The Observation Deck

Bryan Schwegler wrote:That's a very good point. Although I think I like having to do it weekly because then it will force me to eat more vegetables.

You're right Bryan, and that is certainly one of my main motivations for wanting to participate. At this point, I intend to participate every week, but I just like City Fresh's "payment plan" better.

I'm really excited too - and this is true of both programs - about getting the opportunity to try different vegetables I might not normally buy, and exchanging recipes with everyone.

Hey everyone! Covered Bridge Gardens also sells items ala carte at the LEAF nights. If you are a City Fresh Share holder, you can still support Covered Bridge in two ways. 1st, they supply some of the food for City Fresh. and 2nd, you can buy their ala carte items. They have a pecan farm in Arizona, and sell their pecans, popcorn, and produce all year long! It's very exciting to see how many people are becoming interested in Community Supported Agriculture.
~Annie

Well I sent in my check today....I decided to go with Covered Bridge. Something about knowing the farmers appealed to me.

Thanks to all for the information!

We had selected Covered Bridges 2 years ago and City Fresh last year. We have been pleased with both sources - I don't think anyone can go wrong in choosing either one... Glad to hear you can get items a la carte from CB, as well.

Does anyone know the proposed locations of the LEAF community gardens?

I saw this post on today's Cool Cleveland that highlights the positive impact community gardens can have on civic infrastructure (http://www.coolcleveland.com/index.php?n=Main.Current - apologies for posting the notice verbatim).

"Adaptive Re-Use of Old Urban Buildings for Local Food Like many so-called "shrinking cities," Cleveland is full of great old buildings and under-utilized infrastructure. A class from Cleveland State University came up a plan for one of them in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood and you'll learn about it Mon 3/24 starting at 6PM at this latest edition of City Fresh Monday. How can a local food economy help to stimulate the adaptive re-use of some of space and support urban agricultural production, food storage and distribution, value-added processing, or culinary education? Learn how the more than $3B spent on food each year in Cuyahoga Cty might provide opportunities to activate under-utilized spaces across Cleveland. Great Lakes Brewing Company, 2516 Market Ave. email: bradATgotthenac.org or visit http://www.gotthenac.org.

Perhaps Lakewood can take note on using under-utilized, or even highly-utilized, space in this manner?

I want to see a sunflower farm lining I-90...

Regarding the site locations of the community gardens, there is not much to say at this moment. Mayor Fitzgerald is very supportive of this initiative, and we are very optimistic that we will have more than the Plover Patch up and running this year. Once we work out more of the details, we will communicate them to everyone.

Our vision is to have several garden sites located throughout the city, so all citizens will have access to them. Each site will have multiple plots (about ten) on it, which we are thinking will be 10 feet by 10 feet. We are currently working on the action items that need to be attended to in order to make this happen. Please be patient with our ambiguity and trust that we are working hard to make this happen.

Thanks for your interest and support!