Buying locally-grown produce can be as easy as opening a box.For the last dozen years, for $15, the Good Food Box offers patrons fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables on a monthly basis.
Depending on the season, there are between 80 and 100 people using the program, finding things like salad greens, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, apples and onions in the box each month.
The third Wednesday of every month is delivery day and the farmers bring their fresh produce to the distribution centre where volunteers divvy up the goodies.
At St. Michael's Church on Wednesday, there were several volunteers helping bag mushrooms, and portion out items like broccoli, cucumber, onions, red oak lettuce, garlic scapes and cherries.
When local supplies are not enough to go around the Good Food Box group purchases through local wholesalers to round out the orders.
"I'm one of those people who believe in supporting local growers," said Wendy Barteluk, a volunteer for at least eight years. "This is just two to three hours once a month but I'm happy to do it for the farmers. I grow my own stuff so I don't use the boxes but many people do."
There are a half dozen farmers who supply the food.
"So our farmers can quite comfortably supply the food needed by the customers," said Jovanka Djordjevich, coordinator of the program.
The program started in an effort to encourage healthy eating and now the emphasis is also on buying local as well, she added.
"It's a good promotion for introducing people to lots of vegetable and occasionally some very interesting ones like kohlrabi, that I've never heard of," said Norm Easson, who's volunteered with the program for five years but heard about it during a seminar about diabetes that encouraged better diet when it first started. Easson has also used the program himself.
"You get a variety of new and unusual products and it's a nice group of people doing the work."
Roger Breet of Marlinspike Gardens, a certified organic grower since 1995, brought onions to add to the bounty of the Good Food Box. The farm is about 10 miles south of town and has four greenhouses on two acres.
"Organic food is on a 20 per cent growth rate each year, making it a developing area," said Breet. "In the greenhouse we grow tomatoes and cucumbers, peppers and onions and Yvonna is the farmer and we're just the assistants (talking about himself and his friend Reg who accompanied him during the drop off) and it's a nice thing to do."
Because of the climate change there's an opportunity to grow a variety of produce here besides the usual root crops like beets, carrots and potatoes, said Breet. Making it a bit of an adventure for people who grow their own food.
Jennifer Harris and Merle Tutte dropped off garlic scapes and butter lettuce and it was their first ever delivery from Tutte Farms. They've been getting the Good Food Boxes for years and thought it might be a good idea to provide some food as well as take some food, Harris said, who's been farming for five years.
For more information about the program call 250-564-3859 or visit http://beyondthemarket.ca/the-good-food-box/.
