Organics to You

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With the rainy season upon us, its not always easy to bus it to the farmer’s market these days. With the sale of our car impending, and no bike trailer to carry groceries, getting produce and grocery items will be a bit difficult, to say the least. But I’m really apprehensive about the trailer, for irrational fears of having the most precious thing to my heart trailing around behind my bike on the side of a busy road. Anyway, I typically bring $40 to the Portland Farmer’s Market each week. I look for the best deals (which aren’t always organic but at least local) and then I spend a little at the grocery store for items not produce related. The market runs every Saturday from May - December.

All of these complications lead me to look into the home delivery service, as I often see various vans outside the doors of houses in our neighborhood, dropping off groceries and bins of food.

Several full-fledged grocery stores, such as New Seasons Market, offer this service for a fee, and many local farms offer “drop off” sites for a seasonal membership (Sauvie Island Organics, for example, rounds off to about $25 a week, from my math, which is pretty good, but you have to pay $805 for the 8 months of service, and you still have to go to the drop off sites on the right days.)

What I want is something without a fee, that tells me what I’m getting each week, and that provides more than just produce. Oh yes, and if you could just leave it on the door, thanks. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not! Organics to You offers home delivery of fresh organic produce from several farm locations, and all you have to do is schedule for the size bin you want (one person, small family, large family, etc) including extras such as “Juicer Bin”, “Kids Bin” etc. To top it off, they offer an ever expanding selection of high demand grocery items, such as bread, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, coffee, - even Chai! (Meats are coming soon!) You see the price (and, by the way, the brand) for what you’re checking off and it all adds up to one sum which you can either pay in advance with your credit card or leave cash under your door mat! The prices, compared to non-discounted items at, say, Wild Oats (prices I am most familiar with) are by and large comparable, if not cheaper, (although for the time being, I do have Hubby’s 20% discount) PLUS you are not paying for gas OR the time/chore of getting your groceries each week.

Pro’s: esp without a Hubby discount: no travel and very little time invested (takes two minutes to fill your order). Price is reasonable, and best of all, it makes it very easy to stay within your grocery budget, as most of us would do if we actually saw the total adding up AS WE WERE SHOPPING!

Con’s: If you are not concerned about organics AND you are not a big produce eater, then obviously its cheaper to go to your local grocery chain.

Below was this week’s bin for a “small family”, which costs $30. I think its MORE than enough for us and I might go down to the one person bin every other week, and with the savings buy some grocery items such as my milk, bread and eggs.

SMALL BIN

Hello, For the week of October 22nd. ENJOY!

1 Pomegranate
4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2-3 StarKrimson Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct
3-4 Bananas
1 bunch French breakfast Radish - *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2lb. Red Potatoes - *LOCAL, farm direct*
6oz. Crimini Mushrooms - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1/2lb. Green Beans - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Lettuce - Some *LOCAL*-’last of the local lettuce’
1 bunch Chard/Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Broccoli - *Local*
1-2 winter Squash-(Gold Nugget) - *LOCAL, farm direct*

*LOCAL* = locally from supplier
*LOCAL, farm direct* = Locally direct from farmer

I’d like to add that even the website for this organization is impressive to me- with recipes, community pages, so on. I will get my first delivery next week, and I’ll let you all know how it measures up!