Forkin' A, man! This is like the coolest food thing to hit the Cleve since Melt (who has vegan cheese now, btw!). So Joe went to EarthFest at the zoo on Sunday (I know, mom, you're SO proud), and talked to the folks at Fresh Fork Market. So this is the scoop: 70 farmers, all within 75 miles of Cleveland, supply packages of food (meat, dairy, produce) for 22 weeks. You can either sign up to receive all 22 weeks, or you can just order month-to-month, or just sporadically choose to order. Then, there are 6 pick-up locations for you to conveniently pick up your booty each week.

On the site, they have samples of what they delivered last year, and they look really tasty, and well worth the money. While the traditional packages include meat and dairy, you can request vegetarian or vegan packages, which is cool. A small package looks something like this:

1 lb sweet cherries
½ lb of mixed kale (Black Italian Tuscan and Red Russian Kale)
1 yellow zucchini
1 green zucchini
1 bunch garlic scapes
1 lb fresh spinach pasta (linguini noodle)
4 oz chevre (goat cheese)
1 dozen free range eggs
½ gallon organic milk
1 head winter density lettuce

and, if you sign up for all 22 weeks, it comes out to be about $25 a week. At first I thought this sounded steep, but while I was at the store last night, I realized it's pretty much on target, and probably even more for the money when you consider most of the items in the package are organic and local. Plus, I'd much rather give my money to local farmers than Giant Eagle (sorry, Big Bird).

So Joe and I plan on partaking in this, and I'm really pumped about it. Pretty sure it'll feel like Christmas every week that we pick up our package, and I think it'll be super fun to come up with dinners with what we receive. Plus, I'm just really excited to support this effort and local growers.

I know not everyone is in the Cleveland area, but if you are, check it out, and maybe try out a package or two this year :)

http://www.freshforkmarket.com/

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