Make Mine Delivery

Ever wonder what it is like to join a food delivery service? Our friend Cat did, and she loves it! She says:

Today we got our Dominion Harvest delivery or, as we call it, our “red box.” Dominion Harvest is a local produce delivery system. That sounds so boring, but it is not. Basically, they have relationships with local farmers and they gather together an assortment of the best produce (meat, cheese, and egg options are available too) and deliver it to your house. We get ours every other week. Unlike other Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) options, Dominion Harvest charges by the week (instead of an upfront charge for the season), allows you to pause or cancel service anytime, and just brings what’s available (instead of you choosing what you get at the market). I’ve been doing it for a few years now and it works perfectly for us.

I HEART getting red box. Every other Friday, I pull up to my house to find this on the front porch:

It’s closed up and protected with ice packs when delivered, but that picture was less enticing! Plus, there is always a sheet on the outside of the box telling you what you have and what farm it came from.

To be clear, I love farmer’s markets. I love going to them, buying food from them and being part of the whole affair. But, for us, it’s just hard to get there every week. And with a new-ish baby, it’s really important to us to eat as healthfully as we can. Not to mention that I love not choosing the food I get in my box (although you can tell them if you have allergies or just don’t like certain things). Not choosing it all myself means I learn about a lot of different foods (hello, garlic scapes!) that I never knew about and wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

So, what’d we get? Today’s delivery brought this:

My phone didn’t do the best job of capturing the beauty here, but I was staving off a one year old who wanted to get her hands on everything. It was the best I could do!

We got green beans, zucchini, honey, flowers, onion, mushrooms, lettuce, cherries, turnips, melon, and cherry tomatoes. The flowers are such a nice touch. They just make me feel fancy.

What’ll we do?

We get so much out of this box because we are determined not to waste anything. Once we have it, we use it no matter what. Hence, the stir-fried lettuce experiment of 2009. (Note: if your lettuce is a little too bitter, a quick stir-fry makes it delicious).

Some of the green beans, zucchini, and melon get flagged “baby” right away. My kid craves zucchini and, since we make her baby food, I always try to scope out some good options to make and freeze for the week so we don’t have to think about it again. We’ll throw some turnips in there for good measure too.

Everything else, we will just integrate into our weekly meals. We’ve been cooking with cherries lately, so they will probably be added to a stir-fry. Looking at the rest of the box, I see some grilling (beans, turnips, and zucchini), salad, and pasta sauce in our future.

For some folks, nothing replaces the thrill of going to the farmer’s market yourself. But if you can’t, look at ways to bring the market to you. In addition to Dominion Harvest, there are other CSAs that deliver or offer pick-up options, check them out and choose one you like. Whatever gets you eating delicious, seasonal, and local food works for me. Enjoy!