What a Week!

We are so fortunate to be part of such a robust local food system. As the news of society’s reaction to COVID-19 spread, we all wondered what, if anything, was going to change. It was my wife, Moyra, who delivered the news. While we sat around the kitchen table after dinner, she logged on to customize our weekly Farm Fresh To You box (yes, we get one too), “Thad, everything is sold out, even the radicchio.” We looked at each other. “Radicchio is sold out?” Radicchio is great, but it never ever, ever, sells out and I knew we had a field full of that stuff. It has been an around-the-clock process from that moment to catch up to the unprecedented demand.

We greatly value all our customers, from longtime supporters to those new to the service who may now be required to shelter in place, seniors and other vulnerable populations, and many who are trying to increase their social distancing and limit visits to retail stores. Although we have been, and will continue to welcome new customers, larger orders by existing customers are significantly impacting our operational systems. As an essential business, we welcome this challenge and will continue working our hardest to bring fresh, local foods to customers. We are not concerned about a shortage of supply, but the issue is the logistics of getting said supply from our fields and our partners to our packing warehouse, which is something that takes at least a day, often two. That said, I took it as a unique challenge to get customers their radicchio—we were going to figure this out.

As the dust settles (it’s not all settled yet), we made some big adjustments to better meet the needs of our customers. Last week, you likely noticed your delivery did not arrive at the normal time; we really apologize, but we made the decision to make sure as much of it showed up as possible by the end of the week. This week, we adjusted routes to ease the daily load on our drivers, and moved to daytime delivery for safety and visibility. These steps, along with some process improvements in our warehouse, should make things better.

As you read this, truckloads of products are headed to our warehouses. Produce, eggs, grains, juices, meats, dry goods—all inbound. Historically, our inventory was completely set on Thursday when the following week’s boxes were ready to customize, but this week we will update the availability on the website as product reaches the warehouse. Items will show as “sold out” until new supply lands, so please check back in your account before your customization window closes (11 a.m., two days before your next delivery) if there is an item you are still looking for.

I have been proud of our team and network of farms and producers. In one week, we greatly increased our supply and the size of our vegetable plantings, and we still made the plant date of our first tomatoes (that all happened last week.) This situation is giving ort local food system an opportunity to really shine and I hope you all realize that is is working as hard as it possibly can for you.

Enjoy your farm box and don't forget to wash your hands.

COVID-19 Update

Update: Monday, March 16th, 6pm
Before we dive in with an update, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our community of customers and family of employees. The positive support and kind patience we are seeing online and in correspondence has been tremendous.

Here are a few answers to questions we are seeing online:

Are you still able to deliver?

• Yes, at this point we do not see a need to change our delivery schedule.
• For areas advised to shelter-in-place, we are planning for deliveries as usual per the guidance set for grocery and essential supply services. Should an issue arise, customers will be notified by email.
• If you are expecting a business delivery, and your office is closed or unable to receive a delivery during your usual delivery window, please use your account online to skip deliveries as needed.

Do you have enough supply?

• Our teams are working closely with our farm, partner farms, vendors and producers to keep fresh, organic produce and essential grocery items stocked.
• Please note that during this time, substitutions of comparable products may be made, as there could be a need to source perishable products from different producers. As always, if there is an issue with an item in your delivery, please email us at contactus@farmfreshtoyou.com and we’ll be happy to make it right.

What precautions are being taken for COVID-19?

• Please continue reading below regarding measures we are taking to ensure the safety of our family of employees and customers.
• For a limited time, please contact us via email at contactus@farmfreshtoyou.com for non-urgent matters. By reducing the number of phone calls, more of our employees can work from home, allowing us to increase our social distancing.
• We will continue to update our blog and social media as new information becomes available.

Update: Monday, March 9th, 10am,br
Our highest priority is, and always has been, to utilize industry-leading food safety practices for the well-being of our customers, our family of employees and the loved ones we care for each day.

With the growing concern over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to update you on our existing and ongoing food-safety protocols.

Food Safety
In conjunction with guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we follow strict, third-party inspected and verified, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

Given the importance of these practices at this time, we are increasing the frequency at which we train, inspect and verify that these standards are being met and exceeded.

• Special use of hand washing and facility foot baths is always required prior to entering the food and packing facilities at the beginning of shifts and after any breaks.
• Additionally, employees are required to wear uniform food-safety smocks (professionally laundered after each shift) and hair nets. Face masks are available.
• Employees wear gloves while handling produce and farm boxes.
• As always, once folded shut after last item is packed, farm boxes are not reopened.
• Increased verification of food safety practices within our facilities and by our family of growers.
• Delivery boxes are not reused. Drivers will continue to pick up flattened farm boxes from customers who wish to leave them out for recycling.
• We provide sick leave benefits and monitor to ensure employees who are ill do not come to work.
• We ask our members to always wash their produce before eating as part of everyday good practices.

Facility and Delivery Vehicle Sanitation
Our systematic and proper sanitation and cleaning procedures, Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures (SSOP), is rigorously outlined and routinely followed in our company Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan. HACCP is a food safety monitoring system that is used to identify and control biological, chemical, and physical hazards within the storage, transportation, use, preparation, and sale of perishable goods. It also determines critical control points (CCP) in the process of food production.

Third-Party Certifications
As part of our regular farm and facility food-safety systems, we are routinely audited and inspected by multiple third-party groups to verify that our systems meet PrimusGFS standards.

Thank You!
Thank you for trusting our family farm with your food deliveries. We are proud of our food safety program and of the commitment of our employees to these policies.

The food you share at your table is the same food we share with our families. We get deliveries just like you do, and we relate to the reassurance of knowing where our food comes from and how it is handled.

We wish everyone good health and wellness. Eat nutritious fruits and vegetables, take care to be well-rested and to protect those around you.

Female Founders: A Maker's Spotlight

Everyday women around the world are doing something sensational. Because March is Women’s History Month, all month long we will be celebrating the inspirational women we partner with because of their dedication to their craft and the kind of hard work the makes dreams come true!

First and foremost, we recognize Kathleen Barsotti, our mother, and co-founder of our farm Capay Organic, and founder of Farm Fresh To You for following her dream of connecting people to the source of their food.

Farm Fresh To You

In 1976, Kathleen and her husband, Martin, moved to Capay and began building their family farm and home on 20 acres of land. In 1982, after working part time at the UC Davis Plant Pathology Department, she devoted her full attention to the farm, then known as Capay Fruits and Vegetables.

In 1992, Kathleen continued on her own as sole proprietor and manager of the farm. Later that same year, her dream of connecting people to the source of their food was realized through the creation of her organic produce delivery service, Farm Fresh To You.

In June of 2000, Kathleen wrote her last farm news and the following month ended her courageous battle with breast cancer. Having always worked alongside their mother, Kathleen proudly entrusted her sons, Noah, Thaddeus and Freeman to continue her founding legacy and mission. Kathleen is beloved by all who knew her as a devoted student to ecological sciences, an excellent farmer and loving mother of four sons.

Greenlee's Bakery

The Gelder’s are a family of strong women raising strong women. For generations, they’ve been growing the Greenlee’s family-owned and women-led business, specializing in baking artisan breads, handmade pastries and more. Their time-honored signature recipe for cinnamon bread has set a reputable footprint in the industry of scratch bakeries.

The family works with local suppliers to source the freshest and most authentic ingredients and uses their handmade artisan technique to ensure the highest quality. Their goal is to make you and your taste buds happy!

La Vie Rustic

Georgeanne Brennan, founder and owner of La Vie Rustic, had the privilege of living in rural Provence and learning not only the ways of growing a potager, making cheese, and gathering wild herbs, but the pleasures of doing so. Today, she continues to live, as much as possible, the way she learned to in Provence, living with the rhythm of the seasons in a sustainable way, cooking from her garden, gathering herbs, making jams and preserves, and in general, enjoying the small pleasures of each day.

Many of the La Vie Rustic products are produced right on her small farm with the help of a small staff. Whenever possible, they have used local artisans to create the products, from the letterpress-printed seed packets to the handcrafted sickles.

Brennan loves bringing the things she loves to anyone who wishes to practice a sustainable lifestyle producing and caring for their own food, even if only a small part of it. Her hope is that you find motivation in living and supporting a sustainable lifestyle too.

Lovesticks

Lynda Najarian left her home in San Francisco for a weekend in Mendocino back in September of 1993. There, she discovered her exciting and prosperous future on the rise in the form of a totally unique, whole-wheat baguette that sent her taste buds reeling. Judy, the baker that made this unique bread, and Lynda formed a partnership and called the breads Judy’s Breadsticks of Mendocino.

They began looking for a bakery in Marin County to service the Bay Area. Soon after, Judy’s Breadsticks spread like wildfire throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Customers appreciate Judy’s handmade, wonderful, unique, rich flavored 100% natural breadsticks and "twigs". Bread is the constant. It’s an integral part of the meal, of the human experience, of sharing, of communion. Lynda says, “Judy’s Breadsticks are a natural reflection of love and warmth.”

Just Jan's

After a twenty-year career in the film industry, Jan Hogrewe was ready for her second act. As a life-long food lover, and cookbook aficionado, Jan didn't have to search very long to discover her new career.

Jan’s kids were tired of eating figs, and she was tired of seeing them go to waste. Determined to find a way to use them all, she started making jam. From those humble beginnings Just Jan's was founded. Today she now offers a full line of gourmet fruit spreads and foods, made without artificial ingredients or preservatives.

In creating her spreads, Jan has been guided by her love of food and ingredients, refusing to compromise on quality or flavor. The result is a line of spreads and curds that are all natural, preservative free, and are lower in sugar than traditional jams and jellies.

Cru Chocolate

After pursuing a degree in Engineering and an advanced degree in Sustainability, Karla McNeil-Rueda studied Cacao technology and fine chocolate confectionery at the Chocolate Institute of Latin America and the Caribbean in La Habana, Cuba.

She learned to integrate and combine her empirical and cultural knowledge of chocolate with her experience as an engineer. With her Partner Eddie Houston, also an engineer, together they founded Cru Chocolate, a hand crafted bean to bar company that sources fine Cacao from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to use in their chocolate and other Cacao based creations.

Cru Chocolate’s mission includes a focus on assisting women at origin in creating and growing their own business by providing education and facilitating small scale equipment.

eos Chocolates

Catherine von Ruden’s creative journey began with the realization that she could contribute to overall healthy diets by making treats using less sugar. For all who want to enjoy sweetness on a daily basis, she offers products that are healthier and rich in flavor.

Having grown up in Switzerland with a love for all things natural, and also with a passion for creating desserts and treats, she turned to her roots and started working with chocolate as well as almonds grown on the family’s farm in California.

Named for Eos, the goddess of dawn, eos chocolates are meant to satisfy chocolate lovers bite-by-bite, guiltless pleasure guaranteed.

Bee’s Wrap

Bee’s Wrap was founded by Sarah Kaeck, a mother of three who has been, by turns, an avid gardener, milker of goats, keeper of chickens, and seamstress. Bee’s Wrap started with a question facing many families and home cooks: How could we eliminate plastics in our kitchen in favor of a healthier, more sustainable way to store our food?

What she discovered is a lost tradition made new again. By infusing organic cotton with beeswax, organic jojoba oil, and tree resin, she created a washable, reusable, durable, and compostable alternative to plastic wrap for sustainable food storage.

Bee's Wrap is committed to creating a meaningful difference for a healthy bee population, cleaner waterways, and education in sustainable practices to protect our earth.

LKLY Designs

Lisa Young is a fiber artist and is the founder of LKLY Designs. She produces intricately woven, hand-made baskets from natural, sustainable jute and hemp fibers.

Her fascination with basket weaving began at a young age when visiting a family friend where she noticed a row of miniature pine needle coiled baskets on display. She knew how to coil a basket by the next day! She has been honing her craft for nearly 40 years and has been teaching art and crafts to children and adults for over twenty five years, with a focus on basket making for the past seven.

Today, Lisa's aesthetics in her basketry are informed and influenced by her studies in non-western modern art, folk culture and traditions, her travels, and upbringing in domestic arts (crochet, sewing, loom weaving).

How To Support Women-Owned Businesses by Adding Their Products to Your Delivery:
CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 pm, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood. You can even get your whole office in on the fun with our office snack packs. Find more information about our office deliveries here.

Spice It Up: Mulling Spices

This week’s blog post is a bit of a twist on our Spice It Up series. Rather than talking about one spice, we’re talking about one of our favorite blends, mulling spices.

History:

Originally a method for making bad wine more palatable, and ensuring that no alcohol went to waste, Ancient Greeks would add spices to their more questionable wine and heat it up to improve the taste. The Ancient Romans followed suit, heating their extra wine with spices as well to prevent waste. They also believed that drinking hot wine in the winter would help ward off illness. The Romans called their mixture “Conditum Paradoxum” and it featured honey, saffron and bay leaf.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that mulled wine really became popular. People believed that the added spices would make them healthier. In Germany, a mulled cider referred to as “wassail” became part of a drinking ritual that was intended to bring good luck and prosperity for the next season’s apple harvest. In old England, mulled wine and cider became closely associated with the holiday season. It is often referred to in Christmas carols today.

Flavor:

The exact combination can vary, but mulling spices generally refer to a blend of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and occasionally dried fruit or brown sugar.

Spice It Up:

If you don’t want to put together your own mixture of spices, we highly recommend this mulling spice blend from Little Apple Treats. As beautiful as it is delicious, it features dried heirloom rose petals from their California gardens, dried apples from their orchard, organic hibiscus blossoms and organic spices, including two types of cinnamon sticks, green cardamom pods, cloves and allspice. The combination is perfect for flavoring apple cider, mulled wine or a rose or herbal tea.

Spiced Sangria

Although you may associate mulling spices with the holiday season, we think this blend makes the perfect year-round red sangria. One of our favorite parts of sangria is that there really are no steadfast rules. Try experimenting with seasonal produce and flavors - we recommend oranges and apples in the cool months and peaches and strawberries in the warm months. The only guideline we would advise you to follow is to give your sangria time to soak so that the wine can truly absorb all of the decadent flavors from the spice blend. Try using our recipe below as a guideline, and experiment with different flavors from there!

Ingredients:
1 bottle of red wine (we recommend a Spanish wine like Grenache or Rioja)
2 oranges, sliced
1 apple, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 pear, thinly sliced
½ jar of Little Apple Treats mulling spices (or a 1 oz blend of your own mulling spice mixture)

Optional:
½ cup brandy
1 cup orange juice
Bubbles (sparkling water, lemon-lime soda or ginger ale would all work)

Wash and cut your produce and add the sliced fruit to a pitcher. Use a wooden spoon to lightly press down on the fruit, releasing some of the juices.

Add a half jar of mulling spices along with a 750 mL bottle of red wine into a pitcher. If using, add the brandy and/or orange juice now. Cover the pitcher with a lid or airtight seal and let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

Serve the sangria over ice, topping off each glass with a splash of sparkling water if desired.

How To Add Farm Stand Products to Your Delivery:
CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 pm, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood. You can even get your whole office in on the fun with our office snack packs. Find more information about our office deliveries here.

Super Snacks for Superbowl

For all of the football fans out there, the Superbowl is just two weeks away and we're looking forward to a fierce and competitive game! And for those of you that don't care about football, you get to look forward to some fierce Superbowl snacking! We admit that one of our favorite parts of Superbowl Sunday is the delicious array of tailgate snacks and appetizers. If you are hosting or attending a viewing party this year, consider trying one of these fun recipes, and make sure to check out our selection of Superbowl favorites when you customize your box.

Crispy Cauliflower Buffalo "Wings"

This vegetarian version of "wings" will knock your socks off! They are spicy and super tasty. The Greek yogurt dip is refreshing and is a delicious complement to the spiciness, and also cuts some of the heat. You can also try pairing them with this blue cheese dip if you want to save extra time in the kitchen!

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Nothing says comfort food like macaroni and cheese, but with the New Years and many healthy resolutions in place, here is a produce-packed spin on this favorite cheesy classic. This recipe utilizes organic seasonal produce and California artisan-made pasta from Baia Pasta.

Black Bean and Roasted Tomato Chili with Quinoa

With endless possibilities and flavors to explore, chili is a great vehicle to try out new spices, peppers, and beans. We love this vegan version of the spicy stew, but if you don't feel like cooking you can also try this delicious ready-to-eat chili.

Leek and Mushroom Pizza

Mushrooms and leek is one of our favorite combinations on pizza. The sea salted-herb crust is so good we don’t know why we haven’t been doing this to all of our pizzas! You can skip a step by using our classic pizza dough and our organic heirloom tomato sauce.

Brie and Artichoke Dip

Brie and artichoke are a delightful combination in this addicting dip. Perfect for rosemary olive oil crackers or a freshly baked baguette! For an extra burst of flavor, dry drizzling a balsamic vinegar reduction over your toasted crostini slices.

Tomatillo Guacamole

A delicious and tangy alternative to traditional guacamole. Pair it with traditional tortilla chips, veggie sticks, or these delicious kettle papitas! You can also pair it with a slightly spicy medium roasted chipotle salsa.

How To Add Farm Stand Products to Your Delivery:
CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 pm, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood. You can even get your whole office in on the fun with our office snack packs. Find more information about our office deliveries here.

Spice It Up: Turmeric

About

Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant that is a member of the ginger family. It’s native to Southeast Asia and India, but it can grow anywhere that has a warm and humid climate. Turmeric plants grow long leaves that emerge from rhizomes, which is more or less a root, that is hidden beneath the soil. When the rhizome is harvested, it is boiled, dried under sunlight for about a week, then polished. Dried rhizomes are about two to three inches in length, but are most commonly sold ground up into a powder that is found in the spice aisle. The name turmeric comes from the Latin word terra merita, which refers to the golden yellow color of ground turmeric.

Aside from its culinary uses, turmeric also has various cultural and religious meanings. In parts of India, turmeric is thought to protect against evil spirits. Buddhist robes have been dyed with turmeric for centuries, and the Hindu religion views turmeric as pure and sacred. Turmeric is often incorporated into Hindu wedding ceremonies to purify the minds and bodies of the bride and groom prior to the marriage ceremony.

Potential health benefits

Although turmeric has recently been trending as a health-food in Western cultures, Turmeric has been used medicinally for nearly 4000 years. It has been particularly popular in both Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbal medicine. In Ayurvedic medicine, it is mainly used as a remedy for breathing problems and also as an antiseptic for cuts, burns and bruises. In Chinese herbal culture, it’s used as an anti-inflammatory pain reliever, particularly for arthritis.

Today, turmeric is being studied for its suggested positive effect on cholesterol, stomach problems, skin irritation, arthritis, depression, and even cancer and liver disease. The main active ingredient, curcumin, is also being studied in clinical trials for its effects on Parkinsons and Alzheimer's disease. Although there is not enough scientific evidence yet to conclusively determine the healing effects of turmeric, it is generally considered safe to consume as a regular part of a healthy diet.

Cooking with Turmeric

Turmeric has an earthy, bitter and light peppery flavor. Fresh turmeric is generally less potent and has a fresher, slightly more lemony citrus flavor. Either way, its bitter taste is best balanced out by other rich and creamy flavors such as butter, ghee, coconut milk or other fats. Be careful when cooking with turmeric because its color will certainly stain! In fact, the distinct hue is used to color most store-bought mustards.

The pungent, bitter flavor and pepperlike aroma of turmeric are most commonly featured in South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines. It is probably most popular for its use in curry. Today, India produces the vast majority of turmeric and also consumes 80% of it.

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which is not easily absorbed by the body. When you pair turmeric with black pepper, it increases your body’s ability to absorb and utilize turmeric and all of its healing properties.

Spice it up: easy ways to use turmeric

Fresh Turmeric Golden Milk Tea

This comforting "tea" kind of tastes like a spicy Chai tea (though you can put in fewer spices if you want a more mild taste). Turmeric has been shown to have many health benefits, including helping with depression, insomnia and arthritis.

Homemade Chicken Soup

In these winter months when it seems everyone is getting the flu or a cold, serve your family this delicious and healthy chicken soup. Add your favorite noodles if you'd like. Get our recipe for homemade Vegetable Broth.

Refreshing Turmeric Tonic

We love drinking this turmeric tonic to prevent colds during the holiday season when everyone is sick and in close quarters. The turmeric and ginger give this tonic a slight kick that we love.

How To Add Farm Stand Products to Your Delivery:
CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 pm, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood. You can even get your whole office in on the fun with our office snack packs. Find more information about our office deliveries here.

Artisan Producers That Give Back

Giving back to our community and supporting other small farms & artisans has always been a part of our mission. We are proud to have the opportunity to work with producers who also embody similar missions. Here are a few companies we partner with that are making a difference both locally, and globally.

Once Upon A Farm

Once Upon A Farm is committed to increasing access to fresh, nutritious food so that babies and children are better prepared for lives filled with health and happiness. One of the ways they do this is by ensuring that their baby foods are WIC-approved, making them the first line of organic, refrigerated baby foods eligible for WIC program participants to purchase.

Once Upon A Farm has recently partnered with Wholesome Wave, a non-profit that works to make fruits and vegetables affordable to all, to create a new program called “A Fresh Start”. A Fresh Start supports Los Angeles, CA families enrolled in Save The Children’s Early Steps To School Success program. This program works with parents to develop their children’s social and emotional, language, literacy and numeracy skills. A Fresh Start will provide participating families with pre-loaded cards that are restricted to purchases of fresh fruits and vegetables. A Fresh Start will also offer nutrition education, providing families with the tools they need to make small, health-driven changes and increase the use of fruits and vegetables in their family’s diet. Through these initiatives, Once Upon A Farm aims to provide families with fresh produce that otherwise may not have access.

Bee’s Wrap

Bee’s Wrap is committed to giving both locally and globally, with special emphasis on programs that are centered around conservation, research, exploration, and education. They accomplish this by focusing their efforts on three philanthropic causes. First, they partner with The Bee Cause Project to place observation beehives in schools. They then work with teachers to teach students about the natural environment while developing STEAM skills. To date, the Bee Cause has placed hives in over 300 schools in 50 states and 4 countries.

Bee’s Wrap also to reduce waste by supporting ocean conservancy, beach cleanups and water stewardship. By working with organizations such as 1% For The Planet, National Geographic and 5 Gyres, they are able to raise awareness of the global plastic trash crisis. Bee’s Wraps even donates a percentage of their sales to 5 Gyres, an organization that leads research expeditions to study plastic pollution globally.

Lastly, Bee’s Wrap works to strengthen and enrich their local community. Because they are based in Vermont, they set aside financial contributions each year for local causes such as the Addison County Food Shelp, VPIRG and 350.org. In addition, all employees receive extra paid time off for volunteer work in the community. This is just another way that Bee’s Wrap supports and spreads the spirit of giving.

Nature’s Path

Over 10 years ago, the founder of Nature’s Path Foods heard the Dalai Lama speak about compassion. He was inspired to put his own compassion into action and implemented multiple community programs for his company, the first of which would benefit his own local community of Vancouver, BC. The Eat Well Do Good program sponsors local community fundraisers benefitting food banks and elementary schools and has raised over two million dollars worth of food to date. Nature’s Path will match every dollar that you donate with five dollars worth of food.

In addition, Nature’s Path supports three community gardens each year that are increasing community access to fresh organic food via their Gardens for Good grant. The grant money goes towards three gardens chosen from a pool of applicants, all of which are nourishing communities in a unique way.

Finally, Nature’s Path contributes a portion of its sales to support endangered species, habitat conservation and environmental education for kids. To date, they have raised over three million dollars.

Sol-ti

In this day of unsustainable consumerism, Sol-ti has chosen to take a different path in order to preserve the environment and save our oceans. Yes, they choose to use glass bottles for their healthful beverages, packaging that can be recycled, reused, or repurposed. But they are doing even more than that.

Sol-ti is in San Diego, California where they intentionally placed their production facility in close proximity to many local, sustainable farms where their source from. Sourcing locally not only ensures the freshest, most flavorful product but also supports the environment (fewer miles traveled) and their neighboring communities.

As a way to give back to the land, 1% of Sol-ti’s sales are donated to Permaculture Planet, a mission-driven company that focuses on developing land, primarily in Costa Rica, using permaculture principals. Sol-ti is using its business model to move beyond organic with regenerative agriculture through reforesting with fruit trees. Permaculture Planet plants thousands of exotic fruit trees annually through food forest implementations and native species reforestation. So the next time you choose to drink Sol-ti, know that you are helping your good health and the planet.

Theo Chocolate

Theo Chocolate approaches chocolate with the core value that chocolate can allow everyone in the bean-to-bar process to thrive. They believe that all persons within the chocolate community are interconnected, from the cocoa farmer in the Congo, to the truck driver in Seattle, and the chocolate lover in California. The choices Theo makes must positively affect and support lives across the planet in real and lasting ways.

Theo opted out of the global commodity cocoa market because this structure leaves farmers uncertain about their livelihood year to year and does not provide farmers with producing quality cocoa. Instead, Theo provides a reliable base price, annually negotiated directly with the farmers, based on the farmers meeting base quality specifications. They also pay an additional premium for better quality, which motivates their partners to produce high-quality beans. Through this direct trade partnership, everyone comes out ahead in the end.

Most farmers who grow cocoa are so disconnected from the process, they don’t know who ultimately makes chocolate from their beans or what it tastes like. Theo is committed to having a transparent relationship with their farms, suppliers, and everyone in-between. They visit all their cocoa farms each year to make sure they are understanding each farm’s circumstances and challenges. And of course, Theo tastes their chocolates with the farmers, so the farmers know just how awesome their chocolate is.

REBBL

In 2011, Dave Batstone set out to find a creative solution to the human trafficking problem in Peru. Through his non-profit, Not For Sale, he already had accumulated nearly 11 years of experience in raising money through anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. However, through his organization’s efforts, he learned that nearly everything that consumers buy contributes to forced labor and exploitation.

What was missing from the market was reliable, sustainable and safe products that contribute to the solution rather than the problem. Batstone brought together investors, agronomists and other global thought-leaders to come up with a business idea that would uplift at-risk communities around the world. He partnered with Palo Hawken, who had experience in the natural products industry, and together they started REBBL.

From the beginning, REBBL has committed to donating 2.5% of net sales of every bottle sold to Not For Sale, Batstone’s non-profit organization. This money goes towards preventing exploitation, generating awareness, and supporting individuals. Since partnering with REBBL, Not For Sale has gone on to partner with other entrepreneurs to create more products that feed revenue back into communities. This model allows for job creation and a stable income for at-risk populations.
Since 2007, Not For Sale has supported 20,000 survivors and at-risk individuals from over 40 countries worldwide. Their services have expanded to offer long-term housing, education, medical care, legal services, counseling, and job training programs.

How To Add Farm Stand Products to Your Delivery:
CSA members - head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 10 pm, 2 days before your scheduled delivery day. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button "Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products" to add the products to your delivery.

Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood. You can even get your whole office in on the fun with our office snack packs. Find more information about our office deliveries here.