Fresh Fork Market

Parker Recommends…

2012-05-17T04:23:15-07:00

I got this information from Parker Bosley. He thought our customers might be interested in visiting some of the area’s local farms. You might recognize the Healthy Harvest Farm, as the the home of the blogger, the Healthy Harvester. This is where we got so many of the winter greens and ramps this year. Mark these days on your calendar. Of course, we will be doing our deliveries these days, so we won’t be able to make it, but if you go be sure to report back!

Wednesday 20 June at 6:00

Por-Bar Farm 11136 Holshoe Rd., Homerville, Ohio, 44235

Kevin Leamer sells heirloom vegetables at Farmers’ Markets in Greater Cleveland. He brings fava beans to market as early as May. He is first with strawberries. He is always one step ahead of the pack. Customers wonder how he does it. Kevin will share his secrets at this farm tour and help others learn about his early season production.

A great tour for urban farmers: “My operation maximizes land use. It is a model for small scale production and would be a perfect system for an urban grower.”

Join IFO at Por-Bar Farm in Homerville, Ohio, to learn about Kevin’s methods techniques. Learn how he plants late, over-winters and begins harvesting as soon a spring arrives.

At the end of the tour Kevin will offer a bonus. Those who leave their names and contact information will be invited by Kevin to visit Por-Bar in early winter to see exactly how his system prepares for the early harvest. Don’t miss this double treat.

Thursday 28 June 6:00 Kemp Brothers’ Healthy Harvest Farm

15266 South Hayes Road, Middlefield OH 44062

Regardless of talent, technique and knowledge in producing products, it’s how you operate your business that will make your farm financially successful. How do you grow a business? Harvey and Emmanuel Kempf, of Geauga County, have done this very successfully. They’ve increased sales through well focused marketing.

This farm tour is your opportunity to learn about the real source of nutrition—the soil. The Kempf Brothers are soil experts. They refer to their model as being beyond organic.

The producers must know where his kind of product and his growing system will be well received by the consumer. What market is the best for your kind of business: a CSA program, a farmers’ market, sales to institutions or sales to distributer? Do you need multiple type of market? How should you decide what crops to grow?

Bring your questions and be ready to learn from this thriving enterprise. Start with healthy soil, create nutrient dense products and plan a marketing strategy.

From the Healthy Harvester

2012-05-16T08:23:48-07:00

This letter came in a while back, but we have been very busy planning for the season and ending up the winter one. That is why the blog has been a little thin of late…. But, better late than never! This article is little emotional, so be forewarned!

The garlic took a deep breath, leaned back, and stretched for the sun. The ramps poked experimentally out of the earth. Spring already?!?

The grass greened up and the fruit trees in the orchard swelled their buds and finally burst into bloom. And it was only the middle of March! If the weather stays the same as usual they’ll freeze back. The the weather hasn’t been normal at all. As the Healthy Harvester overheard the other day, the climate is no more, all we’ve got left is vagaries of the weather.

It didn’t even get cold enough this winter to put up ice. Now our rand new icehouse cooler stands empty and we’ll have to buy ice this summer to keep our produce cool. Here we planned to be so sustainable and put up enough ice in winter to last all summer and so save a hefty fossil fuel bill and have much less impact on the environment. Maybe next year.

The week after it warmed up, we were busy putting maple syrup equipment away for the year. After it showed no signs of cooling off, we quickly plowed a patch and planted snow peas. In three days they poked a small root down and started thinking Spring. Several days later, they woke up one morning to twenty degrees. ”gracious” said one to the other, “this is not growing weather.” and back to sleep they went. The temperature has normalized by now, forty and fifity instead of twenty or eighty, so they found the temerity to poke thier heads above ground to see what’s going on.

If their vision was 20/20, they would see us a little farther up the slope, planting onionsas if we’re aiming to supply New York City for 60 minutes. Thousands of little green spikes sticking out of the fround where we planted them, anchoring their roots in the landing pad, getting ready for takeoff. If we keep the soil moist and fertile, we’ll have lots of firm, healthy, tasteful onions by harvest time. Oh, didn’t I mention the weeds? Onions probably just love competing with all those stuck-in-the-box, bigger-is-better soil sappers. Oh, they don’t?!? Well, let’s see if they can resist a worker with a hoe. Some weeks are okay as they bring minerals from the subsoil to the surface and when they die the minerals are released in an organic form for other plants. But given a chance and they’ll cram like teenagers ina car. And that’s not a healthy growing environment, right?

Spring burst on us in full force this year instead of sneaking in through the back alley like last time. In a couple of weeks it would have liked to turn tail and leave again, only the sun kept pushing it right along. We’ve had way more sunshine this spring than last so far. And not near as much rain. So this week we hooked up the irrigation lines and watered where necessary. That was early, too, same as everything else.

And since no rainy day came along to force me to do my desk-work, I get to do it now. I reviewed the farm economics and drew up a planting schedule summary and a summary of planting dates for winter crops. As I wrote, of all of the sudden my subconscious reminded me of a commitment to write this which I had made. No opportunity like the present. So let me explain the basic philosophy of this farming system.

First of all, understand that I’m a systems person. Nothing is isolated unto itself, everything is interconnected. My brain thinks systematically, I manage a complex agricultural system (I call it a farm), the plants I grow have their own dynamic chemistry and energy systems and my body is an extremely complex system. And all those systems are very much interconnected. If the chemistry and energy of the farm’s soil is imbalanced or collapsed, the food plants which need the complete spectrum of minerals in a balanced soil system to photosynthesize sugars normally and build complete proteins don’t work. Oh, I’m not writing a scientific article? Excuse me. But that’s the case. A plant without the minerals and amino acids and insufficient energy can’t build complete proteins. And a plant with incomplete proteins is a sick plant. Bugs eat it. Bugs can’t digest complete proteins, they give them a terrible tummy ache and they die. So they don’t eat a plant that’s healthy and full of minerals.

An imbalanced farm system grows a plant that is sick, so bugs come to clean that rubbish up so it doesn’t get eaten by higher animals and make them sick.But the farmer wants to eat that cauliflower so he gets out a sprayer and Kills all those bugs. There is a stink in the air and the bugs all dead on the ground when he checks on them later. There, he won that round! If that spray kills all the bugs, what will it so to me when I eat that cauliflower? But the plant is still sick and nature wants it out of the way so higher animals don’t eat it and get sick in turn. So a disease comes into plat, a bacterial infection, fungus, whatever, to wipe that plant up. Now notice that neither bacterial or fungal infections can harm plants with complete proteins. Only the unhealthy, imbalanced plant is in any danger.

The alert farmer notices the disease. ”Oh my, look what the disease fairies have dropped on me now!” he groans. Out comes the sprayer. Instead of insecticide, we’ll put a fungicide/bactericide in this time, unless the bugs have come back, then we’ll put in all three. After the mist clears, there, we won that round, too! But what of the 3 trillion bacteria in my gut that digest my food for me? If I eat the cauliflower, will it kill them, too? Plus the plant is still sick with incomplete protein complexes and insufficient energy. And that makes us sick if we eat it. Just what nature was trying to prevent with the bugs and the disease.

Farmers have been degrading their soils for half a century now. And covering up their mistake with ever more toxic chemicals. The result to us who have been eating their products? Just before World War II, the United States ranked 18th out of the 100 civilized countries on an international health study. Today, we’re at number 95. Think of it, only 5 civilized countries out of the top 100 have worse health than we do. Why? Well, we ‘re eating food with no nutrition. Added to that they’re laced with toxic chamicals. So, the medical industry responds to the resulting sickness the same way the farmer respponded to the plant’s sickness.

Obviously, everybody responds to malnutrition and imbalances in different ways. But the common denominator is pain. Pain is the signal like bugs on the cauliflower were a signal. It’s telling us something’s wrong, we need to fix it. But the doctors, like the farmers, don’t know this anymore. They’ll give you a drug to kill the pain. But the drug doesn’t fix the problem any more than spraying the bugs made the plant more healthy. But they’ll continue with that plan till finally the problem is bad enough that drugs don’t kill the pain anymore. They’ve just compounded the problem by overloading the liver and giving the body a heavy toxic load. Finally, as a last resort they recommend surgery. Ad if cutting you open and monkeying with a perfectly designed body would fix the problem. It doesn’t. It only postpones it again. And by always treating the symptom and never the real problem, the problem will eventually fix us. Killing pain and cutting out parts never created a healthy person same as killing the bugs and disease never created a healthier plant.

The long term answer for a healthier people is to provide complete nutrition, preferably through healthy, alive, mineral rich, nutrient dense, energy packed, real food. Ad Hippocrates said centuries ago, “Let your food be your medicine.” A pain free, productive life is possible for us and future generations. Bust we have to care and pursue our own health and well being, not leaving it up to the so called experts who would have poisoned us into oblivion.

So this farm strives to provide healthy food to support our nutritional needs while giving us plenty of exercise for our bodies while making us a living by doing what we love. It provides us with revenue to pay our bills and our taxes which reflect the crazy empire in which we live. Excuse me, did that sound like a complaint? I’m proud of the fact that we pay income tax, by far the majority of farmers don’t even hit that category. Apparently raising healthy produce for a healthy market is far more satisfying than ubiquitous commercial ag. And really, how many people do you know that live off corn and soybeans? But whoa there, I dare not follow that thought down, I’ll be lambasting the whole corrupt system. Rather than do that, let’s examine the alternative that we have. The buying club of Fresh Fork Market is the absolute best, cheapest distribution system for farm fresh healthy food. The concept of direct pickup and delivery to the consumer is truly revolutionary. May many more like it grow all across the country.

I’ve told you my world view on the interconnectedness of the living systems I work with I hope your paradigms allowed to connect the dots and see the bigger picture, too. We need to supply people all over with good, nutritious food, to feed and heal them, to keep their minds nourished and healthy so that when the powere that be opt for total contrl, there is a remnent left to say, “No!”

And that brings to mind the Pandora’s box of food regulation and inspection service. But that is another entire article. Maybe later when time permits. May your children be healthy and your pains diminish as you search for real food.

Vivian Goodman and Trevor

2012-05-15T09:07:33-07:00

Here is the story that Vivian Goodman of WKSU did on us. This is part two. You can read the accompanying article on the site for WKSU. If you are on Facebook, be sure to like their page, too!

Vivian and Trevor

WKSU talks with Fresh Fork Market

2012-05-11T03:01:40-07:00

In April, Vivian Goodman came to Tremont on a Saturday morning to visit us. Trevor was working the back of the truck and Parker Bosley was on hand picking up groceries. Today, Vivian’s second piece premiered on WKSU, in her piece Quick Bites. When I chatted with Parker at our May Happy Hour event, he was telling me how great an interviewer Vivian is. If you missed it, below is that piece. For this week’s podcast, check out Quick Bites.

And for a great picture of Trevor and a customer with ramps, check out the banner on the Quick Bites Facebook Page.

Parker And Vivian

Week 15 Winter CSA Package

2012-05-08T13:21:22-07:00

Frozen pizza dough balls, veggie burgers, ground chicken, oats, and more

This week wraps up our winter season. I think we have a fairly exciting bag this week, but just a little on the light side. We’ve been over budget 4 of the last 5 weeks so I need to make up a little space here.

The highlight to this week’s bag is ground chicken or ground turkey. We’ll have some of each and plenty of recipes to go along with it.

In addition, we have pizza dough, italian sausage, smoked gouda, homemade pizza sauce, rolled oats, and more.

Here’s all of this week’s bag contents:

Winter CSA Wk 15:

1 8 oz package smoked gouda

2 frozen pizza dough balls

1 lb italian sausage

1 lb ground turkey or chicken

2 lbs rolled oats

1 pint pizza sauce

1 package veggie burgers (2 burgers)

1 bunch ramps

1 veg (haven’t received my snail mail responses yet…but will likely include kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, and other spring greens)

Summer CSA- Starts week of June 4

There are a few weeks off between the winter and the summer. If you have signed up or think you have, you should have been receiving confirmation emails, payment emails, etc by now. If you are not receiving any confirmation emails, please contact us and we’ll correct your account. All winter customers are guaranteed in.

Summer CSA - Registration Still Open – Click Here to Register

It’s not too late to signup for the summer. If you have any friends or coworkers interested in doing it, please send them the link above soon. Some stops, particularly Beachwood and Westlake, are almost sold out. Others, like Fairlawn, Middleburg Hts, Mentor, Hudson, and Solon still have plenty of room left.

To guarantee a spot, all should register by May 16th.

Fresh Fork Market and Grovewood Tavern Local Yocal Wine Dinner

2012-05-07T11:26:29-07:00

This wine dinner kicks off the start of our summer season and is a customer favorite. Get your seats before they sell out.

To see the menu, open the document attached to this page. Local and Debonne WD 0512

To RSVP, either click the link below or call the Grovewood at 216-531-4900.

More Details: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=6bx9cgdab&oeidk=a07e5oqelw32b98cb44

Fresh Fork Market and Gina Desantis collaborate on handmade butter crock

2012-05-01T05:28:40-07:00

Fresh Fork Market, a local farm buying club similar to a CSA (community supported agriculture), has commissioned Gina Desantis of Lakewood to create 200 handmade, “French butter crocks.”

Fresh Fork Market founder Trevor Clatterbuck explains that “we have exceptional butter made locally, but there is nothing more frustrating than pulling it out of the refrigerator and not being able to spread it.” A French butter crock is a ceramic dish with a lid. In the lid there is an inverted, conical shaped opening in which butter is packed. The dish is filled about a quarter full with water and the cone/bell is packed with butter. The butter may then be kept at room temperature without spoiling for up to a month, depending on how warm the house and relative humidity.

Clatterbuck explains, “I’ve suggested to a lot of my customers to get a French butter crock. They all look at me like I’m crazy. What’s that?” As one can derive from the name, most butter crocks are manufactured in France. Others are made in China. Very few are made in the USA, and none are made locally, until now.

Gina Desantis will create 200 exclusive pieces for Fresh Fork Market to resell. The butter crocks will be in three colors – a bright, lime green; a subtle, spring green; and white with black spots, similar to a Holstein cow. Pieces will be available for sale in June and will be available from Fresh Fork Market at www.freshforkmarket.com or at any of our area CSA pickup locations.

Samples are available for inspection this Saturday, May 5^th at the Lakewood Screw Factory Open House from Noon until 7 PM. Full details about the Screw Factory open house may be found here: http://www.screwfactoryartists.com/

Gina Desantis’ website: http://ginadesantisceramics.com/

Week 14 Winter CSA Package

2012-04-24T13:42:37-07:00

Ramp Pasta, butter, chicken brats, and feta

I’ve noticed a lot of requests for butter lately, so I’m guessing it’s time for some butter. This week you’ll have your choice of salted or unsalted butter. For anyone with some butter already sitting around, I do suggest putting this butter in a zip-loc bag and putting it in the freezer. Butter keeps fresher when frozen for it won’t absorb odors as readily.

We also have a special pasta this week. Ohio City Pasta is working on a cracked black pepper and ramp pasta for you, made with fresh ramps from Hinkley OH. I’m actually trying to get out the door now to go pick those up so OCP can have the pasta ready in time!

Be sure to top your pasta with a special new cheese from Lucky Penny Creamery. It is a blended goat milk and sheep’s milk feta. Abbe has been working on a few new products that you’ll see introduced thru Fresh Fork this summer!

To round out our package this week, we have a baby greens mix, ramps, and either kale or swiss chard (some of each). We also have Fuji apples, yogurt, and chicken bratwursts.

Thanks and we’ll see you in a few days. See the bottom of this email for a few special announcements:

Here’s all of this week’s bag contents:

Winter CSA Wk 14:

1 package chicken brats

4 oz feta cheese

1/2 lb mixed salad greens

1/4 lb ramps

1 lb fresh ramp pasta

1 bag/bunch of kale or chard, depending on what the farmers harvest

1 quart yogurt

1 quarter peck fuji apples

2 lbs butter, salted or unsalted

FABULOUS FOOD SHOW – Save with Fresh Fork Market

Buy your tickets online at www.fabulousfoodshow.com and use the promo code FRESH7 to save $7 off of your tickets. We are booth 119 and the event is this weekend. Come see us there and bring friends!

Namaste Day - Click Here for Event Details

Looking for good food and fun this Friday night? Join the International Partners in Mission for their 10th Annual Fundraiser called Namaste Day Event. The event is from 6:30 to 9:30 PM at Trinity Commons on 22nd and Euclid!

IPM focuses on both international and domestic causes, such as Medwish here in Cleveland as well as drinking water issues in Uganda. Their mission work effects thousands each year and your support – in exchange for food and drink – will go a long way. Please consider attending this wonderful event…at which you will also see many Fresh Forkers!

In Case you missed it…

2012-04-22T03:56:00-07:00

Thoughts From The Healthy Harvester

2012-04-20T04:30:09-07:00

The Healthy Harvester and his family has been growing produce since 1994. The first years were spent trying to farm plus hold an off-farm job which didn’t prove to be the best management plan, so we started farming full-time. For about a dozen years, we grew product for the local commodity produce market selling through a wholesale auction. Our main crops were tomatoes and cantaloupe plus side crops of pickles, beans and squash. These we produced in a larger and larger volume over the years to support our ever growing family. We put up several greenhouses where we grew flowers, also for the wholesale market.

About five years ago, we had educated ourselves to the point wehre we realized that the chemical sprays and fertilizer we were using ono our crops, that the universities promoted, were poisining our soils and our crops and ultimately us and the people who ate our products. So while the farm management changed from father to sons over a couple of years, we also transitioned from conventional, university approved, chemical farming to a more natural and wholesome way of growing food.

While changing growing methods, we were continually searching for high quality, mineral rich fertilizer and irrigation supplements to improve our soil and plant health which we had run down over years of chemical drug abuse. When these were too difficult to find, the oldest brother started his own small fertilizer comapny out of a storage shed on the farm specializing in producing truly high quality soil improving foliar supplements. Demand was so high, he outgrew the shed in one year and put up a fertilizer plant several miles down the road. Today, several years later, he sells fertilizer from Massachusetts to California and does millions in business.

Meanwhile, the soil on the farm became healthier and better managed as more knowledge was accumulated on how healthy systems really work. The crop profile also changed to include less chemical dependent crops which were better suited to our heavy soils. Today, our major crops are aliums such as onions, garlic, leeks, etc plus beans and tomatoes. Along with those, potatoes round out the extensively farmed crops. The intensively farmed crops are leafy greens in the freenhouse and ourdoors in the spring, and root crops for fall and winter storage.

Then the boys fully took over the farm management in the fall of 2010 and completely separated the farm economics from the household ones, the family registered the food production business as Healthy Harvest Farm. Because we were also a demonstration farm for Advancing Eco Agriculture’s fertilizer products, our quality vastly improved. Mineral rich, nutrient dense produce tasted sweeter, satisfied better stored longer and weighed more. Since the wholesale market paid no premium for better quality, the only way to increase revenue to pay for the increased fertilizer and management costs was to grow more quantity. With our limited land base that was impractical, so to increase revenue we needed a premium market. Preferably direct to the consumer with no middleman such as broker and supermarket or grocery store. Fresh Fork came upon the scene and filled the bill perfectly. The consumer gets an incredible deal because they’re not paying several middlemen plus freight from California or Florida for what is an inferior product anyway. The farmer gets paid a fair price which covers our costs and provides us a living. (we don’t need subsidies.) And by picking up and delivering product in the same 24 hours, Fresh Fork Market offers perfectly fresh products and operates on a very low overhead for savings to both the consumer and the farmer. The perfect distribution plan. (As an aside, the European Union is way ahead of America in some of these trends. Currently, around 80% of their fresh produce is distributed Fresh Fork Market style. The biggest diestributor does a little over 1 million subscriptions weekly. Trevor has quite a ways to grow yet, hmm?)

Managing the farm is an ongoing struggle to improve the whole system. Improving the aliveness of the soil and building fertility in turn imporoves the overal health and desiease resistance of the crops. Healthy mineral rich crops, wehn eaten, are easily digestible and feed the friendly bacteria in the digestive system which release the bioavailable mineral nutrients of the food into the bloodstream and are then available to revuild cells and so heal and strengthen the body. Healthy living food is real medicine! As farmers, we are directly responsible for people’s health! Sadly, most farmers are tied into the quantity commodity production system andare destroying America’s true wealth-her abundant, healthy soil.

However, the managers of Healthy Harvest Farm with the help of Advancing Eco-Agriculture’s excellent team of crop’s health consultants are steadily working in the opposite direction. The goal is to have healthier food, better water, and a cleaner environment on our little plot of earth for future generations while providing good quality food for our fellow citizens.

We are open to the public 5 days a week, closed Thursdays and Sundays. Advancing Eco-Agriculture has an annual field day on our farm where a wind variety of consultants and farmers gather to discuss and learn the concepts of a truly sustainable agri-culture. We will have speakers talking of the healthy food-healthy body connection and the many benefits of a healthy systems. For anyone interested in coming the cost is $25 and includes a home-cooked meal for lunch, a general tour of the farm and all the information you care to pick up in one day. The date this year is Tuesday, July 17th.

Is there any interest in a biweekly or weekly letter from here? Introducing our family and detailing what we’re planting and harvesting throughout the season, etc? How the weather affects us and what projects we’ll be tackling next? How about positive articles detailing how healthy plants interact with their environment and a general overview of a healthy farm system?

Or some negative articles outlining how terrible the modern chemical warfare type agriculture is for the environment and everything alive in it?

Contact Fresh Fork Market and if there’s enough interest, I’ll try squeezing some writing into my otherwise very busy schedule.

Have a great year!

The Healthy Harvester