Sirna's Farm & Market
"This is a Hollywood movie come true! The Sirna's were your typical urban-dwelling family with regular city-type jobs up until a few years ago when they decided to buy a plot of land and move out to the country to start farming. Today, they do a great job encouraging and supporting local farming initiatives while taking their hard-worked goods to weekend markets in Cleveland suburbs like Shaker Heights and South Russell. They also operate their own storefront on their land open during growing season which features their own goods as well as stuff from local farms and wineries (cheese, sausages, canned goods, wines, etc.) - again, supporting the local farmers and businesses.One story I always tell people is on one weekend I was desperate for some dill as I had a bunch of baby cuckes at home ready to be pickled. She ran out of the store and came back from the fields a few minutes later handing me this gigantic bouquet of dill weed for about $2. Now I only needed a few sprigs for the pickles but boy the house smelled great for a week!We participated in their CSA one year - a way of buying a share in the farmers' operation. For an up-front lump sum fee, your share nets you a weekly bag of whatever the crops yield that week. This goes on for several months while crops can be harvested. While you don't usually get a choice of what you'll receive (it's whatever is ripening that week!), every bag has an abundance of food. This is perfect for the family that has flexibility in preparing and eating a variety of vegetables from week to week. We received throughout the growing season (not in just one week) corn, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, radishes, zucchini, butternut squash, yellow squash, kohlrabi, onions, and much more. On weeks which were light on crops, especially in the beginning, Sirna's substituted freshly-ground peanut butter and local honey.Sirna's also does a Fall festival open house with hay rides for the kids.Located along 44 about 2 miles south of 422, Sirna's is definitely worth your while to stop by here one of your summer/fall weekends and support your local farmers."
Quarry Hill Orchards
"Quarry Hill is a truly brilliant find! Located in Berlin Heights, this family farm is worth the stop or even worth the road trip. To begin, it's just beautiful. When you picture a Pinterest worthy farm with local goods, it's this spot plus so much more.I am just absolutely smitten with this farm market. They have every kind of apple imaginable (including ones I had never even heard of), beautiful fruits and vegetables, a killer bakery, and a wide assortment of small biz goods like jams, honeys, baking mixes, syrup, hot chocolate and more. I don't even want to tell you what my final bill was here! All of these local goods are my weakness!Greta in the store was so helpful to me. Upon entry she greeted me with a cup of apple cider and answered all my city girl questions about the farm. The cherry for me was the farm's old golden retriever that followed me around until I scratched his booty. He snatched a pear out of a bin and carried it around with so much pride.What a good boy!I'm obsessed with this beautiful place and can't wait to come back."
