Organic Delivery Service?

[Perplexa]

We just moved to a new neighborhood, where we don't have many good options for grocery shopping. We try very hard to eat as much organic (certified or not) and local food as we can, so our choices around here are the small selection of (mostly non-local) organics at the regular supermarket or produce stand, the farmer's market (a good choice, but only during the summer), or Whole Foods. I went to Whole Foods yesterday, and by the time I got stuck in traffic on the way there, squeezed my way around all the other people in the store (this WF has particularly skinny aisles), waited 20 minutes to pay, and then got stuck in traffic on the way home, it took me 2 1/2 hours. That was on a Friday, and I can only imagine that on the weekends, when we'll normally have to do our shopping, it would be worse.

Needless to say, I am totally uninterested in doing *that* again, which brings me to my question. In our area, we have both an organics delivery service and a food co-op. The delivery service delivers straight to our door once a week, has a wide selection of products with prices that are mostly equivalent to or cheaper than Whole Foods, is 100% organic and sources local products whenever they can (and lists where everything is from). The co-op is a non-profit (which is a big draw), delivers once a week from a house not too far away where we'd go pick up our food, has better prices on bulk items (but worse on everything else), and let's you order CSA shares directly through them. On the other hand, their selection is much smaller. It also costs to join, though it's only $20.

Anyway, has anyone tried either of these types of solutions? Any recommendations? I'd be willing to pay a bit more to have everything delivered to my door or nearby, and the fact that it doesn't cost anymore makes it seem like a no-brainer. I'd much rather shop in the comfort of my living room than in a crowded grocery store when I'm cranky from fighting traffic.

[Zoebird]

yes, though rather limited.

in PA, we did a CSA. I love the concept. The problem, though, is that you get a lot of food from April - October (you have to learn to put things by), and then nothing in between. The problem is, though, that while we bought a "family share" it was just enough for us (we eat a lot of veg), and the in-season produce made it difficult for us to plan our menus according to our diets. Eg, lots of herbs in the early months, lots of gourds in the late. It always felt like feast/famine, and we had to go to the store to fill out our daily needs anyway -- if one week didn't have as big of a harvest as another. We also found that while we extended our pallet a great deal (and experience with really interesting veg), a diet of all-squash from October through January is pretty blah. And yes, I have about 40 recipes for squash alone. So, I opted not to CSA after that season.

Moving here, I joined a coop. It's been good for community, but then became a mess. We are paleo, so the reason for us to join the coop was to get good prices on what we do eat. Problem being, they kept ordering grains and grains and grains and some beans and then some grains. I would put in to order what I wanted, and they said "not enough interest in that this month! try again next!" So, obviously, we couldn't get our food. Since we never ordered, I asked if we could have our membership back, and they did refund me.

Organic box -- it's a bit like the CSA, but because it's less expensive overall (eg, a CSA share was much more expensive than buying organic boxes), it works well. Our expectation of the box was to "add to" our grocery runs, not replace them entirely. We get a nice family box plus a fruit box. This costs us the equivalent of the store, but gives us a delivery each week. It helps cut the weight of what we carry home from the shops -- which is it's primary job for us. it's also *really good produce*.

We round it out with some veggies from the store (usually salad greens and frozen broccoli, etc). We use a fair amount of frozen because it is less expensive, and we eat A LOT of vegetables. We probably eat as many vegetables as about 4 average americans, possibly more than that. Whenever we would go to trader joes in the past, we would get 5 bags of each of 4 or 5 different kinds of veggies. People would say "oh, stocking up for a month?" no, that was a *weeks* worth of frozen veggies, and didn't even include the fresh. LOTS of veggies.

We could get a larger box (at $80 per week rather than $65), but since that gets more like the CSA (you simply tell them what you DON'T want, but whatever you get is a bit of a grab-bag), we want to make sure that we can and will eat everything in the box.

Our current box (which was a couple's box) has:

5-6 fresh (dirt on!) potatoes
7-8 carrots
1 head of broccoli
1 head of cauliflower
1 butternut squash
1 bunch of small beets with greens (and we eat the greens, too!)
two golden kiwifruit
7 small mandarine oranges
4 NZ rose apples
5 bananas (imported, organic, fair trade)
4 pears

this pretty much would last a weekend, with a few bananas and carrots left over. LOL This was because we are trying out a new delivery company, and I admit the quality of this produce IS much better than the last two we tried (most of it came really bruised, or really wilted). So, we'll try a family box plus extra fruit box from this company, and then adjust accordingly. :)

We spend about $300 per week on food, and buying the food box actually saves a bit of money, which is nice.

[IshbelRobertson]

I used to do an organic delivery service. BUT... found that some of the seasonal veggies were of little interest to me for cooking.

I now choose to just go to my local supermarket (Waitrose) and buy their organic veggies/fruits which are cheaper and better - oh, and I choose what I want!

[Kestra]

We might have some CSAs around here but the growing season is pretty short. So I've been getting the organic delivery service for over 5 years now. The variety of organics is better than I can get in any store here. The quality is also better than the store organics usually. We still go to the store but less often. I really like the people who run the company and how they support local farmers. They also offer groceries as well for delivery and extras like big tubs of strawberries in season, for an extra charge. They also decide what you are going to get (other than a specific list of items you don't want) so I eat more variety that way.
We eat ALOT of produce, so it's not the cheapest thing ever, but I'm willing to pay the extra money for the reasons mentioned. I don't like to skimp on whole healthy foods. It's always an exciting day to get the first Manitoba grown tomatoes and cukes of the season in February or March (great green house place that sells their food mostly to this one delivery company).