We have been getting organic produce delivered from L.O.V.E. Delivery for a little over a month now, leading me to believe that the arrival of Tuesday's box was our 5th. I became interested in organic vegetable delivery last summer when I lived with a roommate in the Bay Area who used a similar service up there. I became re-interested when we were at intergalactically-themed Nova Express Cafe in West Hollywood for a friend's birthday, and I saw a L.O.V.E. flyer.
Alex and I decided to try it out and have been happy with it so far. We subscribe to the small vegetable box (they say it feeds 2-4) for $28.50 a week. You can customize the box week to week and decide what exactly you'd like to have in it. Our most recent box included:
1 bunch of Beets, Red
1 bunch Broccoli
1 each Cabbage, Green
1 - 1lb. bag of Carrots
1 bag of Carrots, baby peeled
1 bunch Celery
1 each Chard, Green
1 head of Lettuce, Red Leaf
1 -8 oz. bag of Peas, English
1 - 4 ox. bag of Spinach, Baby
1 - 4 oz. bag of Sprouts, Alfalfa
1 - 8 ox. bag String Beans, Green
1 - 1 lb. bag Tomatoes, Roma
We have discussed the fact that getting the box delivered and eating more organic fruits and vegetables hasn't led to major life change or anything, but we like it.
More specifically, we like:
- The Vegetables: We get a variety of vegetables that are fresh and in season; what they put in the box makes us more likely to try cooking vegetables we haven't tried before. But it's fully customizable, and you can create a list of "Never Sends" (eggplant is on our list) that they will, not surprisingly, never send. It's fun to decide what to put in the box, and has been a collaborative experience for us the past couple of times.
- The Box: Has helped us to cut down on the amount of packaging our daily lives seem to generate. Each week we put out an empty reusable box and get one back filled with the goods.
- Delivery: C'mon, everyone likes getting things delivered to them. Flowers are nice, or something you ordered from eBay or Amazon.com. But really, someone could deliver you some poop and it would make you a little bit happy. (My claiming this does not mean I want you to send me some.)
- The Price: I could get cheaper produce by shopping for it by myself, especially if I buy non-organic. I think after doing some estimates and calculations, I decided that I could buy non-organic equivalents for about $18ish. But I feel like the amount I get is quite reasonable for the quality and price, and I don't mind the delivery.
- The Price, 2nd: The way things are set up on the web menu, you can replace items in the box with other items from a list of produce items. If you remove something from your box, you can put other things depending on how much room is left in the box. It must be the case that this is tied into the price of the various items, but it isn't transparently. That is, you don't see how much each item costs when you're deciding whether or not to put it in your box. It feels better this way because we can afford to eat good food, it's likely healthier not to make eating decisions based largely on immediate monetary cost, so that's one less thing to worry about.
The best way to try to implement a good habit is to make it as easy as possible to do. We are advantaged by the fact that Alex is vegetarian and I love veggies. Maybe it would be easier if the vegetables came washed, and maybe chopped. Cooked, even. Or if they would just eat 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables-a-day for me. But this is pretty good.
-- we loved our Kindle 1.
