The Full Plate Farm Collective

Many Community Supported Agriculture systems (CSA) are set up so that one farm provides all of the produce.  The Full Plate Farm Collective CSA is a collective model, where multiple farms work together to provide produce for a common membership. This allows our farms to focus on a specific set of crops, rather than produce all the crops themselves--for example, one farm can focus on producing high-quality tomatoes while another focuses on greens.  Our farms share resources like equipment, storage space, and our website.  Our wonderful coordinator, Molly, oversees things like distribution logistics, membership and our regular farmers' meetings, allowing the farms to focus on what they do best - growing good food for you!

No matter where you pick up your share or have it delivered, your produce comes from all of the farms in the collective and, occasionally, from other great organic growers in our area.

The Saturday farm pick-up is hosted in The Youth Farm's Three Swallows barn on Nelson Road. Ann Piombino and the LACS Youth Farm Project  manage this historical farm adjacent to the Ithaca Waldorf School.  Students from LACS and other youth groups in the area such as South Side and the Youth Employment Service grow our CSA U-Pick garden and grow an additional garden for their own use.  Much of the produce they grow will funnel directly into the LACS lunch program, nourishing the student body. We at the Full Plate will work closely with the students and their leading teacher, Dan Flerlage, to make sure that this is a productive experience for all of us, including our members.