Fresh Fork Market

Best CSA in the history of CSAs. What did I like about FFM? Everything. What didn’t I like? Nothing! Great produce. High quality meat, dairy, and eggs that you can trust were responsibly sourced. Delicious and healthy «value added» items. And really excellent «experiences» available. From classes, to social events. If you’re looking for a CSA in the CLE area, check out FFM. Highly recommend!

I honestly don’t know what I did before Fresh Fork Market. I mean, what’s not to love about receiving fresh local produce once a week? At a super reasonable price, might I add!
We signed up for the summer share not knowing what to expect. But our expectations were far exceeded. We pick up our bag every Wednesday, right downtown where my boyfriend can conveniently pick it up after work. Every week we are delighted to receive an abundance of fruits, veggies, and grains. There is always a lot of variety from week to week, so its always exciting to see what the current week’s bag will hold. We also regularly receive produce that I wouldn’t normally buy at the grocery store, but I love that our bag sometimes forces me to cook outside my comfort zone and try different things. I also love that they offer custom bags based off of dietary restrictions. We chose the vegan bag because we eat a lot of produce, and rarely eat meat/​dairy. They also have bags for vegetarians and omnivores! I could not be more pleased with FFM. I talk about it and recommend it to everyone. It has saved us not only a bundle on our groceries, but also the time we used to spend grocery shopping on the weekends.

I have officially been a market subscriber for a year now, 4 seasons and embarking on my 2^nd summer season. I can’t imagine my food life without it. For an extremely reasonable price I can add fresh, local, organic foods to our weekly groceries in one stop. And NOT just veggies… but also meats… dairy…cheeses…and more. Thank you fresh fork! I can cook with the seasons. You have made meal planning better and eating healthier and local easier!

Fresh Fork Market is the best!
I’ve been a member for years and they have built a great community around good food! There is a lot of planning and collaboration with local producers.
Social and educational events are fun and add value.
I can’t recommend them highly enough.

I tried the summer share last year and had a good experience. We are so lucky to live in Cleveland where something like this exists. I’ve never had so much fresh food on a weekly basis like this, ha. Trevor and the team there care about the quality of their work and will listen to any questions or concerns you have. They also do cooking classes to learn how to prepare some of the foods that may be new to you. This is a great service and worth checking out if you like to prepare your own food. In addition to the food, it leaves you feeling good knowing that you are supporting local farmers and their families instead of massive corporate brands.

This was my first time joining a CSA and I was not disappointed! I did the summer share and would consider the winter. The vegetables and fruit were almost always incredibly fresh, but I did have a couple of weeks of peppers that were rotting (Note: this is a really minimal complaint considering the sheer amount of vegetables you get). Next year I might opt for the vegetarian over the omnivore, because I’m not a huge meat eater and you can buy the kinds of meat you want as an add on without having to be at the mercy of the share. As an example, three of the weeks we got whole chickens which I get can be versatile, but they are really a lot of trouble to wait to defrost x 2 – 3 days and a pain to prepare and cook, especially if you’re not a huge fan of chicken. The turkey burgers were the best I’ve ever had, and their fig goat cheese was amazing — it tasted almost like cheesecake. I loved the weeks when we got Pope’s fresh salsa and still crave it! It’s very convenient that you can grab your bag from any location Wed-​Sat and even have vacation weeks. I will definitely be a regular user. For $ 25/​week (prepaid) you can’t beat it!

I’d say an update is due, considering how much I talk about FFM on a daily basis!
The Winter Share is off the chain – if you’re even considering it, do it. I’m a regular Summer Share member (2yrs running) and it’s my favorite. However, last year I didn’t do the Winter one and this year I did – holy crap was I missing out.
Totally worth the price. You pick up weekly bags in the beginning and then switch to once every other week as the cold months kick in. You get tons of winter veggies, greens and then you’ll start getting freshly frozen, long-​lasting items that store well. Lots of root veg, cheeses, jars of pickled goodness, grains, dried beans (not like those ones you get at the store, trust), pastas and lots and lots of meat!
Oh – and if you haven’t tried their Thanksgiving Bags, please do so this year. You won’t be disappointed.

Love Fresh Fork, and it is all thanks to Unilocal!I had used a different CSA in the past, and liked it. My partner and I hemmed and hawed over whether or not to do one, then Fresh Fork landed in our lap. Fresh Fork helped host Unilocal chicken event, and its’ proprietor Trevor answered all of our annoying questions with ease. I love that everything we get in our bag is local.
If you’re not familiar, here’s the deal: you sign up, hand over some money, and once a week pick up a bag filled with food. This year in the summer they offered 4 options: small regular, large regular, vegeterian, and vegan. Even though I typically don’t eat red meat or pork, we went for regular. I wanted to broaden my horizons. Plus, summer=cookouts. In the future, we’ll go vegeterian as there was more red meat and pork than we would like (however, I have yet to hear this complaint from talking to others — but seriously, we have 2 – 3 things of meat in our freezer, plus bacon AND i used a container of ground beef recently to make dog treats. Spoiled dogs, much? Nah, I practically HAD to use that meat!). I also feel it is very reasonably priced for what you get, and they had many stops.
Some of the «bags» are centered around one item or are set around a meal idea (with obviously lots of leftovers). I remember pizza (contained two things of really tasty chilled pizza dough, fresh mozzarella — BUY EXTRA because it’s that good not that you need more, etc) and tacos. I know in the winter you get more frozen stuff (none that I saw this summer) and shelf stable items. This summer we got black beans (HUGE bag), oatmeal (super good and able to buy at their stand), cornmeal, etc. I never recall eating kohlrabi before this and fully admit I had to call my step dad (who is a better cook than most non-​pro cooks I know and loves kohlrabi) for help. «So, step-​daddy, … um… do I like, cook this thing?» He told me to try it raw, and then gave many helpful suggestions. Turns out I *do* like kohlrabi (and ate most of it myself — related, also tasty roasted).
So, I get to help support a local company (that’d be Fresh Fork), local farmers, good quality food, and a push to eat my fruits and veggies. Next year my big change will be to plan out what to eat. Near the end, when we un-​bagged our goodies, we washed and put them away, then listed what we had on a sheet of paper. On the other end of the paper, we wrote suggestions for what to make. That really helped with making sure we made the most of what we got. On the rare occasion that there is an issue with your bag, they are quick to respond to emails and very helpful. The pick up location also sells assorted items (granola, milk, eggs, coffee, etc).

So I should have written this review a while ago! I first heard of this CSA 3 years ago but did not sign on until summer of 2012. This then is our second summer with Fresh Fork and we subscribed this past winter and signed on for this winter too! Fresh Fork has literally changed the way we eat and the way we cook. We avoided process foods prior to our signing on with Fresh Fork and tried to eat healthy home cooked meals. Fresh Fork has really allowed us to expand our food repertoire. We receive a bag of food each week — produce, meat, grains, etc. We usually know on Tuesday what will be contained in the bag. I then plan a menu based on the bag contents. The food is always fresh and very flavorful. Our family has tried foods we never thought we would — kohlrabi, chorizo, and mustard green to name a few. Ohio City Pasta made with Fresh Fork produce is often in the bag. The meats are absolutely incredible. Artisan cheeses are delicious. Trevor always manages to surprise us with new bag ingredients. Even my kids wait to see what is in the bags and what the weekly menu will bring! I look forward each week — no one in our house is allowed ot empty the bag — I get to do that!

Fresh Fork Market will take you back to the day when your food had flavor, when you had to shake your milk to mix the cream in, when your oatmeal tasted nutty and all your root veggies came with greens. Once you try FFM you’ll be hooked. I haven’t bought grocery store food since I joined the program. Also, you will never believe the amount of food you $ 25 will get you. I urge everyone to join Fresh Fork Market!

I recommend that EVERYONE sign up with Fresh Fork… I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t be happy with it. I’ve tried one other Cleveland CSA where the quality and quantity was often subpar — but Fresh Fork consistently gets it right. It does a fantastic job of sourcing organic produce from the region to bring customers a diverse and high-​quality bag of goodies each week, whether it’s abundant peaches and berries early in the summer, corn ears late-​summer, or broccoli and acorn squash in the fall. And it’s not only fresh produce that you have to look forward to – there’s also local eggs, cheese, tofu, humanely-​raised meat, oats, black beans, and Ohio City Pasta (depending on whether you’re signed up for a regular, vegetarian, or vegan share). The cheese from Mayfield Creamery is absolutely amazing, and you can buy extra if you please (and I usually do). We get a Large Vegetarian share, which has been a good size for two people, though we still supplement with produce from other sources. I generally juice the leafy things — kale, carrot tops, beet tops — so nothing ever goes to waste. We pick up our bag each week by leisurely biking a few blocks to the Fairmount-​Coventry pickup location, so it really is the next best thing to pulling veggies out of your own backyard (and incomparably better than a car trip to Whole Foods to buy overpriced, non-​local produce). The tablet-​wielding staff are clearly passionate about what they do and are always efficient and a general pleasure to deal with. Fresh Fork is expanding fast, adding more pickup locations, and it’s fantastic to see so many people getting on board. Do yourself a favor and sign up to reduce your reliance on corporatized food; support your local farmers; enjoy a seamless and more sustainable grocery shopping experience; and feast on the best and healthiest food you’ve ever tasted!

Fresh Fork Market is a beautiful thing, because it’s good for everyone involved:
— it supports Ohio farmers who supply (mostly organic) produce for CSA members
— we, the members, get the freshest, high-​quality, in-​season items
— the whole process is much kinder to the environment, starting with the obvious: food needs a lot less fuel and creates less pollution to transport when it is grown, say, 20 minutes away rather than being flown in from Asia or South America.
This is my first summer with a CSA membership, and I am loving it! In addition to growing a small garden, my husband and I try to seek out other ways to eat more locally-​grown, organic food. Joining a CSA has been, by far, the easiest, most convenient, cost-​effective and FUN way for us to enjoy local produce.
I love the ever-​changing variety of veggies in the CSA bag, and I have used up every single item we’ve received. This has led me to try new recipes for ingredients I’m not familliar with, like garlic scapes. I literally have never tasted, or even heard of, kohlrabi before joining Fresh Fork Market, and I have since discovered that it is my favorite vegetable.
The people at FFM are very cool and laidback, and it’s been an absolute pleasure meeting them.
The drop-​off locations are very convenient, and it is VERY convenient that you are able to go to any drop-​off without prior notice. I had originally signed up for a location close to my office, and didn’t consider that the drop-​off time would be later in the evening. Therefore, I started picking up my bags at a different location near my house, and it has not been a problem.
We have the small vegetarian plan, and are always happy with the contents of our weekly bags. In addition to the delicious local veggies, we enjoy the extra items like awesome Cleveland Tofu, organic eggs and dried black beans…
I really can’t say enough wonderful things about Fresh Fork. I can’t wait to see what’s in our next bag!

This CSA never lets me down. It’s a little tough for the first few weeks since most farms are only churning out leafy greens. After that, it’s on! they give a good variety of local produce, meats, cheeses, dairy, and so on. The best pork chops I’ve had in a long time came through my CSA. I especially love the eggs and the yogurt they offer. The yogurt is really thin, but it’s amazing for cooking. I’m certainly getting my money’s worth out of this program.

Best CSA. There is such a variety of different products from local farms. Plus they give you a weekly newsletter with recipe ideas. You can also buy items directly from them. They are very laid back and all around nice people. Multiple pick up spots and are very accommodating if you need to change pick up locations.
Some of the highlights for my CSA thus far:
chicken
The best chorizo I’ve ever had
chicken sausage. Yummo
grass feed beef
fresh pasta (to die for)
brown eggs
milk
candied onion
spelt berry (who knew what that was)
yummy cherries
black raspberries
brie cheese
plus all your typical produce products, lettuses, onions, garlic, zuccini ect.
This week I’m looking forward to some peaches. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer brings!