City Fresh

I am so excited that it is almost city fresh season! So, this is a CSA of sorts. I stead of working with a couple farms, they work with many in order to bring fresh vegetables to "urban deserts". I think the advantage to this CSA is you can pick your weeks and only need to order a week in advance. This is all online ordering and the system is sometimes goofy. I couldn't figure out my username and it turned out I was missing a capital letter. But, this was solved as the administrator was able to figure out what I did :-)Otherwise, I pick mine up in Euclid, but there are many locations all over the Cleveland metro area. It helps to expose you to new veggies (never tried kolrobi until this) and they are high quality and fresh. Some are organic or use organic practices (it is extremely expensive for a family farm to have that label). The facilitator is super nice and often brings extra fruit to sell with your pick up. They even were able to get me a pumpkin for me to purchase. Another nice thing is they subsidize the cost for people who are 200% the FPL (which to put in perspective is people who wouldn't quality for food assistance). I have told many of my friends about this because it is truly a fantastic program.

I love city fresh. Where else can you get a big bag of locally grown produce for fifteen bucks? Or the family size for $28? City Fresh has expanded their locations so they now have pick-up sites all over lorain and cuyahoga county. Last weeks share bag had acorn squash, peaches, green and red peppers, cilantro, corn, egg plant, carrots, lettuce and apples. As the weather changes they expect to see more squash, pumpkins and apples. Seriously, if you are big into supporting local, non-profit businesses and receiving amazing fresh local fruits and veggies then there really is nothing better than city fresh.It's pretty easy to sign up. You just have to go to one of the locations to sign up for the following week.

Tonight was another City Fresh dinner. Love it. The quality and variety of veggies is great. I love that you can do week-to-week ordering, so you don't end up paying for food you're not going to pick up. Also, the fact that they're a non-profit with a social justice mission is pretty unusual for CSAs: they have limited-income pricing on both share sizes, take Ohio Direction, and try to get pickup locations into the areas where fresh veggies are hardest to come by. It's true that CSAs require a bit more pre-planning (you have to go get your veggies when you say you will), but given how that's explained when you sign up and written on the receipts, that seems pretty easily manageable.Two of my favorite veggies - Romanesco Broccoli and garlic scapes - are things I'd never heard of before I started getting a share from City Fresh. The best apples and peaches I've had in my life have come from here, and maybe the best tomatoes. If you're into cooking, the challenge of figuring out what to do with whatever's in this particular week's share is a lot of fun.City Fresh has about 17 locations around the region, from Oberlin to Euclid. I get my veggies from the Coventry location, which is a super fun group of people, to boot. The end of the season in October is always very sad (except for the holiday shares!).

I love City Fresh. I have been a share holder since before it was at Coventry library. I started when it was on the front porch or a church on Nobel road. What a great program. I love the fact that you can order week to week. All of the other CSAs that I checked out when I moved to the Heights area made you order the whole season. :-( I travel a lot during the summer months and would lose a lot of shares this way. City Fresh was the only one that let me order for the weeks I would be home. It was also great that I didn't have to pay for the whole season at one time. I could buy just a week or a month. It was a great option for me.Now that I have been a share holder for a long time I can say that the program has gotten even better! There is more variety of produce. With the new computer system this year the line seems to be moving faster. I like the recipes and other tips that the volunteers post on facebook. Its a great help when you get something unfamiliar. The more I learned about City Fresh the better I liked it. I like the fact that is it a non-profit. All the people who work the stops are volunteers. City Fresh has a committment to social justice too. I like the the price of my share helps support low income shares for others. It is important to give back to the community and make sure that those less fortunate that I am still have access to fresh local food. I also like that if I forget to pick up my share the food is donated to a local hunger center. Then I feel less bad about missing my veggies. All in all, City Fresh is a great option for a CSA. I would recommend it to anyone. In fact, I have!

I was very excited to try out City Fresh. They offered a deal to purchase a share for a single week. I bought it and when I returned a few weeks later on the drop-off date, it was explained this was only for the following week. This had not been explained and no where on the receipt did it say this. They then refused to give me a refund or offer to make it up in the future. I'm sure may have felt very righteous in taking my money away, but they didn't communicate their rules clearly and should have made an effort to make things right. It tells me that the customer is last in their priority-- so how can I trust the quality or safety of the food they sale? Won't be going back. There are plenty of better options.

Great service. You can schedule to pick up at different locations to suit your schedule for different weeks. Be sure to take enough bags, because they routinely fill 2 shopping bags--and sometimes I still have an odd item to carry loose. The people at the stand are always very helpful. Produce is always excellent quality, but avoid going at the end of the market because some produce gets wilted from sitting out in the heat. I like that they do produce only, because other services supply eggs and/or meat and I do not eat meat or eggs. It's also really nice that it's a non-profit and very affordable.

Why must the season be over for City Fresh. I don't know what I am going to do now since the season ended for the year. City Fresh is a great program that brings fresh, local fruits and vegetable to the community for a small cost. It was a wonder as the program forces you to find ways to use the vegetables you get for that week, otherwise the vegetables will eventually go bad. I've gotten eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, peaches, blueberries, apples, cabbage, corn (as expected in Ohio), and watermelons to name a few in my share.

Wanted to like City Fresh. People that I communicated with/spoke to in person were very nice, but...my order wasn't on the delivery truck, (it was a one time thing so unusual for them I guess), and I drove to drop off place for no produce. Nick, the head guy, was very apologetic, and offered to bring to my home the next day. He didn't show, and there's been no further communication. Very disappointed. There are other CSA groups in town. I'll be giving this one the berth from here on out.