Cooks of Crocus Hill Crop Share--any experiences to share?

[The Dairy Queen]

I've been considering Cooks of Crocus Hill Crop Share off and on over the years. Anyone had any experiences with CoCH crop share? If so, what were you buying (meat, eggs, poultry, vegetables?), which location (Mpls or St. Paul) and what did you think about quality, value, notification and pick-up process, etc? Any frustrations?

http://www.cooksofcrocushill.com/crop...

Thank you!

~TDQ

-----
Cooks of Crocus Hill
3925 W 50th St, Minneapolis, MN 55424

[Karl benson]

Just stumbled across your post. Hope it's not too late. I own Cooks and I can at least offer a little insight on our perspective. The Crop Share program is intended to try to find and offer those interesting food items that are not available everywhere. It all starts with sourcing those things that spark our interest. It started with the fruit and evolved from there.

We sample and taste things before they are offered, but we cannot predict what happens year to year. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. Cannot predict the rain or sun.

Wherever possible we look for good quality, good stories and local. The duck is a good example. Great quality, great story. Fantastic quality actually!.

Meat has better predictability on delivery, fruit and veggies do not. We try to give 2 weeks notice, but the farmers and mother nature, don't always follow our timeline. We shoot for a minimum of 7 days notice. Always, you can collect during store hours.

We are a drop site for a CSA. Rock Spring Farms. Price is a little more than others, but Chris does a really nice job and he delivers to town. We do not receive any compensation on the CSA. On the other items, our margin is very small. We'd like to keep as much in the hands of the small farmers as possible.

SUmmer is a huge time and we've found some way cool things for this year so keep an eye out for the summer schedule

[bethanyg]

They do have a kind of standard CSA in the summer — our neighbor gets it and we pick it up for them sometimes. It's a nice box of veggies, but I don't think much different than any other CSA, and maybe a bit more expensive. Have not tried the specialty ones though.

[mkaps]

I've bought the duck legs with duck fat and the truffles twice. the quality has been really good. Haven't had the chance to order any of the other shares but I've been happy with the farm shares that I have ordered.

[The Dairy Queen]

Awesome! The duck was one of the items I was considering, actually. Did you have any hassles with picking them up? How much notice did they give you?

~TDQ

[semanticantics]

Truffles? As in the fungus? I am not seeing them, would be very interested in them. When are vegetables announced, all I see is meat.

I'll be picking my own morels this year, hope to find ramps and fiddleheads.

[mkaps]

Have never had any hassles with picking them up. they give you a day or two notice with a time and you just go in and pick them up. they prefer that you pick them up at the given time to insure freshness. I've had trouble getting in the at the times given but you can have anyone pick them up for you no problem. Their farm shares are mostly seasonal so vegetables are available when in season so come spring veggies with be more widely available. I'm not too sure when the truffles are available I believe I bought one share in the spring and another in the fall sometime. Truffles cost me 32 dollars and I received one or two golf ball sized truffles.

[The Dairy Queen]

Thanks! This is helpful and it sounds like you're saying that they do offer a more typical vegetable CSA. I didn't recall that they did, but I already subscribe to that kind of CSA, so maybe I just tuned it out.

My biggest concern is your point that they give you a day or two notice and a time for you to go get them. If that time is between 9 and 5 on a weekday, it's unlikely I'm going to stop what I'm doing at the office to go get my crop share. Presumably they'll let you come at 6pm or something like that?

~TDQ

[semanticantics]

I assume the Truffles were from Oregon then. That's not a terrible deal, I got about the same a couple years ago online. This year I got a 1.5 lbs (far too many) for $75 shipped. Some were sub-prime from cracks and breaks, but I still had one black bigger than my "OK" sign in my hand.

[mkaps]

Yeah, they were from oregon. The first truffle I got through cooks was beautiful. the second I got from cooks almost didn't happen. I got a call that the share wasn't going to happen and that they would refund me. the next day they called saying that they were in fact getting the truffles in. The one I got was much smaller than the first share but the quality was still pretty good.

[The Dairy Queen]

When I said "vegetables" I meant the fiddles, ramps, nettles and morels. Sorry--I should have chosen a better word. I don't know if they ever offer the kind of "vegetable" CSA I suspect you're thinking of, where you get your box of vegetables every week or every other week during growing season. But there are lots and lots of local farms that offer that kind of CSA.

CoCH's crop shares, as far as I can tell from looking at them off and on over the years, seem to be more along the lines of meat and specialty items as far as I can tell, and what they offer varies by season. Last season, for instance, they offered bison. I think these are always "one time" deals, not recurring arrangements, though I imagine there isn't any reason you can't keep signing up for them if they keep offering them.

It doesn't seem the truffles mkaps is referring to are available at this time.

~TDQ

[mkaps]

They don't offer a traditional vegetable CSA but there are plenty of great vegetable CSAs available. My veggie CSA last year was through Growing Lots CSA. Its farmed right here in the minneapolis and I was super happy with the variety in the CSA. Cooks vegetable shares are highly specialized and are more focused on hard to find or uncommon fruits and vegetables. TImes they give you aren't set. when they call me they pretty much say, " you can pick up your farm share this afternoon." you can go in at 8pm and still get your farm share so you shouldn't have to leave work to get your share, you can wait til the work day is done.

[The Dairy Queen]

Thank you for putting my mind at ease about the whole timing thing! It sounds sufficiently flexible for me.

Also, thanks for clarifying the bit about the vegetable CSA. I agree that Cooks crop shares seem more focused on meats and other specialty items, which is exactly perfect for me because I have a regular weekly "vegetable" (and sometimes fruit) CSA I'm happy with. (Good to know about Growing Lots if I ever need to switch, though). If I recall correctly, semanticantics (who posted above) is a vegetarian. I may have confused him in my original post when I mentioned Cooks offered "vegetables" by which I meant the fiddles, ramps, morels etc. I guess those aren't really vegetables and I should have used a different term. Flora?

~TDQ