As I sat on the hotel bed in Michigan, it occurred to me that I should have warned my roommate that a crate full of vegetables would be arriving on our doorstep that day. I had recently signed up for Farm Fresh Delivery, and had been meaning to mention it to my roommate, but it kept slipping my mind. When I returned home, I was happy to see my crate in the front hallway, like a late Christmas gift waiting to be unpacked!
Farm Fresh Delivery is a service offered in Indianapolis and Cincinnati that delivers to your door, fresh, organic produce that has been grown locally. There are similar services offered across the country, so I’d recommend that you search Google to see if there is one in your area. This site, Greenling, seems to have a directory.
I have been thinking of signing up for Farm Fresh Delivery on and off for several years now, ever since a blog reader left me a comment mentioning it. Several times in the past few years I would go to their web site, browse around, think about ordering, and then drop the idea because I wasn’t sure if I could afford it or if I’d use all the produce before it rotted.
This year I finally gave them my credit card information after I did some budget analysis. You have to place a minimum $35 order, and you have the option of receiving deliveries every other week. That means I’d be spending about $70 a month on produce. I’ve been tracking my expenses carefully lately, and when I looked at my grocery budget, I figured that I probably spend at least $70 a month on produce anyway, so why not get it delivered directly to my door? Organic foods are supposed to taste better anyway, and I’d be supporting local farmers, so I can feel good about it.
The real tipping point though was the home delivery. I’ve gotten sick of going to the grocery every 4 or 5 days just to buy fresh produce, so the idea of having the food arrive on my doorstep is really appealing. I’m also the kind of person who likes the idea of organic foods and supporting local farmers and eating “real” foods and not processed “fake” foods, but I don’t want to have to go out of my way to do it. I don’t want to visit a farmer’s market every weekend. So, this is a nice compromise. There is also the option to add other food items to your cart, such as coffee, honey, milk, baked goods and more, which I might take advantage of later.
Opening my crate was so much fun! It was like someone had sent me presents: green, leafy, organic, edible presents. I enjoyed peeking into the brown bags to discover what was in the crate this week, and then trying to match the items to the list on the invoice. It took me awhile to identify the beets, which I initially mistook for turnips. The food items change weekly depending on what is in season, so hopefully I’ll get better at playing Name That Vegetable.
I also hope receiving this crate of veggies will encourage me to make new dishes, and to eat more vegetables. I’m good about eating fruits, since they are sugary and delicious, but veggies have never had much appeal to me. Hopefully I will keep up with the deliveries and eat everything before it goes bad. I’ll let you guys know how it goes!