This is my third year being a CSA member. Not only is the taste of the vegetables amazing, but…read morerecently it's been significantly cheaper than shopping organic at the big box stores. I go to the farm for pickup every week, and I love the variety, that I can pick and choose between over a dozen different herbs and veggies, the extras they often have, the UPick tomatoes and beans and etc. It's also such a relief to know where my food is coming from, that there are no chemical fertilizers or pesticides in it, that it's not downwind a feedlot so no chances of salmonella outbreaks in their leafy greens, that it hasn't been sprayed to ripen -- the peace of mind itself is invaluable. They have three seasons (spring, summer, and fall) that you can sign up for (that often sell out early, especially the summer season), as well as Thursday farmstands in the afternoon. Also, at the beginning of May they sell seedlings, with prices cheaper than The Growing Place, and most of the plants I buy from there thrive in my garden with no additions required (I put compost in the hole and around the base when I first plant them, mulch around the seedlings, and that's pretty much it, by mid-July I'm getting more tomatoes and basil and etc than I know what to do with).

Well-established CSA with a pop-up farmstand on Wednesday nights. Organic produce grown all from…read moreseed resulting in 28 weeks of pickups from Mother's Day to Thanksgiving... wow! Why settle for a grocery store tomato when you can have these beauties??

I feared this was coming a couple of months ago when Tomato Mountain posted multiple…read moredesperate-sounding job ads for warehouse workers. Today, our delivery box arrived with $17 worth of items missing-- even though the items were checked off on the label stuck to the box, and that's a label that gets signed off on by two people. Which means, this isn't an instance of items simply going out of stock while the boxes were being filled. This is multiple staff not caring what was put in my family's delivery box, and then not caring to review to make sure that what was supposed to be there was there. My family really likes the Tomato Mountain experience, but it's absolutely unacceptable for food items to be left out of a delivery because staff are phoning it in and don't care about what they're doing. We've experienced this before with supermarket delivery, but we expected a lot more from Tomato Mountain. Especially since you select exactly the items to be delivered, this now screws up my family's meal plan for the next seven days, and we have to go scrambling to replace the items that are missing. More importantly, now we know we can't trust the service anymore. And if I can't trust my CSA, why continue? I take an extraordinarily dim view of grocery and food delivery services gratuitously screwing up delivery orders because of not paying attention. The entire reason my family orders from Tomato Mountain is to make the produce we consume better, our lives easier, and the local food system stronger. But making our lives more difficult because some staff don't care? My partner immediately suggested that we cancel our subscription. I agree. I just requested a refund on the missing items, and the cancellation of our subscription. We're shifting our produce purchases back to Whole Foods. Losing customer trust is the biggest deal there is as far as I'm concerned, and that's why this updated review is a single star.

We are enjoying the quality of produce and the variety offered, even though we are in winter. The…read morestaff are so friendly and the deliveries come like clockwork. We highly recommend!

This is a great CSA. A half bushel every week of great local vegetables from a vegan farm, and at…read morea nice price. Excellent communication by email and post, and the weekly newletter is informative and not overwhelming. Tried other CSAs in the past, and this is the best. No month long beet avalanches. The amount and variety worked out well for a family of four, including small, picky kids. Remember to sign up early in the year, they sell out. Then you'll just have yo hunt them down at farmers' markets.

If you want the best of local purveyors of food and produce, delivered to your door, contact Fresh…read morePicks! Last week I had BangBang Chicken Pot Pies from them...the best I've had in my life. So yummy! They find the best of the best and literally bring it to your door! And the produce so fresh...you can taste the difference.

They are a company holding on to the values of real health a nutrition the essence of life so…read moresupport them for their great efforts and beautiful friendly customer service and eat real non gmo foods god bless, hold the line.

A very cool working organic farm that is taking big steps towards connecting community with their…read morefood. They offer workshops and camps for the kids but also provide education for adults interested in farming or just self sufficiency. I helped last year at one of their volunteer events and we planted all sorts of trees for the estabilshment of a food forest. Apples, Pears, hazelnuts, horseradish, asparagus, plums... and more. Can't wait until that matures!

From the owner: We operate a 60 member CSA, host a Farm Camp for 2 months during the summer and offer adult…read moreeducation for sustainable farming and gardening.

Unbelievably cool Farm-to-Table event surrounding a local artist's showcase. Each dish was…read moreincredibly fresh, and was paired with either their own wines/spirits or locally created beverages. Very clean, neat, and timely in their presentations. A truly memorable experience.

Granor Farm popped on my radar from friends who attended their Winter Dinners. I was so lucky to…read morethen visit twice: 1) Farm stand over July 4th weekend - they had pop up lobster rolls (DELISH!) and ice cream. They really had a beautiful farm stand full of items from their organic farm. 2) A summer supper in their culinary greenhouse - In the summer time, they offer this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - all updated times on their website. But, evening agenda is: 6:30 PM ET Welcome Beverage in the School House 6:45 PM ET Farm Tour Leaves 7:15 PM ET Dinner in the Greenhouse We ended up getting rained out so we learned all about the farm in the school house. But, there's signage all out in the farm so you can wander, explore. We had a beautiful dinner - which btw the Greenhouse IS air conditioned. I wasn't sure. Anyways we had a beautiful dinner and I'll list my menu as a sample, but I am sure yours will be different and equally as wonderful: *Cool Farm Kale Chips *Cherry Tomato (Radish, Pickled Pearl Onion, Cured Salmon, Arugula Microgreens) *Crispy Rice Salad (Kale, Cabbage, Cucumber, Carrot, Pickled Green Strawberry, Tahini Dressing) *Semolina Gnocchi (Eggplant Caponata, Cotija) *Roasted Chicken and Kohlrabi (Olive Chimichurri, Apricot) *Basil Custard (Pistachio Toffee, Black Raspberry, Fried Basil) Fun fact - Granor is portmanteau of the founders' daughters name: Grace + Eleanor! So precious.

Call before you go!!! The store was VERY limited. The prices…read moreare the same or higher than those in Chicago stores. For example: 4oz goat cheese was $9. That's pretty outrageous. It was only us (myself, 2 kids and grandma). It took me a min to find where the actual store was. After the store, we let the kiddos run on the grass and play on tractor tires. I get the idea of a family farm, but the prices should be more accessible.

I have been a member for 3 years getting vegetables in spring, summer and fall and fruits in…read moresummer. They even started a winter share with fruits they froze from the summer harvest. This CSA has a great variety of vegetables and fruits. They partner with other organic farms or local orchards to deliver their customers more variety. They even have eggs, meat, dairy, honey and jams. I would pick up my shares at the Grayslake farm every Thursdays and that was always a time I looked forward to. Always friendly staff, helpful weekly emails that would tell you what was in your share and recipes to use them. I had to move out of state a few months ago and this CSA is one of the thing I miss the most.

I always purchase from them at the Wheaton farmers market. I love their soups and chocolate chip…read morecookies. I stopped by the farm in Elburn. They have tons of goats and give you veggies to feed them for free. My son loved it! There's meat, veggies, desserts, soups, and some premade dinners for purchase.

Like so many others I really got the short end of my boxes several times in the past two years,…read moreitems picked too soon or just gone bad. Once my husband messaged them with pictures he was blocked. Very odd behavior at first he thought it was a mistake, people press wrong buttons on accident all the time. But after reading reviews here and on facebook this has happened to many people. With so many quality farms in the area this one is just not one of them unfortunately.

This is my third year signing up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm share, and my…read moresecond year with Genesis Growers. Following a less-than-satisfactory experience with a different farm, we switched to GG because we wanted something that was a little more local and had more of a community feel to it; we also wanted a place that offered pick-up locations on the South Side. Last year's pickup at Hyde Park worked wonderfully, but to save trouble and to bring CSA produce to our own area, we decided to host our own pick-up point at our place in Bridgeport. Last year were were amazed at the massive amount and variety of produce we received (greens, fruits, berries, veggies, herbs, eggs, etc), and how late in the year we kept getting boxes. Our last boxes came sometime in november, and were stocked full of crops that could overwinter (squash, pumpkins, potatoes, beets, onions, etc), and even some items that had been canned for us! Our experiences working with Vicki have been nothing but positive. My husband and I both love the emails she sends out just before the dispatch of every week's boxes - telling us news about the farm, tips on what to do with the produce, and more about her work. Having had a chance to email back and forth with Vicki about the progress she's making, I have to say that I am seriously impressed by her forward thinking attempts to collaborate with other small farms in her area. Currently Vicki is working on educating other farmers about growing crops to overwinter, and helping them find other venues at which to sell or donate excess crops/foodstuffs that haven't been able to sell. I love the idea that not only are Genesis Growers trying their best to bring me the highest quality local produce possible, but they are also striving to find ways to collaborate with their neighbors to create access to local products that can be distributed even in the non-growing months (or saved up to fill out the boxes in the usually-leaner spring weeks). It will be interesting to see where things lead with the farm, and what other new plans Vicki makes. This year other CSA members decided to put together an email list for discussions, which has already proven to be extremely useful in getting recipes for lesser-known spring crops. Aside from the internet presence of GG and those involved, there are also parties held at the farm a couple times per season in order to get everyone together and feeling more connected to where their food is from. I can't recommend this particular CSA farm more highly; I hope her following continues to grow.

I used to get their salads at the Logan square farmers market and it's closed now and I miss this…read moredelicious greens. The salads are so delicious and fresh, priced reasonably. Can wait for the market to reopen.dybpoC-cowjyg-gepro0