Over the holidays, the Good Food Box that I subscribe to just happened to have their delivery days fall on statutory holidays. Which means – no vegetable delivery! It’s too bad they didn’t reschedule their delivery for earlier or later in the week because it left me at a loss as to how I would be getting my vegetables for a month. I know that I can just go to the grocery store and pick some up, but you cannot believe how lazy I get when it comes to picking vegetables. I’m just not motivated. Plus it’s so much more pleasant going to the grocery store and only having to pick up a few things knowing that I already have all the fruits and vegetables that I need at my house.
So rather than take a one month hiatus, I decided to sign up with another vegetable delivery box to tie my over – Fresh City Farms. Their fruit and vegetable boxes start at $26.99 (they price is even cheaper if you pay a lump sum up front instead of paying for each individual delivery) and they specialize in organic. They also offer door-to-door delivery and you can customize your box based on your preferences. The produce comes in a cool thermal bag with recipes cards and information on how to properly store your produce. I have to admit, I was really impressed.
It costs a little more than my usual produce box program but for people who want to be able to have the option of customizing their boxes based on their preferences (and would like to have door-to-door delivery), it’s worth it.
For me, I’m not too picky when it comes to produce and I like to aim for as much variety as possible. I also like to challenge myself by cooking vegetables that I normally don’t buy. However, during the winter months, when I don’t feel like making the trek out to my pick up centre (ice storms have been hitting Toronto this year) I am going to sign up with Fresh City Farms. Their program is also flexible – you set up pre-authorized payments with your credit card (or PayPal) which gets charged with every delivery. If you want to skip a week or or two you can place a hold on your account and you won’t receive deliveries for that week or get charged. It’s a good compromise between bulk buying programs and other Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) programs where you have to sign up for a whole season.
Are you part of a CSA program? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.