Finding organic food is tough going if you don’t live close to a health food store. When I first moved from NYC to Florida, I was aghast at what a food desert I had moved to. You would think Florida would have the freshest produce available, but back in 2000, when I arrived, it didn’t. I would always say to myself, the street vendor on the corner of 14th street and 8th avenue had better, fresher produce than the markets here. As the years went by, I slowly stopped eating raw, organic food because it was too hard to find. Falling into ruts in our eating is too easy and I succumbed to dining out with friends a little too much. This wasn’t NYC and I wasn’t eating in healthy food establishments!
Finally, the organic food movement became mainstream and organic fresh produce is easier to find. Because of where I was living in the Orlando area, driving to a Whole Foods Market wasn’t easy for weekly shopping, so I drove around to 4 local stores to find organic produce. For the longest time, all I could get was huge plastic containers of mixed lettuces, mixed power greens or spinach— that wasn’t all that fresh. Something is wrong with purchasing fresh organic food in a plastic box—I don’t like it. But, it was all I could get, and I was very thankful. Then, we found Lake Meadow Naturals, a local farm about a half hour away and did our shopping there for grass fed-grass finished beef, pastured eggs, chicken, and some produce and groceries. It was a working farm, so we loved visiting all the animals as well as doing our shopping.
Lucky’s Supermarket finally came to town, and two months later, I moved an hour south. The new city doesn’t have a large health food produce store. There are the typical stores such as Publix, Walmart, Aldi and Vitamin shops, but I was now missing Lucky’s Market and Lake Meadow Naturals.
My husband John, said, “There must be a farmer’s produce store around here.” So, he searched on the internet and found a few places within an hour. We took a ride and found one that was tucked into a warehouse location and only open to the public on Saturdays from 8 to 1. This one interested me, and so we went to see what they were about and what they had to offer.
That was truly a find and a gift from God! The company is called Sunny Florida Organics and they deliver from Tampa to south Orlando. They have incredible produce and offer all the meats from Lake Meadow Naturals. I signed up immediately for their membership program. I order my weekly food via their website. As with all organic foods, there are different options each week and you get to pick or substitute or order what you need, and it is delivered to your door. Yes, delivered in a box right to my front door. I just think they are fabulous! I have received 5 deliveries, and all have been so fresh and beautiful and delicious. And the best part is we are supporting a local business and getting fresh organic food…how symbiotic is that?!? If you live in a vast food dessert, look around and you may find a similar business. If not, there are ways to order food online. Two great companies are Nuts.com (I order from them monthly for all my raw organic nuts, seeds and spices) and Thrivemarket.com, which is an online health food store. Just remember that the best medicine is healthy, colorful, fresh organic food!
To your health and long life,
Alis
The picture this week is of one of my food delivery boxes.