If you have been following my blog, then you might have noticed a long drop off this summer. There have been many changes with GLDC and myself. Not to worry, my wit and keen insight will return shortly. In the meantime, let me tell you about Fresh Fork Market. I did some freelance work for Trevor at Fresh Fork Market two years running. I did it as a swap (will work for food!), and was so impressed with the high quality local food and the mission of Fresh Fork to be the biggest distributor of fresh local foods in NE Ohio, that I asked him for a job.
What a great job for me. I came in as a seasonal employee, loading trucks and delivering CSA shares to local drop off points. Little did I know the impact a CSA can have on the local food economy. This CSA pumped $700,000 back into the local farm economy in a single season. That does not include the winter CSA programs or the holiday packages. This is built on single buyers, making food choices in single one bag purchases. Over the next year, you will hear more from me about Fresh Fork, and you can read the Fresh Fork blog, too.
But what I really wanted to talk about was the Thanksgiving packages and turkeys.
I prepared local, fresh turkeys like the ones from Fresh Fork Market on a regular basis when we lived in Portland. Since moving to Cleveland, we have dinner with family, and they always make the turkey. This year, I want a nice fresh bird so I looked at the Thanksgiving packages from Fresh Fork.
These turkeys are still out in the field, running around and living their little turkey lives. But at the end of next week, they will be harvested for the dinner table. These guys get to live out a real life. They run around in a pasture, eat grass and bugs, have organic feed to supplement their diet and are sold fresh.
One of the things that I have discussed with people is the quality of fresh turkeys on Thanksgiving. As Americans, we eat turkey every year. Yet, what we buy is usually full of hormones, antibiotics, additives to make them retain water, and worse. They are often not humanely raised or humanely slaughtered. I was talking with a food buyer that I know and they assured me that those thanksgiving turkeys in stores now are surely months (if not years) old.
Fresh turkeys require a little more attention to prepare. They are not self basted, and do NOT come with a little pop up timer. You may need to baste a fresh bird a little more. You will need to watch it cooking, and test it to make sure it is done. The results, however, are so much worth the efforts. I have found every good fresh turkey that I have made to need little in the way of seasoning. They have more natural flavor and less sodium. Because the birds are fresh and fed properly, I know that my turkey will be full of nutrition and tasty goodness. A typical turkey? Who knows.
In short, I am so stoked to have my fresh local turkey this year. If you have never had a fresh, locally raised, hormone free, pasture raised, organically fed turkey-order one now! Yeah, they are a little more. Quality birds can not be properly raised for pennies a pound. But if you want a meal that you can be proud of and proud to give your family, then nothing is better than a high quality turkey. Order one from Fresh Fork Market. Hurry before they are all gone!
This year, Bud and I worked as a vendor coordinators of the Coventry Street Fair. It was a pretty sweet gig, as Bud worked with Steve Presser (the owner of Big Fun) and I had to do very little of the actual work. For my part, I had to take the volunteers out for coffee, help chalk the sidewalk, help coordinate the vendor set up, and spend the day walking up and down Coventry enjoying myself.
