Fresh Organic Produce

I've shared before on here about our organic produce deliveries that we've been enjoying. But, I've had some friends ask me about the same thing in their areas. Recently, I learned of a local one for the Santa Clarita Valley (CA) (where some friends in that area were asking about so I wanted to share it with you here. Now, this one is different than the one I'm apart of. There are private companies, there are co-ops, and there are CSAs. I'll try to explain them here.....

Delivery-
The one we use is a private company owned and operated by a young Christian couple in our area. They purchase organic produce from farms, box it and deliver it to your door step weekly, bi-weekly, or as one time orders. They have several boxes to choose from including the small, the large, the gourmet, veggie only, fruit only, etc. They also have many organic alacart items you can add to your order off of their website. Each week, you put out your old box on your porch and they switch it with your new box full of produce. They also include their weekly newsletter which has tips, recipes, and articles on healthy eating and organic lifestyle. The small box is $24. At first I thought we wouldn't possibly eat it all and that it would be much more money than I was spending before. After totalling what I spend at the store on produce (even the non-organic stuff) I was shocked to find that I was spending quite a bit at the store. I also realized that we were throwing out a lot of produce from the store because we didn't eat it all before it all went bad. I used to buy in bulk because I only shop twice a month but the produce rarely lasted past a week. All to say, we are eating tons more produce, not wasting much of it, and enjoying all kinds of new things that we haven't tried before. I plan my cooking around what we have in our box or what is on the box menu for the next week (which is posted on each newsletter).

Co-ops
Okay, then there are co-ops. Co-ops like Azure Standard for example, usually have a website where you order alacart and there is a drop off location in your area by one of the customers who volunteers to be the drop off person. You go each week to your drop off location and pick up your order. You can usually by healthy foods that are difficult to find in grocery stores and they are usually at a fraction of the price. This isn't just produce though...it usually includes flour, pantry items, etc. We also have a local co-op that is a store...similar to a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods store but you buy a membership to be apart of the supporting co-op part of it. It's open to the public but the prices are higher for the public.

CSAs-
CSAs are a way for people to buy directly from farms. You purchase a "share" of a farm and get your produce and other farm products through them (usually meats, poultry, eggs are included in these). The shareholders are people like you that keep the farm running and profitable. Not all CSAs are organic though and you need to research whether they are or not if that matters to you.

Now for the links......
-if you are in my area, you can leave a comment with your email address on this post for info about our boxed organic delivery. I have brochures I can pass out.
-if you are interested in Azure Standard click here
-if you are interested in the boxed organics in Santa Clarita (CA) click here AND you can also read more about it on my friend's site by clicking here. (thanks for sharing all that Jan)
-if you are interested in finding a CSA in your area or even a great list of possible healthy restaurants you should check out this nationwide site called Local Harvest. It will let you know about the farms and businesses in your area that are committed to organics or healthy foods.