Quick note on our Harvest Boxes and Dinner Bag. For several months we have been offering meal “kits” to help you plan and cook easy, delicious, and healthy meals at home. I have liked the idea of these for a while, but I have to tell you that I have not loved them. No goosebumps when I talk about them. This week, that changed for me and I have had a very profound Ah-ha moment. Don’t you love when those happen?
The root issue of why I haven’t Loved them is that they have been too rigid. A menu filled with items. No customization. So if you have onions at home and do not need them in your meal kit? It has been “too bad, you are getting more of them.” And I hate feeling like I am force feeding our members. You all are adults and know what you need. So I shouldn’t have to make you get anything you don’t want. If you want a vegetarian option for the recipe, we should have it. If you hate garlic, I won’t pass judgement (ok, well maybe just a little).
So let me introduce you to this idea of Harvest Box 3.0 or whatever version we are up to now.
This may not surprise you, but people love our Harvest Boxes. If Harvest Boxes ran for mayor, they might just make the run-off. Over 90% of our orders have a sexy Harvest Box included. It is a fun way to shop and it is the backbone of what we do. The first week we opened our CSA model in June 2003, we had one item you could buy…The Harvest Box. No bread, beef, eggs, or hard cider at that time. Just the HB!
So what we are going to do now is keep the bones of the Harvest Box but add the option to include items to make weekly recipes that we suggest. Let me give you an example for this week since I love examples.
As we look at the wonderful bounty that is coming in from the local fields right now, it is impossible for me not to think about green chile stew. Fresh meats. Potatoes. Onions. Chile. Tomatoes. Seeing all of that, my mind goes to my crock pot and starts making stew. But some folks want a Veg stew. Some folks want extra meat. Some folks love cilantro.
So it works like this. 1) The base Harvest Box will NOT change. It will be all produce just as it has been for the last 14 years. 2) We will offer “suggested” recipes for the week. These recipes are just suggested ideas. You can look at them or not. Totally up to you. 3) If the recipe looks interesting to you, we will have those items as Options that you can add in your Harvest Boxes.
To follow my example through here 🙂 Say Green Chile Stew looks interesting to you, then you will have the ability to add items (like meats, extra veggies or tortillas, etc) to your Harvest Box to help you make the suggested recipe. Again, I cannot stress this enough because I always get hammered with emails when I make changes… But all of these items will be Options for you to take advantage of and nothing forced on you. We will simply be using the recipe ideas to help “seed” your creative flare in the kitchen. What you do with those suggestions is completely up to you.
Additionally, many of our members have asked (ok begged) to bring more staples back to the Harvest Boxes. So this week you will also see the return faces of dairy to the mix. Milks, cream, and I even threw in chocolate milk to the mix because I know how much my kiddos love the chocolate milk.
All in all, I really want to make the Harvest Box a better cooking/eating/shopping experience. If you have ideas or items that you would like to see in the Harvest Box options, please let me know. I will say though that everything that we add as an option needs to help support our Local agriculture producers. So sugars and flours will not be coming back to the table. Although you can still get those items in The Storehouse section of the web site. Let’s highlight and support all of our local producers, growers, ranchers, and dairy folks.
Thanks for your support and happy arrival of fall. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any comments, concerns, or questions. You can also feel free to share your hopes and dreams with me too!
Farmer Monte