Nature's Garden Delivered: Anybody know of it?

[Robin Garr]

Hey, have any of you heard of Nature's Garden Delivered, apparently an organic CSA that's available in three parts of the country, one of them being The Ohio Valley - Louisville, Cincy and surroundings?

A friend asked me about it after hearing a report on NPR today. I checked out the Website,
http://orv.naturesgardendelivered.com/index.php
and it looks classy. They do a few things that regular CSA's don't, such as a variety of sizes down to a "tiny" box for a family of two; and they deliver to your door during the night, 1 to 7 a.m., so it's waiting on your porch in the morning cool, like the old-fashioned milkman.

It has potential, although with so many farmers' markets around town, excellent produce in the groceries and our own gardens, I'm not sure we need it.

Still, I'd like to hear from anyone with first or second-hand information, for my friend if not for me.

A few weeks back Nature's Garden was offering half price produce through Groupon. I bought it, but have yet to order. I'll post after I get my delivery.

I put my first order in with Groupon as well. They deliver on Friday nights after midnight. I'll decide whether to keep them after a few deliveries. I like the idea that they attempt to use as much local produce as possible.

Deliveries after midnight. Hmmm. Perhaps these are the perps behind all the late nite break-ins being reported in L'ville?

[Robin Garr]

Deliveries after midnight. Hmmm. Perhaps these are the perps behind all the late nite break-ins being reported in L'ville?

Heh. This is more like the jolly old milkman of days of yore.

Just checking to see if anyone has done this yet?

I'm also curious to see what people think about this before I give it a shot.

We are receiving our first delivery next week. I'll post then and let you know how it turned out.

Just received an email that let me know what to expect in the box for next week. It also allows you to go in and edit the order. Add milk, bread, eggs, etc or even change what is in the box.

Just checking to see if anyone has done this yet?

I redeemed my Groupon several weeks ago. The produce was very good, but I thought the prices were a bit high compared to the Farmer's Market and tomatoes were not as good as I would have picked myself. They have a very slick ordering system that allows you to exchange the things you have for other things that you want ( unlike regular CSAs). I changed several items and my order was delivered perfectly.

Unfortunately, I had an issue with my coupon redemption that is still unresolved. Though I entered my coupon correctly as instructed, when my order was processed they charged my credit card for the $30 basket. So I paid $45 for $30 worth of veggies, and now have to contact customer service ( again) for a refund. I also wouldn't call them "local"- while they do use local when possible, in late July my basket was filled with less 50% local produce- the rest organic from far flung places ( ie bananas and kiwis aren't grown in KY) until I changed a bunch of my items.

Deb

I have received one delivery. It was delivered on time and we had no problems with billing although we did not use the Groupon. Food was fairly good, only issue was a cantaloupe which had a very small area which was going bad. We cut that off fairly easily, it was really a very small portion, and enjoyed the rest of the cantaloupe which was very tasty. I could not tell there was a small bad area from outside the cantaloupe.

My complaint would be that it is not necessarily local, and you don't know where it is coming from. To be fair, you are advised as to what in your basket is local and what isn't. If it isn't local it will be organic. Our first order contained ALL locally grown veggies (fruits obviously not). But, take a look at this weeks upcoming "tiny" basket and you will see there is not a single locally grown item. We've only been with it a short amount of time so I can only assume the truth is somewhere in the middle. You can make three "trades" each week, so this week I traded 3 of my "organic" items for local ones. Even so, you don't know the farm your local veggies are coming from, although there is a list of farms they use. Obviously if you get fruit too, none of that is ever going to be local (correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure there is much fruit grown locally--maybe Hubers, but otherwise??) but it is a nice added twist to other CSA's.

Now to the good stuff, which for me, outweighs the bad. Convenience is number 1. It was delivered in a box to my porch, and although the ice pack had melted by the time I got to it at 8:30 AM, everything was fine. I am doing bi-weekly and plan to put a cooler out next time for them to place the box into. I don't necessarily always have time to frequent the local farmer's market and being able to basically choose what I want each week is great, and nice change from your average CSA. You can change your profile to never accept some items if you don't like them, and you can always add other fruits/veggies to your order. Organic fruits are included in the "mixed" baskets, which for me is a nice change from a CSA as well - otherwise I'd probably just buy fruits at Kroger's or Whole Foods and in that aspect I like to support this endeavor rather than a corporation.

It is 52 weeks a year, you can stop/start whenever you want, go on hold, not accept an order a certain week, which is very nice. This all beats out the fact that it is not always necessarily local for me. Want to head to the farmer's market one week?? Just cancel your box for that week. Want to go to farmer's market for 3 months straight?? Fine-put it on hold and start it up again when the farmer's markets are dwindling out. Sure, it isn't and won't always be local, but the quality is good and knowing it is organically grown gives me peace of mind.

I would say its worth trying at least once and see what you think, if you don't like, you can cancel with the click of a button, no problem.

There's a lot of fruit grown locally. We've gotten quite a few peaches in our csa and we also had the option of buying more at a discount. Last year around this time, we got blackberries. We haven't this year, but I planted a bush in my yard and have gotten plenty from that. Earlier in teh year we got strawberries and blueberries from our csa. Once apple season hits, we'll get plenty of those, too. Last year we had pounds and pounds of apples. I was making crockpot applesauce pretty much every week. Oh, and pears arrive then, too.

I got plums from a friend's back yard and Concord grapes from a friend's father's back yard. Both were in the Highlands. So yeah. You can very definitely get fruit locally. And not grown by Huber's.

There's a lot of fruit grown locally. We've gotten quite a few peaches in our csa and we also had the option of buying more at a discount. Last year around this time, we got blackberries. We haven't this year, but I planted a bush in my yard and have gotten plenty from that. Earlier in teh year we got strawberries and blueberries from our csa. Once apple season hits, we'll get plenty of those, too. Last year we had pounds and pounds of apples. I was making crockpot applesauce pretty much every week. Oh, and pears arrive then, too.

I got plums from a friend's back yard and Concord grapes from a friend's father's back yard. Both were in the Highlands. So yeah. You can very definitely get fruit locally. And not grown by Huber's.

Don't forget raspberries, , cantalope and watermelon. The latter two are what I would have expected to be offered as choices this time of the year for a place that touts they are local. Obviously they have to fill-in with non-local fruits in off-season but I was a bit disappointed that that's what they were pushing in July.
Deb

[Robin Garr]

Don't forget raspberries, , cantalope and watermelon.

And peaches from Huber's and Bray's up at Madison, Ind./Milton, Ky., and other peach orchards in that area! And there's a big blueberry farm out near Georgetown. Apples at Bray's and lots of others. Yeah, there's a fair amount of fruit grown around here. Check out the farmers' markets as the season advances.

Okay, so I did my first with groupon. liked it and did three more large boxes. Some hits, some misses. Probably my fault. I had the MOST delicious watercress sprouts today. And they sent me some amazing heirloom tomatoes. The mangos and nectarines wer great.I should have cancelled the potatos and green onions. Enough!

I have a pretty good garden here, I am keeping thw service for the fruit. It has been amazing and organic. I think I will keep tweaking with them. You can specify which items you do not want.


I got 6 ears of corn on my last box. to my dismay,when they hit the pot I saw that 3 of them were filled with worms. Now, I understand that this happens and I am going to contact them. The greens have been delicious and the last cantaloupe was huge and perfect.