If you or a friend are still considering joining, we would love to have you. Our farmers are excited to feed your families this summer!

Late signups are pro-rated so that you pay for when you join through the end of the season.

For full details, including pricing and pickup locations, visit here: Summer Season Info Page

The best part of my job is walking around holding a coffee cup and eating the "misfits." Makes me feel like upper management just before I jump in to help with dishes!

So, this morning, it was one of the overfilled pies I enjoyed. I do have to say that the strawberry rhubarb pie is on point right now. Melinda, Mattie, and Anna in the kitchen spent the morning cutting up fresh berries and rhubarb before stewing them down with some organic cane sugar and a bit of flour to make a gooey, sweet, and tart combination for the pie.

Each pie is made with a crust featuring organic Stutzman flour, house rendered lard and Minerva butter for a flaky and tasty crust. The filling is simply strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, flour, and corn starch to add some body. On top, a crumb topping featuring organic rolled oats.

Pies are sold in portion-control 6 inch size or the no-shame 9 inch size. By weight, the 9inch is the better value. It's nearly triple the weight of a 6 inch.

Small 6 inch pies - $10

Large, 9 inch pies - $18

Last week's steak burger bundle sold out quickly and we had several customers email in asking if there were more. There were no extras last week, but we worked with our suppliers to offer this bundle again this week.

Only 40 bundles available. Order online now. Here are the details:

The Steak Burger Bundle: $25 (save 20%)

The steak burgers are made from ground up trim from the tenderloin, strip loin, ribeye, and sirloin from our grassfed beef. They are thick and a generous 6 oz.

Charloe is one of my favorite cheeses. It's a "Good Food Award" winning cheese from Canal Junction Creamery in Defiance, OH. Ralph and Sheila start with 100% grassfed milk from their herd of mixed Normande cows. They make the cheese, drain the whey, and let this washed rind cheese ripen just 60 days to a soft finish. It's a strong cheese - nutty and buttery on the inside but with a sticky rind with strong hints of mushroom and earth. The "washed" means the rind has been washed with a brine to help develop the B-linens bacteria - a bacteria that helps produce the pungent and distinguished washed rind flavor. OK, that's just cheese nerd stuff. It's good and you know it's on your burger.

The mushrooms are a mixed package from Erie Spore and Shore. He is picking them fresh each day this week for us, so you'll be able to appreciate the delicate flavor of a fresh mushroom.

The buns are from Fluffy Duck Bakery on East 105th and Chester. Ben has been supplying OCP since we opened, and his breads are world class. Made with organic flour and baked to perfection.

This week's pork roast has me thinking about stewing it with some crunchy fermented sauerkraut or dressing a sandwich of pulled pork with the spicy, IPA mustard from Old Brooklyn.

If you haven't tried our fermented sauerkraut, it's healthy and delicious. This week, $1 off a quart (32 oz jar).

For the mustard, it comes from Old Brooklyn Cheese Shop. Chef/owner Michael Januska starts with whole mustard seeds and C-Town IPA from Collision Bend Brewery. He adds a few twists to the traditional whole grain mustard - keffir lime for a slight citrus note to wake it up and jalapenos for a slight bit of heat (but not hot by any means). This unique mustard has won OBCS many awards, including the coveted Good Food Award. $6 per jar.

We LOVE strawberries here at Fresh Fork...really, we do! Fresh, local, strawberries are pretty much the best snack you could ask for when working long, hot days on the farm or in the warehouse. There is just one difficulty with strawberries, they are highly perishable.

Ripe berries should be eaten right away. There are many differences between the berries at the grocery story and a vine ripened, local strawberry. First, the varieties grown. Many "packer" varieties are those designed to be shipped. They have a firm fruit and large size in exchange for flavor.

The second difference is ripeness. This might sound odd, but commercial growers have to pick a berry less ripe to get shelf life. This means less flavor.

Berries are picked up daily. Our berries are picked daily and we run trucks around the clock to get them home, often 100 quart here, 50 there, etc. Today's route alone includes 14 growers!

These growers are all Amish. Almost all Swartenzetruber Amish (a sub sect) grow strawberries for sale from their home. They often have 10 or more children to help with the picking. Without all those helping hands, the harvest would be impossible. This is why growers like me can't do strawberries. I'd never be able to find the labor to harvest the berries!

This makes it hard to predict supply. Our growers estimate what they will have and have no way to call us if something goes wrong. We just drive there and hope for the best. With this week being the first week for "matted row" (main season) strawberries, we aren't offering any extra for prepurchase.

If there are extra berries, we will have them at the back of the trucks each day.

If the weather ruins the day's crop - in the worst case scenario that on a particular day we don't have the berries to put in that day's share, we'll make it up to you the next week. We really don't want to do this but sometimes these scenarios are out of our hands.

For those hoping to freeze some or make jam - I suggest waiting to next week. There should be more available and probably a better price.

"Macerating" is the process of soaking fruit in liquid, which softens and adds flavor/sweetness to the fruit itself. For strawberries, this is a very simple process. Sprinkle the berries in sugar, this will draw out the liquid, and create a syrup. From there, the world is your oyster! Store the syrupy-concoction in your fridge (gives you an additional 3-4 days with the fruit) and add to your breakfast (overnight oats, pancakes, waffles), or your next cocktail/summer drink! If you want to macerate your strawberries, but don't want to use white/granulated sugar, try maple syrup! Or, get creative and add a squeeze of lemon with the sugar for citrusy macerated berries.

If you're not interested in making a strawberry syrup, try one of these other recipes, and remember: keep it simple, and have fun!

This is the part of my job that makes my head spin. Getting our summer season off the ground is a lot of work, and at the same time we are busy caring for our Thanksgiving turkeys.

Thanksgiving requires a year of planning. At Wholesome Valley Farm, I keep a "brood flock" of Standard Bronze toms and hens. These birds reside off-site at a neighboring farm where Eddie and his kids care for them. Each year after Thanksgiving, we "turn the lights on." Birds require a certain number of hours of daylight per day to stimulate the proper hormones for fertile egg production. To time our birds for Thanksgiving, we have to start collecting eggs after the first of the year and setting them in February for a March hatch!

For the last several years, our hatch rates have been going down. I've been unable to find more breeding hens or toms to buy in so as our flock gets older, the conception rate has been dropping.

Last Thanksgiving, we took a chance and harvested half of our hens and replaced them with young hens out of last spring's hatch. The results were better than expected - nearly double the fertile eggs and double the chicks.

The good news - this year, knock on wood - it looks like we have more heritage turkeys than before.

On Monday, I brought home the first 3 hatches to make room for the last hatch (this coming Monday). These 85 birds (pictured) will join up with another group of approximately 150 to size up for Thanksgiving. The last hatch - this one coming up - will likely be for Christmas birds or replacement breeding flock.

What makes them "heritage." Heritage often refers to older genetic strands that aren't raised commercially anymore. The best way to save an endangered livestock breed is to eat it. If there is no market for the meat, no farmer will raise them.

The heritage birds are unique in that they were carefully selected by our farming forefathers based on their ability to thrive outside with less management. This means they tend to be excellent foragers, have good maternal instincts, and most of all, can naturally reproduce.

Today's poultry has been bred to produce more white meat and live in confined spaces. They are faster growing and often can't reproduce naturally.

Are they tastier and healthier? Taste is a matter of opinion, and my opinion is yes. The heritage bird is a slower growing bird (takes almost twice as long) and produces a more moist, darker meat with more under-skin fat. The breast meat moist and flavorful but isn't as pronounced or heavy. The drumsticks and thighs render themselves better to slower cooking techniques like confit or stewing.

Is growing them any different? Not really. They still require a protection from the sun and predators, fresh water, and feed. The biggest difference is they take a lot longer to raise (28 weeks vs 16 weeks) and are very mobile.

The heritage turkey can fly. The hens are light and nimble. We provide them a shelter (photo above) for the first month to get them used to their new home. From there, we open the doors, and they roam, sometimes across the road.

When Thanksgiving comes, the biggest challenge is catching them. Last year I had to snag them from the ridge of the roof on their structure. Walking on a turd covered tin roof brings origin to the saying "slicker than owl shit."

*Strawberries are very very difficult for us logistically. We run trucks Wed thru Saturday to get fresh berries. The farmers have no clue how many berries they will have until they are done picking and sorting them.

I'm saying, if we run into a shortage - perhaps due to rain - we will have to exclude berries from some routes. I don't want to do this, but that's farming. We'll see what happens.