This is a review of the Geauga Family Farms CSA program. At the beginning of the summer, you pay…read moreone price for a small, medium or large share, add any extras, and then for the next 20 weeks you pick up a box of assorted organic produce at one of a dozen locations. They have quite a few locations, at various times during the week and spread throughout greater Cleveland.
Some of the extras include meat, eggs, bread and jam. Bulk veggies (for canning) are also available upon request.
At the onset, the amount of veggies is a little light with little variety ( so much lettuce!)
But by mid-summer we were receiving watermelon, peppers, bok choy, garlic, potatoes, eggplant, strawberries, many varieties of tomatoes, herbs, onions, carrots, garlic scapes, cantaloupe and much more. These are organic veggies, and I knew they wouldn't be perfect (I grew up eating almost exclusively homegrown veggies) but I did expect higher quality.
You really need to have a plan for the veggies, either very flexible meal plans or a large freezer and some time. I love eat peak of summer veggies in the middle of a dreary January. You also have to be fairly open minded when you receive something you've never seen. This was the fun part, because it was kind of a surprise every week.
However, we have also been surprised in a bad way. We were warned that some worms had gotten into the corn, but they included it anyway. The sight of wormy holes in the corn is just a turnoff. Most of the lettuce has little slugs all over it, and even after washing several times they held on tight, so we have been tossing all the lettuce too. I'm not a vegetarian but I don't really want to eat slugs. Today I found slugs in the blackberries so deemed them inedible too.
I'm pretty sure I won't participate next year, as the amount of veggies we receive that we want to eat vs. the amount that seem irreparably flawed in some way does not make this a good financial investment for us. It has been disappointing, and I wish I had just stuck to shopping at the grocery store.