A while ago, in an effort to eat locally, my husband and I joined Farm Fresh To You, and we have since looked forward to each delivery with excited anticipation. Not only does it cut down on what we have to buy at the Co-Op, but also it supports local farmers and environmentally-friendly farming practices, both of which I am happy to help.

Eating local is a trend that is slowly sweeping the nation, and it’s a good one to jump in and join, if you haven’t already. Things like the recent tomato/jalapeno contamination could have been avoided (or at least contained more quickly) by eating locally.

Whether local to you means within your state, within 100 miles, or within your city, by reducing the distance between where produce grows and your plate, you’ll be helping support sustainable food systems.

If you don’t shop at a Co-Op, try it. We joined our local Co-Op after I was diagnosed with cancer so we could find pesticide-free produce. Sure, sometimes it’s a bummer not to find apples in the aisles year round, but there are plenty of in-season goodies I’ve discovered, too. Plus, there are stickers on bin stating where the produce “grew up”, so I know which farms I’m supporting and where my foods got their start.

Even if you only shop for produce at your local Co-Op every once in a while, every little bit helps. Plus, the produce is tasty and vibrant, which makes it all the better to eat!

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The tomato investigation that I talked about last week is ongoing. In the meantime, one of the owners of Farm Fresh To You, which delivers delicious produce to my doorstep every week, put some perspective on the whole tomato harvesting issue.

Red round tomatoes are harvested when they’re still hard and green. They are harvested by hand into buckets, and those buckets are in turn dumped into large bins. The bins are then dumped into a wash tank, and the tomatoes are washed and then run through a mechanical sizing system. From there they are packed into boxes and stored to be sold on an as needed basis. Only when they are sold are they ripened by a gas which turns them from green to red.

This convenient system obviously has a big problem–namely that if one batch of tomatoes is contaminated, they contaminate the wash water and all the tomatoes that water comes in contact with. Not only that, but if the mechanical packing system is contaminated, tomatoes will continue to be contaminated. Because the system relies on economy of scale, it also makes it hard to track down where contaminated tomatoes came from, and what other crops they have been in contact with.

Farm Fresh To You is able to maintain cleaner standards because the crop size is smaller, which means while everyone else is worried if the tomatoes they are buying are clean or not, I know the ones in my house are.

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Recently, my husband and I, who do all of our produce shopping at the local Co-Op, decided to take it a step further and sign up for produce home delivery via Farm Fresh To You, in an effort to support local farmers as well as their environmental practices.

Currently, over 800 families are participating in Capay Fruits & Vegetables family farm’s delivery program.

Unlike many produce delivery services who buy produce from a warehouse and repack it, the folks at this farm have been growing organic produce for their customers since 1976. Their produce is picked daily and delivered fresh from their fields to their customers. 
 
Delivery options include every other week, every 3rd or every 4th week delivery. They are also flexible about putting delivery service on hiatus, and also allow for customization to exclude items you do not wish to receive or add additional servings for items that you would like more of.  
 
About The Farm
Capay Fruits & Vegetables is a second generation organic farm secluded in the Coastal Range’s Capay Valley 90 miles northeast of San Francisco. The farm was founded by Kathleen Barsotti and Martin Barnes in 1976.

The Capay Valley’s unique micro-climate and soil type produced an environment in which Capay Fruits & Vegetables could successfully produce an array of seasonal fruits and vegetables. In addition to having the soil and climate required to produce superior crops, the varieties of each crop grown on the farm were carefully selected to assure that Capay Fruits & Vegetables’ produce was always the best tasting product on the market. The farm also prided itself on regularly introducing new crops to the marketplace; cherry tomatoes, sweetpea flowers, ambrosia melons and heirloom tomatoes are a few of the crops that Capay was first to introduce to the marketplace.

Today Capay Fruits & Vegetables and Farm Fresh to You are owned and operated by Kathy’s four sons and they continue to employ the same dedicated family of employees.
 
Throughout the years the demand for Capay Fruits & Vegetables’ produce has grown the farm from its original 20-acres to its current 240-acres. The company has also matured to include a steady income provided by several year-round farmers’ markets, dedicated partnerships with produce wholesalers, relationships with Bay Area restaurants, the numerous Farm Fresh to You customers and a retail store – Farm Fresh To You, located in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. Their produce is often labeled Capay Organic.

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