Natures Garden Delivered

I used to participate in a Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) Program. It was pretty neat; I would take my own bag and pick up my "portion" every Tuesday evening on my way home. The great things about it were that everything was fresh and local, if you didn't want your portion of something, you could put it in the trade bin and take something someone else left, and I had the opportunity to try a lot of foods I wouldn't have otherwise. The downsides were that payment was made for a certain time period (8 weeks I think), it was not in a convenient location for me, and some of the (undesired) items were repeated often. If you couldn't pick up your portion, it was donated to the food bank. Check out Crooked Sky Farms or other CSA programs.

When that didn't work for my schedule anymore, I started hitting the farmers markets. Unfortunately, most are on Friday, when I'm at work, or on Saturday, when I'm just too busy and/or tired. However, there is a FM on Wednesday's at lunchtime near my work at 20th St and Camelback. I love going but during the summer, a lot of the vendors pack it up, understandably.

Then I heard about Bountiful Basket, which is a similar concept to the CSA but the pickups are all on Saturday morning at various valley locations. Everyone that participates likes it. But as I mentioned, Saturday mornings are hard for me to commit to, and you have to "order" by Wednesday.

So, when I heard about a delivery service, I checked it out. Nature's Garden Delivered http://az.naturesgardendelivered.com/ delivers fresh organic fruits and vegetables, either weekly or every other week. My delivery comes before I wake up, so I unload my box before I head to work. They pick up the previous box and cold packs when they deliver the next one. The website allows me to put my preferences, and a few days before delivery, I can see what I'm getting and swap out if I don't want something. I can also add additional items from their list. I get the "tiny" box, which runs about $26, and in my opinion, is totally worth it. I know some people are looking for the best deal, but I'm looking for the best value. I want to support local (and local-ish) and organic farmers over industrial farming any chance I can, especially if the prices are competitive.

The "tiny" box I got this week included: 3 apples, 1 lb bananas, 1 lb carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 red leaf lettuce, one mango, 2 onions, 2 peaches, 2 plums, 3/4 lb red potatoes, and two tomatoes. If that doesn't sound like a lot, think about how much produce most people ACTUALLY eat (not what they buy) each week, and remember that I am the only person in my house that eats 90% of that. I find that I am really eating most of this in a week! I think I'm eating more produce than normal because I know another delivery is coming next week.