Which company has the best organic food delivery in Toronto?

September 18, 2006 11:14 AM

Toronto MeFites: 1.Which company has the best home delivery for organic veggies and fruits? In case it's relevant, I live alone so variety is preferred to multiples of the same item. 2. Tips and suggestions for dealing with one of these places? 3. I'm vegetarian so flesh delivery isn't required.
posted by dobbs to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I used to get the "WOW Box" from "WOW Foods". It was good and I got a lot of local produce when it was in season. I found that we got too much kale, chard and other hardy but less appetizing greens, so eveytually we gave up on it. But the quality was always good - I never got anything spoiled or bad in any way. But that was probably over two years ago.
posted by GuyZero at 11:29 AM on September 18, 2006

We did Front Door Organics for a while.
It was great, but LOTS of food. I think it was $30-something for a big green bin. I don't know if you'd be able to finish the whole thing alone. I guess if you're a vegetarian you'd have no problem. Then we tried another place, whose name escapes me...I'll try to find out from my wife.
posted by chococat at 11:40 AM on September 18, 2006

I did front door organics for awhile too. Split between my sister and myself every other week, it was still alot of food. You're allowed to do a few substitutions a week, and you can do so online. I liked it, as it forced me to cook alot more, but inevitably some produce would go wasted. You almost always get some potatoes with each order, so they would just pile up in our kitchen. The quality was good. We quit it because we were wasting money, and still needed to go to the store for other staples.

Pros:
Got us to cook more, using lots of veggies
Would occasionally surprise ourselves with a new vegetable we didn't normally eat
Reliable
Substitutions were almost always correct

Cons:
Too many veggies for our household to consume
Some 'staples' we didn't eat very often (potatoes, beets..)
If we weren't home to bring in the box within a few hours, then in summer, the lettuces etc would wilt, and in winter, the lettuces would freeze.

Hope that helps!
posted by typewriter at 12:00 PM on September 18, 2006

I get a small WoW box currently, because they're the only company that delivers in my area. As I recalls, dobbs, you live more in the old city so probably have more choices. WoW has just introduced some new options for choosing fruit only or local only kinds of boxes that make for a better selection.

The quality of the produce I get is generally pretty high. Every once in awhile something comes thruogh less than perfect (but that's a hazard of organics, I think) but mostly it's great. Of course, I'm still mastering the eating of vegetables, so I throw a lot out of ever week. You can, though, get it set to every two week delivery instead.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:37 PM on September 18, 2006

Best answer: Okay, remembered the other one:
It was the Good Food Box.
It's a non-profit, so it's way cheaper. They don't deliver, but rather you find out online who in your area is hosting it. We picked ours up a few streets away.
posted by chococat at 5:37 PM on September 18, 2006

You might give these folks a call and see if it fits for you or to get lists of the CSAs in the area. I found them doing a search for 'community supported agriculture toronto'.
posted by a_green_man at 2:25 AM on September 19, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, all!
posted by dobbs at 6:38 AM on September 19, 2006

FoodShare is the group that does the Good Food Boxes that chococat mentioned. They're quite a lot cheaper, but I wasn't a big fan of the going and picking it up yourself model of distribution. Plus they require you to do the legwork to find out about the box stops yourself - all they would give me was the phone number of the person who ran the box stop nearest me.

There's no way to get a list so you can pick one at a convenient time or location. No option to order online. It was just all very low-tech and inconvenient. And getting stuff delivered to you is at least half about convenience.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:42 AM on September 19, 2006

Response by poster: I emailed them my major intersection, jacquilynne. I'll see if they mail me a pickup point or whatever and report back.
posted by dobbs at 1:54 PM on September 19, 2006

Hopefully you'll get some options. All I got was one phone number. I'd like to have been able to see a list with days and times so I could have found one that was convenient - perhaps near my office, or on my way home - rather than just whatever was absolutely closest to my house.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:38 PM on September 19, 2006

Response by poster: I sent them the closest major intersection to me and they gave me a phone number of a place near me (2 blks or so away). I called, spoke to a nice woman who told me all the options I have (small, non-organic box is $12 ... all the way up to large organic box $32). I've ordered a box and will pick up on Oct 11. They have boxes in the same location every 2 weeks and can take a standing order or a call-in when you want order.

I suggest you email them a few intersections (work and home) and they'll probably give you some numbers to place an order.
posted by dobbs at 9:24 AM on October 2, 2006