Reflection Sunday: Food for Thought

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

Just so you know, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery is not sponsoring this post.

On Friday I got my first bin of food from Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, an organic produce delivery outfit with service in two cities: Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

For months, my coworker Bonnie had talked about the great stuff she gets in her bin. I immediately wanted to give it a try, but instead of signing up and ordering right away, I put it off. I still don’t know exactly why. I’ve pretty much just chalked it up to my natural inclination as a human to resist change—even the good kind.

My junior year of college, I took a course on community organizing in Central Indiana. One evening, the discussion turned to sustainable food. And a local expert on the topic spoke to us about economically and environmentally sustainable options. The gist of her spiel was this: The point of sustainable eating is not to deny yourself things that grow in exotic places. Rather, it is to buy and eat products that do grow locally from local producers. As a Hoosier, I can go to the grocery store and buy tomatoes from California. But why?

The same philosophy applies to the stuff you get in your bin. For example, I got a clam shell of strawberries from California, but that’s because they’re out of season here. Most of the contents of the bin were from the Midwest.

My Goal

I want make good choices when it comes to the stuff I eat. I feel like Green B.E.A.N. Delivery is going to make that easier. I also aim to eliminate the overwhelming part of shopping at the grocery store. With so many choices, meal planning is hard for me. I just don’t know where to start. With the bin, you start with what’s in season and you say, “Okay, now what can I make with these pretty things?”

I want to share the contents of the bin with you. I opted to buy the small fruit and vegetable bin for $25 and add other grocery items to my order to meet the $35 minimum. (The extras are marked with an asterisk.) Here’s what I got delivered to my door for a total of $41.68:

• 1 lb ground beef (from Moody Meats)*
• 2 thick-cut pork chops (from Moody Meats)*
• 1 dozen local, pasture-raised eggs*
• 1 green acorn squash
• 24 oz Yukon gold potatoes
• 1 pound of mixed sweet peppers
• 2 ambrosia apples
• 3 danjou pears
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 1 bunch of collard greens
• 16-20 oz. tomatoes
• 16 oz strawberries

The Final Verdict

We immediately tore into the bin and ate one of the pears. Yum.

Sadly, only 5 of my eggs survived the trip, but I am not easily deterred! I love the idea of chickens roaming around freely, and I will get eggs from them again. I just know it can be done.

In the meantime, I contacted customer service about the broken eggs, because on the invoice it says they are “happy to replace these items or post a credit to your account.”

Dan and I started cooking with the yummy things in the bin, commenting how nice it is to cook with things that go from ground to table. No cans, no preservatives, no extra salt. For breakfast we had crepes with cream cheese filling topped with strawberries from the bin.

Dinner included grilled pork chops with fried potatoes and peppers and collard greens. All from the bin! It was the first time I’d ever had collard greens. Now, I could have swapped them for something else when selecting the groceries I wanted, but I think it’s important to be more adventurous when it comes to veggies. All I can say is that collards get a bad rap for a good reason. Blech. Everything else was delicious.

If you live around these parts and decide to give Green B.E.A.N. Delivery a try, tell them Emily Suess sent ya!