Thursday, November 11, 2010

it turns out, you CAN buy happiness!

Okay, I know, I'm a little obsessed with food. But I'm too happy with our big brown box of food from Organics to You that arrived on our porch today (courtesy of driver Will, who was quite nice) not to blog about it! I told Rowen that the "veggie truck" was coming today and he was so excited. We dove through the box together, with the Carters who happened to be here as well, and sampled some dried fruit (brown bag) and a kiwi that didn't make it into the photo. Mmm! It's all so pretty and yummy smelling that I felt it deserved a nice clean fridge to sit in. So even though I put everything away and we continued to play with the Carters, I got it all back out again (yes, to take a picture!) and to clean the fridge, which has long been needing it. (Actually, it was a small goal of mine to get that done this month. The pretty food just motivated me.) :)
We ordered a small bin, with a fruit add on ($15), plus milk ($6.50) & eggs ($4.25) for $58. (delivered!) The milk is more expensive than I can get at trader joes or freddies, but not that much more for not having to make a special trip for it. I'm going to try and make this last two weeks, and have the box come every other week. Here's a detailed list of what we got, if you're curious: (because you know how much I like to inform the masses)

4 Fuji Apples-*LOCAL*
4 Honey Crisp apples - *LOCAL*
4 Comise Pears -*LOCAL, farm direct*
4 D'anjou Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2 Pomegranate - Cali'
3 Fuyu Persimmons - Cali'
1 bunch Carrots-*LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Kale -*LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Dandelion Greens -*LOCAL, farm direct*
2 Peppers -*LOCAL, farm direct*
1lb. Parsnips -*LOCAL, farm direct*
1lb. Baby Bok Choi -*LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Sm. Corn -*LOCAL, farm direct*
6-8oz. Crimini Mushrooms -*LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Savoy Cabbage - *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Heirloom Tomatoes - *LOCAL, farm direct*
4 Bananas - Mexico
4 Oranges - Cali'
1/2lb. Raisins - Cali'
2 Grapefruits - usa
5 kiwis - new zeland
2.5lb. Potatoes - *LOCAL*
celery

My kitchen table is COVERED! And I'm giddy :) If I make one giant winco trip per month for the dry staples, one costco trip per month for the other staples, and get this delivery twice per month, we could actually be saving money on groceries per month AND eating local (mostly,) organic food. I'm hoping my plan works out because this all looks SO good, and I really love the idea of only two grocery trips per month. :)
Now, to figure out what the heck to do with dandelion greens...
One thing I'm really excited about is the lack of commitment. You can let Organics to You know (at least 48 hours in advance) that you don't want something this week and would like something else instead. Or that you'll be on vacation and need to skip a delivery. Or that you just plain don't like dandelion greens and don't want them in your box ever again. ;) But hey, I didn't want to change anything in this first box because I'm adventerous like that. However, if I end up with four heads of cabbage in my fridge, I'll probably ask them to hold back on the suckers for a little while. I love that freedom. And since you can easily go back and forth between bins, I might order the large bin without the fruit add on next time and see how that looks. Because this looks like plenty of fabulous fruit, but not sure that it's 2 weeks worth of veggies for us. Oh, and not only is there a fruit add on, but there are ethnic cooking add ons, baby food add ons, kid stuff add ons, I mean - it's really versatile!

okay, okay, yes, both kids are napping and I'm getting carried away on the computer again. I'll stop now. :)

4 comments:

Tara said...

Awesome!! I'd have blogged about this to. :)

My rabbit loves dandelion greens. lol

Enjoy! Those honey crisp apples sound delicious. Have you ever tried one?

Unknown said...

throw the Dandelion greens in a green smoothie or stirfry with other veggies/greens.

What are you going to do with the Persimmons? I tried themlast year my sister had a tree. I didn't care for them raw. I have heard they make good muffins. I love them dried.

Unknown said...

I read that they're good raw when they're so soft they're almost mushy. So, I think we'll try that for starters! I've never had one before!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing!! I'm going to talk it over with Roman and see if he wants to try it. Romam loves persimmons, he hunts around neighborhoods for persimmon trees and waits until they are good and ripe. I personally have a hard time with the texture and they are very sweet. Let me know what you think.
Melissa