A DECADE AGO, five Lancaster-based Amish farmers decided to band together to sell their crops through a CSA in an effort to pool resources and create efficiencies. Sunny Harvest grew quickly through word of mouth, and today, the growers collective is a wholesale-only business that includes 27 farms.
Sunny Harvest’s signature crops are broccoli and cauliflower, but it also grows a wide variety of other produce, including asparagus, zucchini, radishes, tomatoes, strawberries, cabbage, kale, red raspberries, blackberries, bell peppers, hot peppers, basil, Brussels sprouts, onions, sweet corn, watermelons, cantaloupes, green beans, lettuces, cucumbers, decorative gourds, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash and flowers.
Philadelphia is the beneficiary of much of the collective’s fruits and vegetables. Sunny Harvest is a key farming partner of Philly Food Works, and locals can also find their products at Wegmans, Weavers Way Co-op, Riverwards Produce, the Swarthmore CO-OP, the Common Market and in meals at fast casual restaurants Sweetgreen and Dig (two of their biggest clients).
It’s a win-win: The collective has resulted in not only affordable, fresh food coming to the Philly area three days a week, but also in the opening of new farms and employment for dozens of Lancaster-area residents.
“At the end of the day, this is really what we want to be doing, because you’re living on the farm with a full-time job,” says John Glick of Tenderleaf Meadows, who lives on his farm with his wife and eight children. “The farmers all seem pretty content with how it’s gone.”
Find SUNNY HARVEST produce at PhillyFoodWorks.com
