Sustainable Eating in Cleveland

City Fresh

City Fresh is an example of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) company, although an unusual one. A CSA, as it says on their site, is "a form of cooperative purchasing in which a group of neighbors purchase a share of produce from a local farmer. The farmer receives payment upfront in exchange for a bounty of produce throughout the growing season. This is a form of “community supported agriculture” in which a group of people support a local farmer or group of local farmers by committing a portion of their weekly food budget to supporting that farm."

The traditional way to do this is to pay up front for the whole summer and part way into the fall (this may be around $500), and then go and pick up a box of food every week. Some CSA's, like City Fresh, offer only produce, but there are others that give you meat, eggs, fish, flowers, cheese, you name it. City Fresh is different in that you don't have to pay ahead of time, except in one week intervals. If you come to one of their Fresh Stop pickup locations in the middle of July and ask for a share, you can pay for it and get it next week. Then, you can never come back or you can pay ahead for another week or two, or for the whole rest of the summer if you like. If you don't show up to get your share, it gets donated to different places depending on the Fresh Stop.

Their site says that you can sign up by email or mail, but since I didn't do my homework on this issue, I just came to the Coventry location (there are several pickup locations in Cuyahoga and Summit county) and paid for the next week. You get a little receipt that you must remember to bring at pickup time. The food is all laid out under a tent and a chart tells you how many of each thing you are supposed to take. Here are pictures:

and

As you can see, this is for the single share. There are single shares for 1-2 people ($12) and family shares for 3-4 ($24). I forgot to take a picture of the family share board but I'm sure its similar. Their website says if you have a low income you can get the cost of your share cut in half. To me this pricing seems more than reasonable. The bag of vegetables I took home was pretty big. I do need to go to a store at some point and write down what all these things usually cost - I'm sort of lacking information in that department, having never shopped for myself with any degree of seriousness before.

But. Seems cheap. I'm not sure what you have to do to prove you have a low income, though. I'm sending them an email about that, as the website doesn't seem to say. You can also donate to them to help support the low income shareholders.

Their brochure says that the food at City Fresh comes from urban growers and traditional farmers, and being a member allows you to "support urban green space and keep family farmers on their land," and keep "dollars in your local economy," among other reasons.

City Fresh was started with help from the New Agrarian Center in Oberlin and the Ohio State University Extension. Right now I can't intelligently describe what either of these organizations are - this link explains, sort of - but suffice it to say they help local farmers figure out what they're doing. It is also funded by the USDA Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program. In addition to hosting Fresh Stops, it offers garden training. Again, click the explainy-link if you want to know more.

Currently, Lisa-Jean Sylvia runs City Fresh. She looks like a cool lady and I'd like to meet her if I can. Here is a Cleveland.com article about her and the program. Thanks, Marilyn.

Another important point, from their brochure: "City Fresh provides free soil samples for all urban growers to ensure that soil is free of heavy metals, lead, or other toxins. While most participating farmers are not certified organic, most follow organic production standards or sustainable or low-input methods that minimize the input of chemicals." So, if the produce is coming from an urban farm its not going to contain lots of crazy things that will give you or your kids cancer. However, there is the problem of airborne pollutants. Can those get into your produce if you are an urban farmer?

Anyway, next entry is City Fresh meals.

What I bought:

City Fresh

1. Bok Choy, medium size
2. Cabbage, medium size
3. Potatoes, ~1 lb?
4. Sweet Onion, large
5. Kale, ~6 oz
6. Oregano, a small bunch
7. Chamomile, a small bunch
8. Zucchini
9. Mixed Greens, ~6 oz

$12

Zagara's

1. Ohio Proud Beef, ~ 1 lb, $9.01

Total: $21.01