Filtering by Tag: Soul Food,CSA

CSA's in Connecticut Are Open for the 2025 Season: Get Your Farm Share NOW!

Features Ingredients CSA Farm Share Farms Shopping Guide Local Farm Homepage

Amy S. White March 11, 2025

In a world of commercial food production and global supply chains, many people are looking for a more sustainable, local, and community-driven alternative to sourcing their food. Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs connect local farmers with their neighboring consumers in a mutually beneficial relationship that fosters a stronger connection between people and their food.

In a traditional CSA program, members become shareholders of the farm. They purchase a subscription or "share" in late winter or early spring, providing farmers with upfront financial support. In return, during harvest season, members receive regular distributions of fresh, seasonal produce, or other farm products like eggs, dairy, or meat, depending on the farm’s offerings. Some farms offer a more flexible CSA program that runs like an on-site credit, where members can choose their own products at the farm stand.

Either system assists small-scale agricultural businesses financially by ensuring them a stable income and reducing their risk. In partnering with the farm, members gain access to the freshest produce and other farm products possible, get to know their local growers, and are able connect in a mindful way to where and how their food is grown. CSAs encourage sustainable agricultural practices, foster a sense of community, and help the local economy.

Continue reading to connect with some of the farms offering CSAs across the state. Don’t hesitate to sign up, as they tend to fill up and sell out quickly.

Sandra's Next Generation: Southern Cuisine With a Whole Lotta Heart in New Haven

Features Interview New Haven Restaurant Soul Food Southern Food New Haven Interview Homepage

Andrew Dominick November 30, 2023

If not for her belief of setting “unrealistic goals,” Sandra Pittman’s namesake restaurant, Sandra’s Next Generation, may not have ever been born in the first place.

Now in over 34 years with no signs of slowing down as evidenced by our Thanksgiving week visit where we witnessed the crew rapidly filling catering orders and making so much cornbread stuffing and baking hundreds of homemade pies it would blow your mind.

And even with an already booming takeout business (the restaurant is mostly takeout, but there’s a patio when the weather is nicer), Pittman’s still finds time to put the SOUL in soul food by consistently giving back to the New Haven community and all its charitable causes.

Wait. Did I say 34 years? To tell the origin story of Sandra’s, we have to take it even further back to New Haven’s Edgewood neighborhood where Pittman, whose name back then was Harris, started cooking in the first place.

Guide To Black Owned Restaurants In Connecticut

Restaurant Features Best of CT Dining Guide Black Owned Hartford County New Haven Fairfield County Jamaican Soul Food Juice Bar African Cajun Comfort Food Homepage

CTbites Team January 30, 2023

To celebrate Black History Month 2023, we have updated our guide to black owned restaurants across the state of Connecticut. If you see a place that is missing, please let us know. Big ups and thanks to Molly Alexander for compiling an excellent start to this list with her Google Map posted to Eat in CT. Get out there and support these restaurants.

We did our best to compile a comprehensive list, but if you know of a spot we missed, please contact us here.

Soul Tasty Debuts Breakfast in Stamford: Great Soul Food And A Great Deal

Restaurant Stamford Breakfast Soul Food Fried Chicken

Andrew Dominick November 12, 2020

Soul Tasty, Stamford’s only soul food restaurant, is waking up before the sun rises to whip up their new breakfast menu that includes an array of omelets, breakfast sandwiches, French toast, and a few southern classics.

Co-owner and chef Jean Gabriel teased Soul Tasty’s stick-to-your-ribs morning offerings with what’s arguably the star of the menu and an inevitable big seller, a fried chicken biscuit with a smattering of honey.

“It’s a southern-style biscuit that’s butter basted throughout the cooking process, so you still get the flakiness, the buttery taste, and the softness,” Gabriel says. “We wanted to get the biscuit to the point where when you have anything with it, like when you bite into the crispy chicken, that it meshes well together for a contrast of textures.”

As for the chicken part of the breakfast sandwich? It’s a boneless thigh, like the one Soul Tasty matches up with its chicken & waffles. Gabriel tells us that he marinates the thigh in a secret spice blend, allows it to sit, rotates it, flours it, eggs it, then dredges it again for a double crunch effect.

Tips to Maximize Your CSA From Mike's Organic Delivery

Features Ingredients CSA Local Farm Ingredients How To Shop Local

Mike Geller June 11, 2020

Having connected farmers to consumers for 10 years in Fairfield & Westchester Counties, Mike's Organic owner Mike Geller knows a thing or two about CSAs. And if there was ever a time to give a CSA a chance, it's now! First and foremost, our farmers need us. As many farms rely significantly on business from restaurants and other sources, a great way to support our farms right now is through signing up for a CSA.

This crisis has highlighted the importance of small, local farms. If planes stop flying or processing plants close, it is they that will feed us...let us never forget that. Second, it is a way to guarantee that fresh, healthy, local food will be on your table for a period of several months. There is so much uncertainty in the world and this is one way to regain some control over your food. Also, so many of us are home cooking and a CSA allows you to be creative and introduce new things to your family!

If you take care of your produce, it will take care of you. It's so fresh when you get it, and if you just give it a little love it will give a whole lot back.

Guide To CSA's in CT: Support Your Local Farmer, Sign Up Now!

Features CT Farms Farm Fresh Farm to Table CSA Ingredients Best of CT

Stephanie Webster April 25, 2020

Need a CSA Share? Here's Connecticut Food and Farm Magazine's Field Guide to Connecticut Community Supported Agriculture: https://bit.ly/2VWuS7G

These farms have CSA shares still available (organized by county), click through for additional details on each. Sales are very brisk this year, please act quickly!

Connecticut’s Brewery Legitimus & Barden Farm Partner Again for 2nd CSABC (Community Supported Agriculture, Beer & Cheese) Share

Features CSA Local Artisan Local Farm CT Beer Cheese Farm to Table

CTbites Team May 23, 2019

Brewery Legitimus, the 7 barrel craft brewery co-founded by husband and wife team Chris and Christina Sayer, is partnering once again with Barden Farm (New Hartford, CT), to bring a Community Supported Agriculture, Beer & Cheese (CSABC) Share to the community. Back for a second year in a row, the 10-week “Farm, Beer and Cheese Share” begins July 11th and will run until September 12th.

The first in the area, the CSABC share brings together locally grown produce from Barden Farm, locally crafted beer by Brewery Legitimus, and locally made cheese from several different farms in CT.

A CSABC share membership is $485 for the 10 Weeks and includes Craft Beer from Brewery Legitimus, Cheese and of course a Farm Share from Barden Farm. It works just like a CSA. Here’s what’s included:

Taproot & Redding Roadhouse Owners Take Over The Holbrook Farm Business

Features CT Farms Farm Fresh Local Farm CSA Bethel Farm Stand

Maddie Phelps May 22, 2019

More than 40 years ago, John and Lynn Holbrook purchased 12 acres of land in Bethel, Connecticut to open their very own family farm. With a mere 2 acres available for farming, the Holbrooks were tasked with maximizing space while remaining environmentally friendly. The rest is history.

While the Holbrooks still own the spectacular farmland, as of this past March, four new faces have joined the farming family. Jeff Taibe, Stephanie Sweeney, and Sean and Erin Reilly decided to tackle the business side of things when the previous tenant opted not to renew her lease. With Taibe and Sweeney owning their restaurant, Taproot, and the Reilly’s owning the Redding Roadhouse, the four decided to merge the Bethel and Redding communities with Holbrook Farm as their link.

Miya's Sushi Announces CSA/Fishery Limited to 12 Memberships

Ingredients Features CSA Fish New Haven

Amy Kundrat July 12, 2015

Photos: Andrew Sullivan

Miya's Sushi in New Haven, led by Chef Bun Lai, is launching a first-of-it's-kind CSA/Fishery set to launch this August. Membership includes a monthly delivery of 6-8 servings of seafood for 5 months at a cost of $800, with delivery included (free to New Haven area, additional costs may apply to regions beyond). Here is the announcement and details from Bun Lai:

Miya’s Sushi is thrilled to announce the first installment of the member-driven Allies in Sustainable Food. This first season will be limited to a dozen memberships, beginning in August and ending in December of 2015.

By being a member of Allies in Sustainable Food, you are supporting the experimentation and research of a small, local, innovative restaurant. Due to high food and labor costs, Miya’s operates on a thin margin, so your financial support will go directly into the development of our most groundbreaking off-the-menu approaches to sustainable eating.