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Full and By Farm, Essex, NY

Draft horses working the fields at Full and By Farm (Credit: Sara Kurak)
Draft horses working the fields at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)

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

Why “Full and By”? What does this whimsical name actually mean? Here is the definition:

full and by (adv.) [nautical]: Steering as close to the wind as possible while keeping the sails full.

Full and By Farm logo
Full and By Farm Logo

Nestled between the Boquet River and Boquet Mountain, this land was historically a holstein dairy, now reborn as a diversified vegetable and livestock farm. Combining ancient, proven cultivation techniques with the latest innovations in sustainable growing methods and resource conservation, we are rejuvenating a local landmark while generating sustenance for the community.

Contact the farm at fullandbyfarm@gmail.com or 518-963-7127.

The Full and By Share

We all eat differently. At Full and By Farm we celebrate this individuality with options to fully customize your own share. Choose to include vegetables, meats or eggs in a variety of quantities.

Our Main Farm Season runs from June through the end of December and features the freshest seasonal produce, meats and pastured eggs. The Storage + Spring Season sets your table from January through May, feeding you storage root crops, grains and dry beans, sprouted greens, fermented foods, fresh eggs and meat from our freezers. Maple syrup, asparagus and spinach show up fresh in the early spring.

Pickups are at Full and By Farm on Thursdays from 4 until 6 p.m. If you cannot make it to pickup, please have someone else come for your share or notify us by 8 am Thursday to donate it to the food pantry. Stop by the farm for self-serve late pickup on Fridays and Saturdays, 9-5.

How Full and By Farm Works

At Full and By Farm we continually strive to produce that tastiest food with the most sustainable organic methods—minimizing petroleum inputs throughout the farm system (diesel fuel, fertilizers, plastic mulches and covers), raising animals in as humane and 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.

Bringing in hay at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)
Bringing in hay at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)

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, and play a major role in haymaking and grain production.

Why the Full and By Farm CSA?

Membership at Full and By puts you in direct contact with the farmers who grow your food. This close relationship empowers you with the unique opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback directly to the people making the products. On any given day you will find us in the fields and around the barnyard, and you’ll see us every week at pickup!

We love input and encourage members to become involved through active feedback, helping in the fields and barns or coming by for a walk on the farm. Joining a CSA is an opportunity to become better connected to the world around you—to share food and experiences with your neighbors and to connect your eating to the rhythm of the seasons.

Bull at Full and By Farm (Credit: Sara Kurak)
Our cow Alyssum grazing in the field at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)

Membership in a CSA is an investment. You are not simply purchasing a finished product, but are hiring us–as growers–to produce goods directly for you. You share in the joys of the freshest, as well as the disappointment of an occasional set-back. We pledge to do our best with whatever the weather, soil, insects, and animals throw our way; in trade we pass that bounty on to you.

Supporting our local business helps keep your money in this community–we in turn purchase building materials, grain and farm supplies locally. Help us maintain this local landscape, take part in preserving and restoring a piece of agrarian and architectural heritage that community is so rich in.

Full and By Farm Animals and Vegetables

What you can expect in a vegetable share: Asparagus, apple cider, beans, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage,  carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, corn meal, cucumbers, dry beans, garlic, herbs, kale, leeks, lettuce, maple syrup,  melons, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, radishes, spinach, strawberries, summer squash, swiss chard,  tomatoes, wheat berries, whole wheat flour, and winter squash. No pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers are  ever used.

Our vegetable share now comes in two sizes:

Free Choice share: Our traditional all-you-can-eat share that gives you full choice in what and how much to take  from all the produce, grains, dry beans and value-added goodies available each week. Members are encouraged  to take extra veggies for canning when they are available throughout the season. We strive to provide the greatest  variety possible for you to select from—our share prices reflect the knowledge that members do not take  everything offered each week, but choose their favorites from it.

Veggies in the share at Full and By Farm
Summer veggies in the share at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)

Taste of the Farm share: For members who want just a taste of the seasonal produce and CSA experience  without the full share commitment. We select 3-4 items from the fresh produce available each week. A typical  pick-up might include 1/2 lb of greens, a pint of beans or tomatoes, and a bunch of carrots.

What you can expect in a meat share: Sign-up for how many pounds per week your household uses, then choose what cuts you want from the available selection of pork, beef and chicken.

Our pork comes from 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. Members choose from chops, roasts, artisan sausages, spare ribs, ham steaks, scrapple, rendered lard, and delectable maple-cured bacon.

We raise Beef from our herd of American Milking Devons–a heritage breed prized for exceptional flavor and texture on a 100% grass-fed diet. We rotationally graze our cows and steers, providing fresh grass and pasture plants daily in the summer and hay in the winter. Cuts include steaks, roasts ground beef, stew beef, short ribs, organ meats and homemade stock.

Chickens at Full and By Farm (Credit: Sara Kurak)
Chickens browsing at Full and By Farm. (Credit: Sara Kurak)

Broiler chickens are pasture-raised, they move daily and harvest their own grass, bugs and worms to supplement their diet of organic grains. Broiler Chickens are delicious roasted, grilled, fried, or in soup. Whole and half chickens weigh approximately 4 and 2 lbs. respectively.

What you can expect in an egg share: Our laying hens spend all but the coldest months on pasture, roosting in a range coop which is moved daily. They spend their days 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.

To learn more about membership contact the farm by email at fullandbyfarm@gmail.com or call 518-963-7127 to ask questions and request a membership form.

How to Find Full and By Farm

Full and By Farm is located at 319 Leaning Road, Essex, NY 12936.


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