I have always been a lover of food.  From vegetables to dessert I have never been fussy.  I was the kid my friend's parents loved because I would finish my vegetables and then the vegetables left on their kids plates.   And I love trying new things.

As I entered my 40s I started becoming a bit more aware of the ingredients in my food.   I am not sure if it is me being more mindful of my health as I age or if it is wanting to set a good example as a parent.   Regarding the former, I have a family history of heart disease/high cholesterol as well as cancer.  So I want to be sure I eat a healthy diet and get lots of exercise.   I added weekly Zumba classes to my busy schedule chasing after a 5-year-old.  And as winter progresses we are amping up the XBox 360 Kinect games.  The Zumba game is on my Chrismtas list.

Whichever  the motivation, the result is that I am much more mindful of the salt, preservatives, sugar, chemicals and pesticides in my food.  I have also become more conscious of the environmental impact of what I eat.  The result is we eat less prepared food and more local & organic.   But our local grocery store doesn't have a huge organic or local selection.  Nor do the many vegetable stands in my hood.  So we frequent the farmer's market, which is great for local and organic product. But they don't necessarily have a selection of other products.   So we end up making multiple stops to get our weekly groceries.

I focus on buying local and sustainable fashion. Why should I not do the same with my food?  

So I decided to give Spud.ca a try.  Spud stands for Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery.   Spud is focused on directly connecting communities with local farmers and food producers.  With the convenience of ordering on line for home delivery.   Which means I get to pick the types of foods I want, without driving all over town, and they are delivered to my door.  You can read more about Spud's commitment to local and sustainable here.

I found the benefits for using Spud were:

  • Quality of produce was very nice.
  • I could shop online at my leisure after my son had gone to bed - and in my PJs if I want
  • no navigating a busy grocery store with a 5 year who wants to touch/buy/eat everything
  • easy to make lists and standing orders, so you can do your week's shopping very quickly
  • delivered to my door (and left exactly where I specified) in a large rubber bin, with cooler and freezer packs for my cold items
  • regular delivery day, which is Wednesday for my area (need to order by 3pm the day before)
  • prices were comparable - some things are more than in the store, but not by much, especially when you consider the time saved ordering online
  • Fresh Harvest Box, featuring seasonal produce,  which I was able to customize to my family's size and preferences - My husband dislikes zucchini so I was able to ask for that "never go be included" in my box.  It also asked me to prioritize local vs organic and I can opt out of items on any given order.  This means the box to be truly catered to my family.

I had a few minor challenges - many of which were part of the learning curve for me...

  • you need to remember to order - seems like a simple thing, but I forgot several weeks in a row - a standing order would solve this problem
  • if you wait until the day before many of the baked goods, like bread, may be sold out
  • I kept forgetting how to order the Fresh Harvest Box when it wasn't part of a standing order (Spud has since sent me a few tips to help with this)
  • after you add an item to a "list" you need to remember to actually order the item too - again part of my learning curve
  • I am still figuring out how much to order, as the first few weeks we had too much - especially when we visited the farmer's market in the same week
  • we still need to visit the neighbourhood store for ad hoc things through the week

The result is that each Saturday we decided on our order.  If we visit the Farmer's Market we often don't order. Although I am thinking of putting in a standing order for milk, eggs, bread, etc.  Then adding fruit/veg if we don't hit the market that week.  Like all grocery shopping, our requirements shift week-to-week, but knowing that I have a good "one stop shop" for local and organic makes the grocery shopping easier.

Spud delivers in the Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, LA, Seattle and San Francisco areas.   Their delivery is on a set day each week - depending on your neighbourhood.   They deliver to your house, apartment or office.  A fellow blogger told me over the weekend that they delivered to their mother in the hospital, during an extended stay.  And since the blogger lived in a different province this gave her peace of mind that her mom was getting some additional fruits/vegetables each week (cause we all know how much hospital food does NOT rock).

I wrote about my intent to give Spud.ca a try on my other, Ramblings of TJR blog.  From that Spud contacted me to see if they could help in anyway.  As I was already happily ordering from them, they offered a contest for my readers.

You could Win.... $100 in groceries from Spud. 

Spud is offering to give one of my readers, living in one of their delivery areas, $100 in groceries.  To enter you need to:

  1. Required - comment below and tell me about why you love local/organic food?
  2. Optional - for 1 additional entry -  tweet the following:
  3. Optional - for 1 additional entry - provide a link, in your comment, to your favourite seasonal recipe using seasonal local produce.

To win you need to live in Spud's delivery areas.  For readers in the Lower Mainland, that includes pretty much from Whistler to Chilliwack.

Contest closes on Tuesday October 30th at 9pm Pacific time.   I will randomly draw a winner and email them on Wednesday October 31st.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email.  If no response is received I will draw another name.

Update - October 30th - The contest is now closed. A random winner has been drawn and notified via email. If they do not respond within 48 hours another winner will be drawn.

Bin that arrives from Spud.

One final thing. If you decide to give Spud a try, based on my recommendation, please feel free to use my ROSTRB code as your referral. And yes using that code may get me some discounts from Spud.

Disclosure - I paid for all my groceries ordered from Spud.ca and all opinions are my own. Spud is offering a $100 in groceries to a lucky reader that lives in one of their delivery areas.