Aarstiderne delivers boxes of organic vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and bread directly to the doorstep of customers every week or fortnight. Thirty thousand Danish households subscribe to the system of receiving a mystery box of organic food products on a regular basis. Customers pick a type and size of box, prepay one month in advance, and the content of the box is composed by Aarstiderne based on what's in season.
Farmer Thomas Harttung, and local chef Soren Ejlersen, started Aarstiderne with the idea of partnering with local households to change the general perception on farming, food and sustainability. By sourcing organic products from local farmers and growers, Aarstiderne aims to raise awareness for sustainability and food quality.
The boxes come with recipes and stories about growers, farms, the company, the food products and quality. The communication is honest and transparent – Aarstiderne lets the customers know how the farmers and Aarstiderne are doing whether the news is good or bad.
Combining high quality organic produce with the sense of surprise that accompanies each box, and creating a sense of community by sharing recipes and stories, Aarstiderne has both created a niche and filled an existing need in the organic food market. Similar concepts exist in the US (Door to Door Organics), Sweden (Ekolådan), The Netherlands (Odin), and the UK (Riverford), to name just a few. Not an entirely new idea, but one whose time has come to be widely adopted!
Website: http://www.aarstiderne.com
Contact: info@aarstiderne.com
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Great -- thanks for your comment, Jeff!
I would guess the power of these are locally. It takes a relationship with growers to get fresh, organic food to someone's doorstep.
In Portland, we have http://www.organicstoyou.org/
In Michigan, there's something called CSAfarms.org (Community-Supported Agriculture). It connects you to local farmers and you can subscribe to a farm--you pay them a certain dollar amount and get food delivered, but you don't know exactly what it will be. It's a way of connecting the end consumer directly to the farmer. http://csafarms.org/bigbellyfarm.asp
Here is San Francisco, there are a few companies that offer this service. Personally, I use Capay Organic's Farm Fresh to You.
I started to use http://www.planetorganics.com/ in San Francisco - the quality of fruit and vegetable is amazing. They also allow you to change your order, say you don't like carrots, you can request to not get them.
There are at least two options that I'm aware of in Toronto -- Front Door Organics and Green Earth Organics. I plan to start using Front Door Organics after I finish a vacation this summer; I like the options for customization, as well as the opportunity to add non-produce organic items to the delivery.
We're customers of a Toronto area organic produce service: http://www.greenearthorganics.com
If you are looking for other organic items that can be delivered to your home, there is an Organic Meat company that offers a Meat of the Month club. http://www.wholesomeharvest.com is their website address. Based in Iowa. Delivery to all of US.
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I subscribe to a community sponsored agriculture plan here in the greater Boston area. As of right now we still go to the farm once a week to pick up our food (which is only about eight miles away from where we live) and we get a large amount of organic produce, more than enough to feed my wife and I for a week. All this for about $25/week.
Jeff D | July 17, 2006 6:13 AM