Gene Kosinski, owner of Kosinski Farms in Westfield, works in a refrigeration unit filling orders for their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – It is not your average farm and Gene Kosinski is not your average farmer.
For the past 40 years, Kosinski and his wife, Sue, have been farming various crops in the Westfield area for one simple purpose: “for taste.”
“We know a section of the public enjoys fresh produce, so we try to offer a lot of different vegetables,” he said yesterday as he handed to a customer a box of produce that had been picked that morning, a box included radishes, lettuce, carrots, kale and strawberries.
For over 25 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.
Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.
Here in Westfield , the CSA program at Kosinski Farm, which is now in its third summer, is growing like a bean stalk, and will have grown much more than knee high by the fourth of July.
“I can’t say how many people are participating in the program,” the Feeding Hills native said as he handed another box of produce to a customer. “But it has been growing substantially since we started it a few years ago.”
“The food is good, very tasty,” said Karl Lawson of Agawam, who was picking up his first box of the season with his father, Tom.
Tom Lawson, left, and his son Karl, remove their weekly allotment of fresh fruits and vegetables from the Kosinski Farm on North Road as part of the Community Supported Agricultural program. The Lawson’s bought “shares” in the Kosinski Farm which entitles them to a measured amount of the seasonal food each week. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
The elder Lawson, of Westfield, loves the program, and is in his third year of participating.
“It’s nice to not have to shop at a grocery store,” said Lawson, who can appreciate great produce. After all, his wife Carol’s family ran Sunrise Apple Orchard in Granville as a child.
It is that clientele base that Kosinski caters to for this program.
“The people who come here and support a CSA, they aren’t the people who’ll go to Big Y, for instance,” Kosinski said. “But by the same token, because we aren’t an organic farm, there is another segment of the population who won’t do business with us. We get the people who want the freshest produce available.”
While not being an organic farm, Kosinski’s operation is a first-rate example of science being used to forward the ancient art of farming.
“We are part of an integrated pest management system with UMass and Cornell University,” Kosinski said. “The data they (UMass and Cornell) get from receivers around the farm tell them about climate changes and certain pests, which they relay back to us, telling us when to spray.”
At a fee of $375 at the start of the year, a customer can pick up a box of fresh veggies every week during the summer months, a value which reflects in the quality of produce one receives in their box.
After receiving a $75,000 grant from the state at the end of May, Kosinski is set to unveil his latest venture, a winery which is set to be constructed by Hometown Structures of Westfield this fall.
“The farm is sustainable, but the winery’s going to be an added value,” said Kosinski during a break in the action, his eyes lighting up jovially behind his glasses.
With Florence’s Mineral Hills Winery set to begin selling their products at the Downtown Westfield Farmer’s Market starting tomorrow, it’s a great time to be a farm winery in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Kosinski, whose farm was one of 11 around the state to receive a portion of $700,000 in state funds issued by Governor Deval Patrick through the state’s Department of Agriculture, believes the winery will be the figurative cherry on top for his farm.
“We have the berries growing, why not make wine?” he said.
While large supermarkets may take a week to stock their produce onto their shelves, Kosinski Farm will continue to represent a bright local blip on Massachusetts’ agricultural radar.
“I don’t know if these (CSA programs) are the future,” Kosinski said. “But we’ve been receiving more and more positive feedback every year. I just hope it keeps getting better.”
