How We Source

We think that redeveloping a local food system is a goal worth supporting for Ohio. It is why we buy the vast majority of our vegetables from farmers right here in Northeast Ohio. Buying local and organic vegetables benefits our communities by keeping food dollars in our local economy. It enhances our environment by limiting the use of pesticides and herbicides, and it benefits our planet’s climate by greatly decreasing the transportation costs for our food.

By purchasing from local farms, we also support what remains of a small farm culture in rural Ohio where most of the land has been turned into industrial scale production of corn and soybeans.

In Northeast Ohio, we are lucky to be able to buy many fresh, organic vegetables and fruits from early June until mid-December. We must carefully plan our production schedule and coordinate with farmers, beginning in the winter when we meet with them and talk about plans and hopes for the coming year.

There is a predictable calendar for the vegetables we use. Our cucumber pickles begin arriving in late June. Just a little later, the first cabbage and the gai choy we use in our kim chi becomes available. Late July sees the arrival of green beans and dill.

As these summer crops decline in September, carrots, beets, apples, and peppers become available and we begin making carrot escabeche and hot sauce. As the weather turns cool, cabbage, turnips, cauliflower, daikon radishes, apples, and gai choy are again abundantly available until December.

All our organic cabbage comes from two Amish farmers in Medina and Ashland counties and Green Field Farms, a farmer’s coop in Wayne county.

Our organic pickles come from a single farm in Ashland county and the conventional pickles we use when organic pickles are in short supply come from the County Line Produce Auction in Medina County where vegetables arrive by horse drawn wagon three days a week from May to November.

Our root vegetables (beets, turnips, carrots, and daikon radish) come from a single Amish farmer in Medina county who also grows gai choy and dill for us.

Peppers for our hot sauce are sourced through the Oberlin Food Hub, but actually come from Mahoning County.

Some ingredients (primarily organic onions, ginger, and garlic) prove difficult to source in the quantities we need from local farmers. We purchase these through national vendors at the Cleveland Food terminal.

Daikon radishes have been difficult for our local farmers to grow except from September to November, so we purchase these from a Cleveland-based Asian produce distributor when we need them at other times.

We continue to work with local farmers to grow the ingredients for our products. We are proud of our developing relationships with them and the trucking company, Ag Access, which facilitates the transportation of many Ohio farm small products—not only to Wake Robin but a host of other local markets that support local agriculture.

By preserving vegetables grown during Ohio’s six-month growing season, we extend the season, making it possible for people to eat locally grown vegetables throughout the year.