Greenling: Grocery delivery service

Last winter I tried a local CSA and one of the biggest irritants for me was the inability to choose things. What I really wanted was the Indian world where someone comes to your front door with a basket of veggies on their head, and you can pick what you want to buy.

Since I left that world far behind, I figured I would settle for a farmer's market on wheels, aka Greenling.

Grocery is delivered one day a week in my area. You can have a recurring service but I do one-time deliveries, picking items I need each time. There is an order minimum of $25. Your order (produce, dairy, whatever else) arrives in a box like this.


These were the contents of my box. The brown bag in the rear is crimini mushrooms. A little in front & to the left in a plastic bag is my tempeh wrap kit. Other things in my order were sweet potatoes, collard greens, kefir, tomatoes, leeks and chopped onions.

The cold stuff (kefir) was packaged inside a cold bag (the metallic thing to the right) with frozen water bottle to keep it cool. The box, bag and bottle all go back to them.
The sweet potatoes looked sad, but tasted good.
The mushrooms made a hearty leek & mushroom soup.

The collard greens went into an Ethiopian collard green recipe I was trying out.
I'm on week 3 of Greenling, and it has made my life a lot easier. The only things I now go to a store for are coffee beans and the occasional banana (since I don't like to buy too many at a time).

At first I was reluctant to try Greenling because, presumably, the farms give their best produce to their CSA members, then to farmers market, and only then to Greenling. However, judging by the quality of the produce I've received in my orders, this hasn't been a problem. It is also a lot more convenient than a CSA because (1) you can pick what you get that week (2) you can get non-produce items delivered. As of now, this harried mom is very happy with the service.