Organic Christmas in February!
I had two New Year's resolutions this year: eat more vegetables, and go to the gym on a more regular basis. I am slowly starting to find more fun classes to take at the gym, so the only war left to wage was on the vegetable front. Unfortunately, my grocery store of choice (Trader Joe's) is not so great in the produce department. The produce goes bad in less than a week, some of it has been trucked in from Mexico, and they don't always have all the organic options I want. Thus, last week I did some research and signed up for an organic vegetable delivery service called Westside Organics.I was excited even before my first box arrived. I squealed with joy this past Friday when the contents of my bi-weekly box were posted to the website. I clicked in amazement as I changed some items in my box and added a few fruit items to my all-vegetable smorgasbord. And this afternoon, on the day of my first delivery, my jaw dropped in disbelief as, after practically running home from class, my box was nowhere to be found on my porch.
Luckily, it hadn't been stolen by my envious neighbors. Upon opening the door, I found that Faye, my wonderful roommate, had moved it inside for me earlier that day. Whew! I dragged my prize into the kitchen, and immediately tore open the lid. There were so many vegetables! I was so excited! I wondered how the hell Zeph and I would consume all of this food in 2 weeks!
Of course, I then pulled everything out of the box to snap pictures of it all (for you blog-readers), and then I stuffed it all into my fridge. Well, all of it except the potatoes and the onions. Did you know you shouldn't keep potatoes and onions in the fridge? Something about the humidity makes them spoil faster. So those babies got placed in the cupboard.
My review so far? This place rocks! The produce all looks really good, especially for being grown without pesticides. They also delivered some grocery items for me, including a carton of eggs from a farm in Santa Cruz, and everything perishable was packed with ice packs to keep it fresh on the porch (unnecessary in SF, but it was still a nice gesture). Right now my only problem is that I don't seem to have enough room to store everything! However, that is easily fixed by getting a smaller delivery every week rather than the huge one I am currently getting every-other-week.
Alright, alright, you want to talk price, and I understand that. We paid $80 for all the items that came in our box (the base price for the all-veggie box is $50, and I added some extra items). But! Before you fall over, here's what that money got us:
- 1 small avocado, 1 bunch of green chard, 1 meyer lemon, 2lbs roma tomatoes, 0.5lb of loose leaf spinach, 1 hunk of celery, 1 bunch of basil, 1lb tangelos, 2 apples, 2lb yukon potatoes, 4 onions, 1 head of red cabbage, 1lb baby bok choy, 1 head of lettuce, 4lb red potatoes, 1 bunch of carrots, 1 bunch of broccoli, 1lb of leeks, 1 bunch of green onions, 1 bunch of radishes, and one bunch of kale.
See? That's a lot of food! Actually, it's more than I wanted since I thought I had removed 2lbs of the red potatoes when I added the 2lbs of yukon potatoes, but I digress...
Of course, I had to make something delicious with this fresh produce for dinner. What's a girl to do with 1 avocado, a bunch of basil, and 2lbs of tomatoes? Make a tomato salad!
It was delicious, considering that tomatoes aren't in season. Just cut up some tomatoes and avocado, add finely chopped basil, drizzle with olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Yum!
posted by Sara at
8:29 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, all of that produce looks amazing. I feel a little giddy just looking at it. Time for me to roll back out to the local farmers market!
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