Hey, does anyone here use it? If so how do you like it? I feel like I may have trouble figuring out what to do with the ingredients.


For those who don't know about it, it's a program that delivers a variety box of NC grown produce to your home on a weekly basis for $23. http://www.theproducebox.com/

12/5/2011 1:29:26 PM

there are quite a few, i looked into it but im too lazy to plan for seasonality

i would most enjoy a similar service that included hunted game, but im pretty sure that is not legal to sell

12/5/2011 1:34:39 PM

^hmmmm

i like the idea, i guess it would require quite a bit of permitting and licensing though...

12/5/2011 2:04:46 PM

I have come so close to signing up for this a dozen times. I think next year I will go for it.

12/5/2011 2:07:41 PM

i did a csa box this summer and fall, and found it to be awesome in every way, except one.

with cooking for two i honestly had a problem using all the food.

felt bad having stuff spoil.

12/5/2011 2:15:02 PM

That's what has kept me from it. Especially now that it's just me.

12/5/2011 2:19:45 PM

i thought about starting to can and pickle, and that would have helped.

but srsly, the one i was in gave you like a pint of various microgreens per week... how is that possible to use it all

12/5/2011 2:24:59 PM

Quote :

"With respect to worms, that's a different question. We are really asking our farms not to spray with pesticides unless necessary, and they are trying to follow that request. Personally, we'd rather have a small worm than chemicals, and hope you feel the same way. if more than a third or so of the corn or fruit has been "munched on", we're happy to send some more with your next box."

12/5/2011 2:32:24 PM

I've done a crap ton of research on CSAs on the area since I think we'll be starting to use one next year.

Produce Box and Carolina Grown are both nice in that they give you more choice in what your receive and delivery directly to your home. But that choice and convenience comes at a price as their pricing is more expensive than more traditional CSAs in the area.

For the more traditional, go to the farmer's market or the farm to get your box, CSA, there are TONS of choices in the area. It can honestly be quite daunting. Personally I only bothered to look at CSAs from organic farms because for me, if it's not organic, then I'd rather just go to the farmers' market and pick out the produce myself. Ben's Produce seemed to have the most reasonable prices, Wild Onion Farms was pretty up there in price, Coon Rock Farm was nice because you could also pair it with their meat CSA if you wanted and they have a winter CSA option that most farms around here don't have.

There's a couple of meat CSAs in the area and there's the fish CSA based out of Hatteras where you get fresh seafood on a time frame that you choose. I think I definitely want to do that fish one at some point.

Two great starting points for finding all the CSAs available around here are localharvest.org and NCfarmfresh.com

12/5/2011 2:38:48 PM

i did Carolina Grown for about 6 months and loved it but when we hit about this time last year, they barely had anything to choose from. one of my girl friends who had introduced me to CG is still doing it and said that it's a million times better now because they have a lot more farms and there a million more choices then there used to be.

we were really happy with everything we ever received - it was just that there wasn't much variety in the winter months but like i said, i have heard things are a lot better.

i have friends who do the produce box and love it.

12/5/2011 2:45:37 PM

Well I mean, not much grows in NC during the winter You're basically down to collards, cabbage, apples, sweet potatoes, beets, rutabaga, etc this time of year.

12/5/2011 3:05:01 PM

Quote :

"Personally I only bothered to look at CSAs from organic farms because for me, if it's not organic, then I'd rather just go to the farmers' market and pick out the produce myself."

In the past I'd never considered doing a CSA because I live right down the street from the Farmers Market. If I wanted something I'd just go pick it up. Now that I work an hour from home I can't get there on the weekdays and I don't want to deal with the market on Saturdays. Thats why I'm thinking it's time to do something like this

12/5/2011 3:52:35 PM

^^yup i seriously considered carolingrown, another one was somethinsomethinspuds

with the improvements i need to check it out again, i feel like i cannot get the selection i need going to the stores because i am getting into making more balanced meals, and CG offered good meats

some ive seen dont offer meats



[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 3:57 PM. Reason : f]

12/5/2011 3:54:09 PM

my wife and i use the produce box...love it

12/5/2011 4:03:29 PM

quagmire let me ask you something

how much do you think you could eliminate the grocery based on a normal week of preparing meals if you really wanted to and theoretically had excellent foresight as far as what you would need for the week and nothign goes wrong with shipments? That includes staples and base ingredients because those are offered under many of the programs.

Of course, you technically cant absolutely swear off the grocery, i cant tell if the produce box offers staple ingredients

[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 4:17 PM. Reason : f]

12/5/2011 4:12:55 PM

One of my roommates purchased from one of the local CSAs. The crops were all great and the variety was really good. He had more time to spend on food prep than most of us, so he did a pretty good job of trying new things and using up the food they brought him. Still, he often ended up with way more of certain foods than he would eat. Things like beets and radishes that most people just don't eat in large quantities for example.

12/5/2011 5:06:38 PM

^^ For things like salt, baking soda, etc, you're going to need to go to the supermarket. But when my family was doing a CSA my mom went to the grocery store maybe once a month. Personally I don't know if I have that much commitment but as it is now, we get almost all of our produce and meat from the farmers' market so maybe go to the supermarket once every other week? If I would do a CSA box instead of a la carte at the market I would save some money. Just a matter of picking one.

12/5/2011 5:12:37 PM

always give them to friends, neighbors, and coworkers

12/5/2011 5:18:11 PM

We do The Produce Box. What is nice about it, is you can skip weeks. So when stuff starts piling up, or you don't want what they have, you can skip. They usually have 4 different boxes, so you always get stuff you can use. They also give you recipes and suggestions for how to use the produce. It can be fun to try new things.

Also, the boxes and portions are pretty small, so it works well for couples. We didn't waste much. I definitely recommend it.

[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 8:59 PM. Reason : ?]

12/5/2011 8:57:55 PM

I had a CSA last year with a local farm around Durham and I don't think we'll do it again.

Reasons:

1) Tues. night pickup time- not convenient, and the private residence it was at didn't want people coming past
7:30 (when oftentimes I didn't get off work till 6:30 or 7)

2) skimpy on the more valuable produce- less peppers, tomatoes, berries, eggplant. I feel like the better quality stuff always went to the market, and the CSA was stuffed with the cheaper greens and root veggies. I didn't feel I got my $20-23+/week of produce as claimed.

3) I'm gardening more. I can easily grow the greens and root stuff, onions at home for the majority of the season, and would rather get the more harder to grow stuff (eggplant, corn, etc.) at the market.

12/6/2011 9:20:29 PM

My wife and I use the produce box and I agree with Patman above. The ability to skip is nice. We still end up letting some stuff go bad if we have busy weeks, but if we have time it is nice to have fresh local stuff without having to go to the store or farmers market. I am not convinced it is worth it for two people but:
a) the wife likes it. "a happy wife=a happy life"
b) It has led her to try stuff she wouldnt normally try. She grew up in the Sanford area but somehow never acquired a taste for southern food. This has helped with that somewhat.
Overall a really excellent deal if you plan ahead and want to put a decent amount of time into food prep.

12/7/2011 8:11:06 PM

^^ That's interesting. Which farm did you do it with this past year?

12/9/2011 8:04:43 AM

i dont like the produce box's format of preset boxes

carolina grown if im nt mistaken allows you to allocate points towards getting whatever you want and is available each week, as opposed to choosing one of 4 packages

12/9/2011 12:11:31 PM

We just bought a crapload of meat from this company: http://www.gourmetcarolina.com/ Paid a lot less than what their website is selling it for. We'll see if it's any good.

12/16/2011 4:24:30 PM

^How did you pay less? Is there a discount code or something? Their prices look to be pretty steep.

12/16/2011 4:32:43 PM

Their sales person rolled up in their truck and sold it to us. It was like buying a sound system but meat If it weren't for the fact that I already knew people that used this service there's no way we would have bought anything from the guys.

12/16/2011 5:31:49 PM

i just signed up for the smallest package with carolina grown


if it works out well ill bump it on up

12/16/2011 8:21:27 PM

It's kind of confusing reading these descriptions. On one hand it seems as though you're "soft-locked" into a type of subscription for the year, but on the other (namely with ^points) you can purchase them monthly and roll them over. What if a month's worth of points could feasibly last 2 months can you just pay and redeem as needed?

12/17/2011 1:51:27 PM

theres several different companies being discussed they all do their ordering differently

12/17/2011 2:37:29 PM

Yeah you would have to look at each individual company and see how they work. If I remember correct Carolina Grown lets you roll over points.

12/17/2011 3:14:29 PM

Yeah you can rollover points, but it doesn't say if you can just stop paying once you accumulate enough for the rest of the season.

OP says there's no commitment and you can skip a week if you want, but the general 'model' seems to be that you're by default committing to weekly deliveries? As opposed to "Damn, I'd love some fresh produce but I'm too lazy to go to the farmers market so I'm going to have some delivered instead".

12/17/2011 4:07:10 PM

I want to try a CSA box. My friend always posts pictures of her goodies on fb. Such beautiful produce!

12/17/2011 4:09:09 PM

Quote :

"OP says there's no commitment and you can skip a week if you want, but the general 'model' seems to be that you're by default committing to weekly deliveries? As opposed to "Damn, I'd love some fresh produce but I'm too lazy to go to the farmers market so I'm going to have some delivered instead"."

Well yeah, but the whole point of a CSA is you're basically paying the farmer upfront for their services so that they know how much they can comfortably produce. If you were an on again off again subscriber that doesn't really do the farmer any good.

12/17/2011 5:24:24 PM