Vendor of the Week: Farm Fresh Delivery

For those of you lucky enough to live in Indianapolis (thriving metropolis that it is), there is one way in which we are very lucky. No, not the Indy 500. No, not Brickyard either. Boy, you guys are WAY off.

We have lots of FARMS! Oh, whoopee! you're thinking... This town is a rockin! Well, the benefit of all these farms is that fresh, local produce (amongst other things) are very easy to obtain. The fact that farms exist within Indianapolis city limits used to make me think we had something unique here but I've been reading quite a bit about the Urban Farming initiatives in Detroit and am pretty excited about what they've got going on there!

But I'm in Indiana. So I'm going to take advantage of all that we have to offer! One EASY way that I've learned to take advantage of our moderately special status (gotta share the love with the Big D) is through Farm Fresh Delivery. I was just turned on to this program by a guy at work. I debated on signing up for a few weeks but finally bit the bullet. I wasn't hesitating because I didn't WANT to sign up, I was just worried that it would interfere with the highlight of my weekly social calendar: the farmer's market. But for the next few weeks I'm going to be tied up on Saturdays so this was the perfect solution.

So my first order arrived today. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, let me tell you that you just have to browse their website. I spent literally hours, going through all the options, vendors, etc. I ultimately settled on the small fruit and veggie bin because I wanted to be able to add in other items without totally blowing my budget. My fruit and veggie bin was $25 and then I was able to select an additional $10 worth of other products to get me to the minimum order of $35.

When I pulled in the drive today I was so excited to see the big green bin waiting for me (yes, they DELIVER for free!).




Don't hate me because you're jealous of my 1970's kitchen that you can see in the background. Green is an ugly color on you.

I was a little concerned, quite frankly, because I had ordered Banana Mango yogurt from Trader's Point Creamery as part of my order and it was 90 degrees out there today. I was very impressed with the packaging and everything was still cold (if not frozen) because they were packed in thermal bags with ice packs (you just return the ice packs, thermal bag and bin when they bring your next order).



When you place your order, you're able to see exactly where your products come from (or if they're not local, as was with my strawberries- they're organic but from California). And the REALLY cool thing was that last week I received an email with a listing of the contents of this week's fruit and veggie bin. There were a few things in there that didn't light my fire, so to speak, so I was able to go in and substitute all sorts of other choices for no additional charge. So my bin was 100% customized to my preferences. Super cool!

So I'm anxious to try some of my new goodies, especially the mushroom patties! And tonight I'll be having two years of corn for dinner (because I'm the only one home and I CAN, gosh darn it!).

So anyway, I love the fact that more options such as this are being made available to us. Yesterday I was talking about cost and agree with Michelle that the more demand we have, the more the cost of buying local will be driven down. The fact that Farm Fresh Delivery is a thriving business is evidence of the demand here in Indianapolis. Do you participate in something similar, like a CSA, where you live?