Sara Kurak and James Graves operate the Full and By Farm CSA in Essex, NY, sometimes with assistance from temporary farmhands and interns.

How the Share Works

Our summer farm season runs from June through the end of December, followed by a storage season that will feed you from January through March. During this time you will be exposed to the full seasonal diet—from over- wintered vegetables and early spring greens through the height of summer eating and into the bountiful harvests of fall and the roots and storage crops of early winter. The meat share also has its seasonality; broiler chickens are a specialty of summer, while pork and beef are best in the fall and winter.

Because we all eat differently we won’t be pre-packing a box for you. At each pick-up you will be choosing your own food from everything available that week. Each adult in your household has their own vegetable share and should select “what one person will eat in a week” from the weekly harvest. The meat and egg shares can be split by all members of the household.

Pickups are at Full and By Farm on Thursdays from 4 until 6 p.m. If you cannot make it to pickup because you are out of town, please have someone else come for your share or notify us by 8 am to donate it to the food pantry. On special occasion we will arrange a time Friday or Monday during business hours for a late pick-up.

Organic and Sustainable

At Full and By Farm we continually strive to produce food with the most sustainable organic methods—minimizing petroleum inputs throughout the farm system (diesel fuel, plastic mulches, and fertilizers), raising animals in as natural a setting as possible, limiting food packaging and time spent in transit, and keeping medication and pesticides out of our food, our bodies and our environment.

Employing draft horses for work otherwise done by tractors helps keep the soil and air on the farm clean and keeps the use of costly diesel fuel to a minimum. Our horses are the main source of mechanical advantage in the vegetable fields and sugarbush. We use them heavily in the hayfields as well, and plan to expand their role around the farm as time progresses.

We have done our best to keep the budget trim and to make the shares as financially manageable as possible. We are here to discuss options for members who can’t meet the requested contribution, and likewise are grateful to those who can afford to help the farm fill those gaps with an additional investment. We are always happy to discuss our operating budget and to engage in conversation about why food costs what it does.

Our Animals and Vegetables

What you can expect in a vegetable share: Lettuce, spinach, asparagus, strawberries, peas, beans, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, kale, swiss chard, cabbage, summer squash, basil, peppers, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, winter squash, leeks, brussel sprouts, parsnips, and celeriac.

Our vegetables are raised using organic practices. No pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers are used. We always strive to provide a great variety of fruits and vegetables to give you many options to select from. Please note that our share prices reflect the knowledge that members do not regularly take everything offered.

What you can expect in a meat share: We source our feed locally whenever possible and we do not preventively medicate our animals. In the event of a serious injury or illness we will choose the most humane treatment available; if medication is involved we will inform members and you may opt out of that meat. A favorite mantra at Full and By Farm is “go whole hog”. We encourage people to experiment with cuts and recipes that they are not as familiar with and to utilize the whole animal.

Our hogs are all heritage breeds known for their remarkable performance out on range. The hogs derive a good deal of their calories from rooting in the pasture, supplemented with vegetable scraps, organic grains and dairy by-products.

We raise Beef from our herd of American Milking Devons. One of the first cattle breeds introduced to our country, devons are prized for their performance on a 100% grass-fed diet. We rotationally graze our steers, providing fresh grass and pasture plants in the summer and hay in the winter. These heritage genetics have not been altered for quick weight gain in a grain-based operation as many modern breeds have.

Our broiler chickens are pasture-raised. They live in a coop which is moved daily, harvesting their own grass, bugs and worms to supplement their diet of organic grains. In the share you will receive whole or half chickens; they are delicious roasted, grilled, fried, or prepared in soup. Whole chicken weights vary between 3.5 and 5.5 lbs.

What you can expect in an egg share: Our laying hens spend all but the coldest months on pasture, living in a range coop which is moved daily. They follow just behind the cows, eating bugs and grazing on the weeds and grasses. Unlike many farm-fresh producers we feed only organic grains. You can tell if an egg is fresh if the yolk sits high when you break it; and if a chicken has been dining on pasture, the yolk is school bus yellow in color.

Contact Full and By Farm

Full and By Farm is located at 319 Leaning Road, Essex, NY 12936. Contact the farm by email at fullandbyfarm@gmail.com or call 518-963-7127.

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