Fresh local organic celery from Sun Sprout Farm, grown on the black dirt of Chester, NY, a fertile, dark soil left behind by an ancient glacial lake. This is Pascal celery, the crisp, pale green stalk variety that dominates modern celery growing, bred from a bitter, thin-stalked wild ancestor called smallage into the mild, crunchy vegetable most cooks know today. Celery belongs to the same family as carrots, parsley, and fennel, and the part eaten is the petiole, or leaf stalk, rather than a root or stem proper. Use it raw for snacking with hummus or nut butter, or as the aromatic base of a mirepoix alongside onion and carrot for stocks, soups, and braises. The leaves are edible too and add a concentrated celery flavor to stocks or chopped finely into salads.
Chester, NY
Sun Sprout Farm is located on New York’s famous black dirt in Chester, NY. The land is being leased from the Chester Agricultural Center as part of an innovative farmland preservation project that provides long term, stable leases for high quality farmland.
Sun Sprout Farm is co-owned by Simon Ziegler and Madeleine Banulski who met in 2006 as volunteers at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills in Kimberton, PA, a living community that includes adults with developmental disabilities. Simon worked on the bio-dynamic dairy farm and Madeleine worked in the CSA garden, apple orchard and village cafe. After their two-year service, Simon returned to Germany in 2008 to study and obtain his bachelor’s degree in Organic Agriculture Science in Witzenhausen, Germany while Madeleine started going to nursing school in Philadelphia, PA. Simon came back to farm during his summer breaks every year, and worked on Riverbank Farm in Roxbury, CT with Madeleine as well as various CSA and community gardens in Philadelphia. Simon moved permanently from Germany to the US in 2011 and worked for six years as the field manager at Riverbank Farm, a fifteen-acre organic vegetable farm in Roxbury, CT.
They always dreamed of starting their own farm together. They have been in love with the Hudson Valley for a long time, and after several years of looking for the right place, found our destination in Chester, NY. Madeleine is a nurse and works on the farm part time while continuing her nursing career.