Organic produce
May. 25th, 2004 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI recently found out about Boston Organics, a local company that will deliver a box of organic fruits, veggies, or both, to your door every week or every two weeks. I'm excited to see this kind of service, since it makes organic produce a lot more accessible, and it's affordable. Not cheap, I suppose, but less than buying everything at Whole (wallet) Foods. It's not in every neighborhood yet, but it looks like they want to expand as soon as they have a reasonable customer base. I think I'd like to try it this winter, after the farm share and the farmer's markets [1] are done (They start in a few weeks! *bounce* of excitement!)
The delivery service sounds very convenient, being delivered directly to my house, so I don't have to work my schedule around a weekly pick-up at an almost-convenient location. I can choose what ratio of fruits to veggies I'd like, and even let them know if there are veggies or fruits I don't want to ever have in the box. Still, I don't think I'll replace the farm share with this; I prefer to support local agriculture if I can. It's not only that a huge part of the cost of most food is the energy spent getting it to market. It's also knowing that the vegetables are freshed, picked that day or the day before. It's also knowing the people who are farming; both farms I've had shares with are ones with service agendas as well (one growing food to supply food pantries, the other being a project developed by a transitional housing place), which I'm glad to support. The farm share is easier for me than going to farmer's markets every week, since I pick up a week's worth of veggies in one box, without shopping around. Plus it forces me to try new vegetables and herbs I might not otherwise have run across, or decided to buy (though I still give my cilantro away immediately....). On the other hand, farmer's markets have things I don't necessarily get in my share, and I can buy however much I want, so I usually end up going a number of times over the summer.
In order of preference, then: farm share, farmer's market, delivery service. And the delivery service is the only one that functions through the winter, too. Now the end of the local growing season needn't be quite as sad.
[1] Sundays in Harvard Sq. (a small one), Mondays in Central Sq., Tuesdays in Newton (inconvenient time/location, but there's a mushroom woman!), Wednesdays in Davis Sq., Thursdays in Brookline (open until dusk, which is a plus). I know there must be Friday and Saturday ones, but those aren't so useful to me, so I don't have them memorized.
The delivery service sounds very convenient, being delivered directly to my house, so I don't have to work my schedule around a weekly pick-up at an almost-convenient location. I can choose what ratio of fruits to veggies I'd like, and even let them know if there are veggies or fruits I don't want to ever have in the box. Still, I don't think I'll replace the farm share with this; I prefer to support local agriculture if I can. It's not only that a huge part of the cost of most food is the energy spent getting it to market. It's also knowing that the vegetables are freshed, picked that day or the day before. It's also knowing the people who are farming; both farms I've had shares with are ones with service agendas as well (one growing food to supply food pantries, the other being a project developed by a transitional housing place), which I'm glad to support. The farm share is easier for me than going to farmer's markets every week, since I pick up a week's worth of veggies in one box, without shopping around. Plus it forces me to try new vegetables and herbs I might not otherwise have run across, or decided to buy (though I still give my cilantro away immediately....). On the other hand, farmer's markets have things I don't necessarily get in my share, and I can buy however much I want, so I usually end up going a number of times over the summer.
In order of preference, then: farm share, farmer's market, delivery service. And the delivery service is the only one that functions through the winter, too. Now the end of the local growing season needn't be quite as sad.
[1] Sundays in Harvard Sq. (a small one), Mondays in Central Sq., Tuesdays in Newton (inconvenient time/location, but there's a mushroom woman!), Wednesdays in Davis Sq., Thursdays in Brookline (open until dusk, which is a plus). I know there must be Friday and Saturday ones, but those aren't so useful to me, so I don't have them memorized.