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I know you can skip weeks as needed but I'm not sure about making substitutions. Nice guys running the business and I think they said they are looking for office locations to make drops to multiple families.
I agree with all the prior poster's Papa Spuds Pros so I won't repeat it again...except we do have the same delivery person week in/week out. I get most of my Produce through Papa Spuds because you can filter organic/pesticide free etc and I usually want more than my current sub. lets me order so I really don't buy much bread or dairy through P.S.. P.S. makes you supply your own cooler and ice packs if you order dairy (milk). You can set preferences so that the initial 'box' they populate is mostly what you want anyway so there are few changes/swaps needed. Papa Spuds offers avocados from mexico and oranges from Florida, etc to round out their offerings but if something is not local, it is clearly labeled where it comes from. I have rarely had to complain about anything to them re: quality.
Carolina Grown also delivers weekly, they also allow you to put on vacation hold, they also allow you to swap items out. You have to make choices each week otherwise you won't get a delivery. Everything is also very good and grown in carolina -- so the winter months are more limited re: veggies -- they do offer a lot of sweet potatoes, kale, collards, etc. They seem to have fewer organic that P.S. offers. I *love* the way C.G. packages their milk/meats/cheeses/etc -- they have styrofoam coolers with cold packs and/or dry ice -- so you can rest assured that the milk, etc hasn't gone bad. I tend to buy meats, milk, butter, cheeses, and stick boy breads from C.G. and then round out with veggies if I have any points left over. Note: C.G. offers coon rock chicken on occasion and the milk/butter/ comes from maple view dairy in the glass bottles.
I would list the strengths of Papa Spuds as: organic & pesticide free veggies of fantastic quality and not boring as they will go outside the NC area to round out their offerings when NC isn't growing what they offer...they also offer conventional veggies.
I would list the strengths of Carolina Grown as: meats, dairy, eggs, bakery as well as in-season veg. they seem to support local farmers and also now offer local beer/wine (I haven't tried this service yet)
I found the name of this company on the forums here, but cant find the thread and it was somewhat off topic anyway.....
Has anyone used The Produce Box? It looks like $22/month plus a nominal "setup and help pay for your boxes" fee of less than that.....
But their website (theproducebox dot com) doesnt really show you what you get, theres very few photos. The newsletters talk about the boxes, but dont really show you either.
So, who's used em? Worth it? Good? Bad?
Thanks!
Ben
i used it.
it was OK -- I wanted leafy greens, and okra, and such -- but even with the "best" boxes I ended up with all sorts of things I didn't want to eat, like butternut squash, acorn squash, eggplants, apples, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins. The selection was unusual, and I didn't feel like there was anything special about the quality.
We joined last year and loved it. My (at the time) 2 year old ate lots of new foods and veggies and with the recipes they send, even if you don't know what something is, you can figure out what to do with it. It's really not that much considering it's dropped right at your front door and you can skip as much as you want if you are getting too much food. Between that and the citrus guy who shows up at the La-Z-Boy store, we are set for fresh and top quality fruits and veggies almost all year round.
We liked Carolina Grown. You pick what goes into your box and everything I had was delicious. My only complaint was that they charged weekly and sometimes they ran out of items I wanted, but still got charged and had to pick something else. I'm cheap and don't want to pay for food that I don't want or don't like.
WOW! Exceptional amounts of information in every post here... Thank you everyone! Signing up for Produce Box now, I think I like their choice the best since they have breads and honey and such too. I'm the fruit guy, the girl is the veggie girl, and the breads/honey we can share.
We've been really happy with it. They deliver to my wife's workplace, so that is convenient. And, you can skip weeks, which is good when stuff starts piling up.
We liked Carolina Grown. You pick what goes into your box and everything I had was delicious. My only complaint was that they charged weekly and sometimes they ran out of items I wanted, but still got charged and had to pick something else. I'm cheap and don't want to pay for food that I don't want or don't like.
I should mention that both papa-spuds and carolina grown allow your points to roll from week to week -- so that you don't have to use them all up in one week. If they run out of something you like or you aren't going to be cooking much, then you just don't order as much and your points will roll to the next week.
I don't think C.G. used to work like this but they have made some changes including a yearly fee to cover the cost of the styrofoam boxes...
Those signing up for CSA boxes may want to consider getting a copy of Sheri Castle's The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Recipes for Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers' Markets, Roadside Stands and CSA Farm Boxes.
It is organized by vegetables/fruit, so if you get boatload of cucumbers or summer squash or okra or..., you can just open up that chapter and go at it.
Sheri lives in Chapel Hill and tests recipes for other cookbooks so she throws in a lot of tidbits like which kind of potatoes work best for what kind of recipes. She's all about local produce and eating what's in season.
I bought this cookbook a month or so ago and have yet to run across a bum recipe. The Strawberry Tiramisu Trifles (with local strawberries, of course) are out of this world wonderful.
This woman knows tasty.
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