LEAF Night 2010 Photos

LEAF Night Market at the Lakewood Public Library is the pickup location for several of our CSA Programs

The LEAF Community will offer two new CSA programs and many new vendors in Lakewood in 2011. All of the programs offered below vend local produce, so items will vary depending on the growing season. Feel great that your food was grown within 75 miles, and picked within 24 hours of delivery!

Bay Branch Farm a la farm carte

Bay Branch Farm is an urban market garden located in Lakewood, Ohio. Their mission is to grow high quality food in a sustainable manner, honoring the soil, the environment, and the people in the community.

Bay Branch Farm offers a buying club that allows members to put a down payment on vegetable purchases. Interested members pay a minimum of $35 to join. Each week, members receive an email indicating what is available for sale. Members pick and choose what they want and their account is deducted accordingly. They offer a variety of leafy greens (lettuce, arugula, spinach, chard), carrots, radishes, beets, green onions, and garlic, among other tasty goodies right from the ground. During most of the season (~ May-Oct), there will be about two weekly pick-up options, including LEAF Night at the Lakewood Library.

Contact:
Annabel Khouri
annabel@baybranchfarm.com
216-970-5718
baybranchfarm.com

Old Husher's Farm

Old Husher is a crotchety, Lakewood resident that’s been farming Cleveland independently since 2010. Somewhere through the decades, he earned himself a Botany degree from Miami University and a MBA from Cleveland State. Though Old Husher prides himself in being a general vegetable farmer, he specializes in heirloom tomatoes and melons, Asian greens, and beets. If you get him talking under the sweat of the summer sun and moonshine, he’ll probably rattle-off some non-sense about “liking to grow vegetables with a story,”…whatever that means.
For the record, Old Husher uses organic-like production methods, but has no intentions of becoming formally “certified” organic because Old Husher doesn’t want to be hassled by the man. In 2010, he fed the farm over 6,000 pounds of coffee grinds!
He’s also got a not-a-CSA program that’s rather similar to Bay Branch’s a la farm carte (see listing above), but costs $50, instead of $35, and is called Old Husher’s Produce Prepaids.
For an old dude, he’s fairly tech savvy, running Old Husher’s Farm FaceBook page and even blogging at http://thegardenlifeandtimesofjustinhusher.blogspot.com/.
If you get the inclination to contact him, you may dare to do so at jhusher@hotmail.com, 216-280-8026, Old Husher’s Farm FaceBook page, Justin Husher’s personal FaceBook page, or to a lesser extent , the blog.

Covered Bridge Gardens CSA              

This farm, run by Mick and Kay Prochko, is located in Jefferson, Ohio (Ashtabula County). Mick and Kay run a traditional CSA program with Mike and Diane Heiner of the Peters Creek Farm of Dorset, Ohio. Mick and Kay deliver weekly produce market bags to Lakewood on LEAF Nights (Wednesdays at the Lakewood Public Library). They include a weekly newsletter in their market bags, with tips on how to handle, prepare, and preserve items in your share bag.

Pricing (1 market bag a week for 16 week season):
Family Pack $516            Single/Couple $330
Fall Storage Pack $50

To sign up: Download the Covered Bridge PDF Brochureand send in your registration.
Contact: Mick Prochko – mick@coveredbridgegardens.com

New this year! Covered Bridge Gardens will be LEAF Community's partner for the CSA Choice Trial Program.  LEAF Community will pay the upfront cost for joining Covered Bridge Gardens CSA, and the participant will repay LEAF weekly for their shares. Please click here for the information and application.

Geauga Family Farms-Certified Organic CSA ** (Delivery on Thursdays at the Root)

Geauga Family Farms is a cooperative of farms in the Geauga County Ohio area.  Geauga Family Farms CSA program will be delivered on Thursdays at the Root Cafe from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The Geauga Family Farms will offer a 20 week season in 2011.

Pricing (1 market bag per week for 20 week season):

Full share: $650                                 Half share: $400

Extras      

1 dozen eggs each week for 20 weeks:  $60                                     1 loaf of wheat bread each week for 20 weeks: $65                                      1 jar of jam each week for 20 weeks (specify a flavor or we'll choose): $65   1 pound of ground beef each week for 20 weeks: $75

To  sign up: download the brochure.  Mail the contract in to 17050 Nash Rd (Rt 88) Middlefield, OH 44062. Contact:Laura Dobson 440-478-9849

lmfree99@yahoo.com

City Fresh

This program was initiated by the New Agrarian Center in Oberlin, Ohio. The New Agrarian center is a non-profit who operates the City Fresh program. Their employees work with 16 local farmers to bring shares of produce to several locations in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties. LEAF Community volunteers work with City Fresh employees to manage the Lakewood Fresh Stop. 

How the program works:
Shareholders are required to pre-pay for shares at least 1 week ahead. Low-income shareholders receive a discount. The price for the regular income shares is slightly padded to subsidize the low-income share cost and some administrative expenses. Ohio Direction Card is proudly accepted.  The program will run for approximately 20 weeks. Delivery will be weekly at LEAF Nights (Wednesdays a the Lakewood Public Library) starting on June 8th. 

Pricing:                                                                                         Family (enough for approx 3-4 individuals)  

Regular: $28 / week                                                               

Limited Income: $16 / week                                                

Single (enough for approx 1-2 individuals)                                          

Regular: $15 / week                                                                        

Limited Income: $9 / week                                                                 

To sign up download the brochure and mail in your registration to the address on the form.

Contact: Jeannie, Chris, or Annie for information about any of the community supported agriculture programs offered by LEAF at leafcsa@gmail.com

Since LEAF Nights depend greatly on volunteers, we are always looking for more people to help out. Please let us know if you are able to help out.

Fresh Fork Market (Thursday delivery)

Fresh Fork Market is a virtual farmers market connecting local consumers with sustainable family farms and artisan producers located within a 75 mile radius of Cleveland.  Fresh Fork’s most popular program is their CSA+.  The CSA+ is a weekly grocery subscription directly from area farmers.  Each week, Fresh Fork creates a package consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, and more, and delivers it to 10 area pickup locations, including one in Lakewood on Thursday evenings from 7 PM to 9 PM.  The Fresh Fork season lasts 22 weeks from May 27^th thru Oct 22^nd; there are two different sized packages, a small at $25 per week and a large at $40 per week.  In 2010, Fresh Fork customers sampled over 350 different products from 62 local farmers. 

For full details, please visit www.freshforkmarket.com 

It’s going to be another great year of LEAF!

About Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
When people first settled in Lakewood, they purchased their food from local farmers. Farmers from the area brought their carts into Lakewood and sold their meats, dairy products, and produce fresh from the farm. People ate what was in season. They preserved food when it was plentiful to save for other times in the year. Today, the global food industry allows us to purchase foods from all over the world. Most consumers don’t worry about what season or continent their foods grow. Much of our food today is grown at least 1,500 miles away. While this provides for an endless variety of culinary tastes we are discovering that food produced closer to home provides numerous benefits.

Food grown closer to our plates tastes better than that grown for conventional grocery stores. Since international growers ship from such a far distance, they pick their crops long before they are ripe. The farmers supported in the LEAF Community CSA programs all pick when ripe and within 24 hours of LEAF Night. If you need proof of the difference, simply visit a LEAF Night to taste some fresh cucumbers, melon, or tomatoes picked that morning. If you are used to the conventional stuff, your taste buds are in for a treat!

Besides tasting better, local produce is actually healthier than that in grocery stores. Spending weeks on a truck causes the breakdown of essential nutrients, especially Vitamin C. Also, since most global growers plant the same crops year after year on the same fields (monocrops), they deplete essential micronutrients from the soil. If these micronutrients are not properly replenished, the food produced is lacking essential nutrients that it should contain. The produce available at LEAF Nights is the healthiest produce around. The local farmers rotate their crops and work with soil specialists to ensure that they are maintaining an optimal medium for growth and nutrition.

CSA reduces the risk of foodborne illness. Remember the “Spinach Scare of 2006”? The reason this e.coli outbreak was so widespread is because 90% of the country’s spinach supply is processed in the same location in California. By getting your produce locally, you greatly reduce the risk of getting contaminated food. No California spinach at LEAF night!

Community Supported Agriculture is good for the environment for several reasons.

By purchasing your food directly from a local grower, you reduce the amount of fossil fuels used for shipping. Decreasing the number of “food miles” can greatly impact the environmental tax we create.

It's in a small farmer's best interest to sustainably care for their land. Global produce growers are increasingly dependent on harsh chemicals and pesticides, because they typically plant “monocrops” and do not rely on traditional techniques such as companion planting or home remedies to help keep their crops healthy. The small Ohio farmers we work with feed their families with the same food we get on LEAF Nights. They want what is best for their land, their families and their consumers. These farmers use very little pesticides, and whenever possible use organic pesticides. Many of the farms would qualify as an organic farm, however are too small to be certified organic.

One of our CSA offerings this year is a certified organic program, offered by the Geauga Family Farms cooperative. This is a unique way that a group of  smaller farms can become certified organic, by bearing the logistical and infrastructure hurdles together. 

Purchasing food from local farmers prevents urban sprawl. Urban sprawl creates concrete wastelands in the cities, steals ecosystems from animals and insects, and contributes to a growing problem with stormwater runoff and flooding. By ensuring that our small farmers are successful, they will be less likely to sell their land for development.

CSA benefits the local economy. Northeast Ohio’s economy has been increasingly stressed, with the loss of jobs and “brain drain”. We spend approximately $3 Billion per year on food in Cuyahoga County. Keeping as much of that money in our region will greatly help our local economy.

CSA connects city dwellers to the countryside and farmers. Research shows that we all need a connection to nature. Covered Bridge Gardens farmers, Mick and Kay Prochko vend their shares weekly at LEAF Night. They can answer questions about the food they grow, or provide tips for you on your own backyard garden. They also host a Farm Visit every summer. If you are interested in visiting their farm, please contact them. City Fresh also has events at various farms throughout the year. Last year, several LEAFers helped build a straw bale building, learned about vermicomposting, and attended a festival at the George Jones farm in Oberlin.

Many urban people (especially children) do not realize how plants grow, or what they look like in their natural form. Carrots, for example do not grow in perfectly shaped 2 inch nuggets! CSA connects us to our neighbors. In Lakewood, LEAF Nights are magical. People walk by and ask, “What is going on here?” If you come to a LEAF Night, you will have the opportunity to meet new folks, enjoy local art, trade your home- grown goodies, listen to great local music, watch kids dance and play, pick up a local sharebag of produce, learn about a new vegetable, and enjoy the Library.