their Growing Together program.
On a 1-acre plot of land in South Nashville, NFP has worked with a small group of Nashville transplants from Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal to create a garden where the refugees can farm like they did at home before political pressures drove them away. Already from an agrarian background, these urban farmers find fulfillment through working the land and contributing to their adopted community in the form of food.
Nashvillians can take part in the Growing Together initiative in two ways — either by subscribing to a weekly Veggie Box CSA program or by shopping at weekly farmers markets put on by The Nashville Food Project. In addition to familiar produce you might find in other CSAs or at local farm stands, the farmers of Growing Together also cultivate vegetables from their homelands, adding some variety to your weekly shopping list. While the offering changes weekly, here’s what you might expect to find in any given month of the program (courtesy of The Nashville Food Project’s website):
May: arugula, lettuce, mizuna, mustards, radish, salad turnips, small bok choy and tatsoi.
June: carrots, beets, kohlrabi, fennel, snow and sugar peas, potatoes, broccoli, and all of the previous month’s produce.
July: cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, sweet potato greens, water spinach, long beans and some of the previous month’s produce as well.
September: summer squash, cherry tomatoes, okra, green beans, peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, arugula, lettuce mix, mustards, salad turnips, radish, bitter gourd, water spinach, roselle greens, pumpkin shoots.
October: arugula, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, Asian greens, mustards, okra, peppers, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, fennel, cabbages, broccoli, sweet potatoes, green pumpkin, bitter gourd, roselle greens and calyx.
A full share of the Veggie Box CSA program is $780 for 26 weeks of produce, usually eight to 10 unique selections of organically grown vegetables and herbs, enough to feed one to two people or supplement meals for a larger family. A half-share runs $416. Both subscriptions include a digital culinary toolkit with tips, tricks, recipes and other information, weekly pickup reminders and access to CSA-member group chats.
The program runs from May 1 until Nov. 22 with a four-week interruption in August. Pickup locations for the CSA are available on Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. at The Nashville Food Project at 5904 California Ave. and at the farm location at 299 Haywood Lane on Saturdays from 9 a.m. until noon.
That Saturday pickup window is also when non-CSA subscribers can shop à la carte from the farm’s products that week. The market is located behind Christ Lutheran Church at that same 299 Haywood Lane address. Opening day for the farm store this season will be May 3, and the market will be open until Nov. 22. SNAP benefits are accepted at the market.
For more info or to sign up for a Veggie Box CSA, visit the Growing Together page at the NFP website.
