FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL April 27, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 17
12 | ENTREPRENEURS’ TALES
26 | GOOD THINGS HAPPENING
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
westfaironline.com
Polo shop finds niche in Greenwich BY MARY SHUSTACK mshustack@westfairinc.com FOR THOSE WHO PLAY — or simply admire the lifestyle — Casablanca Polo in Greenwich has quickly become a go-to source. In less than a year, the store at 133 Greenwich Ave. has proven itself a popular destination for players in search of everything from polo whites to helmets to leather boots. With stores in Argentina, London and America, Casablanca Polo bills itself as “the world’s foremost producer of leading edge polo equipment and apparel.” Knowing the sport from the playing field up has led to continued growth for the 10-yearold brand that started out as an equipment supplier, said Andrew Seibert, a partner in the com-
Store manager Tucker Roulx Pope, left, and Casablanca Polo partner Andrew Seibert in the Greenwich store. Photo by Bob Rozycki
pany founded by brothers-in-law Stephen Alexander and Alejandro Viel in England. As Seibert, a Greenwich resident, said, “Our tagline is ‘Inspired by Passion’ because we love it. … We are polo players.” Fellow players, he said, recognize “an authenticity,” one that has led to Casablanca working closely with a number of top players. “They let us test our equipment on them,” Seibert said, with resulting products (equipment made in Argentina) featured exclusively in American stores in Houston and Greenwich. Of course, setting up shop in Fairfield County wasn’t by chance. “There’s seven clubs within a hundred miles of here, and that doesn’t count Saratoga,” Seibert said of the noted polo hotspot. » POLO, page 6
Region’s CSAs offer alternative to grocery shopping BY EVAN FALLOR evan@westfairinc.com JOE KELLER’S GARDEN OF IDEAS, fit with its expansive shrubbery, winding dirt paths and wooden bridges crossing over the marshy outer reaches of Mamanasco Lake, has been an earthly and spiritual staple in Ridgefield for more than four decades. The family-owned 8-acre plot of vegetable farmland, marshland and woodlands on North Salem Road has long been a destination for area residents to visit and take in its aesthetics. Within the past decade, more and more visitors began asking if they could have a head of its lettuce, a vine of tomatoes or some herbs to season their dinners with. They wanted a fresher, healthier alternative to what they could find in a grocery store. The demand became so great that seven years ago, Keller and his wife and Garden of Ideas co-owner Ilsa Svendsen began their own
Community Supported Agriculture program, or CSA, on the property. A rapidly growing and sustainable alternative to conventional produce shopping, CSAs offer members a chance to have their share of a farm’s harvest with a down payment before the harvesting season and then through weekly pickups. “The beauty of a CSA is that people pay you up front,” Keller said. “You get that infusion of capital. Then you can focus on the farming.” Garden of Ideas’ spring CSA began April 23 and lasts until May 21; the summer program runs from June 5 through Sept. 3; and the fall CSA runs from Sept. 10 through Oct. 22. The six-week CSAs cost $175, and the 18-week CSA costs $525. A typical weekly share could range anywhere from one to three shopping bags worth of fruit and vegetables — about six to seven items — depending on the season. Members do
not make selections; they simply get what is harvested that week. Keller grows most of his produce — from green beans to strawberries to komatsuna — on an adjacent stretch of farm just down the road, but some is grown on the main site of Garden of Ideas. In late April, he started to see the first chives of the season begin to sprout. Keller said most members come from Ridgefield, Darien, Danbury and Redding, and are predominantly young couples with one or two children. He said the CSA has grown in size each year since it began in 2008, and he anticipates 45, 100 and 85 members for this year’s spring, summer and fall programs, respectively. Members pick up produce each Thursday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the farm. The most popular item Keller harvests: the tomato. “People are so anxious to get real food,” » CSA, page 4