Little River Cooperative Taking a CSA Break This Season

July 10, 2019

One of South Florida’s popular urban farms and CSAs, Little River Cooperative, is taking a year off from farming – and their CSA – this upcoming season. They cite the high costs of land, pricing and responsible land stewardship as some of the reasons for the pause.

Little River Cooperative, run by farmers Muriel Olivares and Tiffany Noe, and French Farms, operated by Chris French, have used leased land for their farms, which supplied fresh produce to South Florida through their CSA and at the Legion Park farmers market seasonally. But now, they’ve decided to leave their large plot of farming land in North Miami and pause the CSA program.

“Both of our small businesses have existed on leased land and after being in the grind this long we’ve come to the conclusion that eventually a farmer needs some kind of land security in order to take their farm to the next level,” Little River Cooperative said in an announcement to followers. “You all know that the profit margins in farming are very small. One way that creative small farmers get around that is to focus on self-sustainability and efficiency. Both of those things become increasingly difficult when a farmer doesn’t own their land or at least have a secure long-term lease (10-15 years or more).”

Little River Cooperative herbs

Both French Farms and Little River Cooperative have been considering buying land, they says, but land in South Florida (especially land within the city limits or anywhere near the city) is no longer priced for farming, it is priced for development.

While they’re not offering their CSA this upcoming season, Little River Cooperative will continue to be a part of South Florida’s edible gardening community, selling plant starts for heirloom vegetables, fruit trees, natives and butterfly plants. “Over the past two years our nursery in Allapattah has become an amazing urban oasis of edible plants and we plan to make it even more productive and more interactive this year,” they says. They also plan to continue hosting educational workshops at their demonstration garden and produce edible flowers, herbs and specialty greens for sale to the public on site or at the market.

In the meantime, they encourage their customers to support local businesses and continue buying local produce, and stay tuned for future developments. “We may reinstate the CSA program in years to come, depending on how things pan out for us farmers, our business and our families.

Little River Cooperative
Miami