apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am picking up my first box at their warehouse tonight and will let everyone know how it goes. (Since I can't be sure to be home when they deliver, I decided to pick up at their place in Park Slope).

One disappointment so far: Their web sign-up and payment page is not secure. Don't send them your credit card information online.

I used Urban Organic about 5 years ago. It didn't work for me because they choose the produce for you, so I felt like I was wasting stuff that I didn't know how to use. Now that I'm a more experienced cook it might make a nice challenge. I will consider it.

I was always wary of the whole concept of getting a bunch of produce that I might not know how to prepare, but have a cookbook now that has solved this.
Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop arranges the recipes by vegetable, and gives info on storage, basic prep, best suggested cooking methods and of course, a selection of recipes for each veg.
I have really enjoyed all the recipes I've tried, and the format really is perfect for those times when you've slready got the vegetable, and need some inspiration/info to get it on the table.

oops, already, not slready...

Janel, if i get some werid veg in the box, I might ask you for help!

The Zuni cookbook talks so much about cooking with the seasons, only using what's really good. And our NYC Key Food type vegratables I usually cook with are so bad. I'm excited to give this a try.

I was a much better fruit and vegetable eater when I was a member of the Park Slope Food Coop (and I weighed less too!). I'm hoping Urban Organics does the same, but I do have come commitmentphobia about one more thing to deal with every week. Its feeling like a therapy appointment or something.

LOL Chris
I feel the same way about making appointments for delivery.

We'll see if Urban Organics drives you back into the arms of the Coop . . . there's an attractive new shift walking people to their homes/cars . . .

anybody who wonders what the coop is, click my name for a link to the product blog

Chris, feel free!...but i'll keep my fingers crossed for you that no really wierd veg comes your way.

I tried Urban Organic a while ago, and ended up dropping it. Their definition of oranic seemed to be "small and dirty". The produce I got may have been organic, but it was tiny and gross, and only got more-so with each delivery.

Now I'm a Fresh Direct guy, and my veggies are beautiful and only what I want to eat.

Max -- you're scaring me. Small and dirty . . . for $25 a week, I better get some serious produce.

Guido -- Ah, the Park Slope Food Co-Op. The place I love to hate and hate to love. I miss shopping there and I miss my squad and I really really miss their perfect dried apircots and dates, but I don't miss the long lines or the obnoxious letters they sent after missing a couple of shifts. I'm still betting I end up back at the co-op at some point.

Coincidentally I decided to give Urban Organic a try about a week ago, and recieved my first box yesterday.

For all those who are phobic of what you might recieve and what you'll do with it - I had a farmer's share this past summer from a CSA farm and LOVED it. I would go pick it up Saturday morning and never knowing what I'd get was the best part. I am an adventurous cook and eater, so getting veggies I wouldn't buy on my own forced me to try new things and hunt down new recipes in order to use it all.

The veggies you recieve are what's being harvested now, so it's a great way to eat seasonally. As for yesterday's box, I was happy with both the quantity and quality, so I guess we'll see how the deliveries evolve over time.

It's really easy to have beautiful produce when you pump it full of chemicals. Steroids do amazing things.

I'm so glad that Heather mentioned CSA... I think that Fresh Direct or Urban Organic is really nice if what you're concerned with is convenience, but CSA is really the best way to go, both for your health and environmentally.

Like Heather sort of said, you join a CSA site for the season and then every week your farmer drops off to a site in the city and you pick it up. This means that you have a farmer, a man or woman who lives around here and you get to know him or her. (You can go visit the farm!) It's much cheaper than the delivery services since you're buying for the season and not paying anyone other than your farmer. Health wise, though, this is a much better choice; veggies from the grocery store travel across the country and then sit until you buy them. Organic vegetables often come from even further away. This whole time they're just leeching nutritional value. CSA vegetables are usually picked within 24 hours of when you get them. You can taste the difference.

And you're supporting a small local farmer and they're a lot less fossil fuels used transporting your veggies halfway across the country.

I have a hard time buying my vegetables anywhere else and am starting to buy my meat from my CSA site, too. This can become a community more than just a way to get your food.

If you click on my name, you can see the list of CSA sites in NYC. If you live somewhere else, you can look it up here: http://www.csacenter.org/

just wanted to say that I'm sorry to link to a page that was already linked to. Somehow I've done that twice... and it's annoying.

So I don't know if anyone is still looking at this thread but I have a question. I'm from Chicago and am used to the soil out there, the best soil in the world, which produced amazing vegetables for my CSA (Angelic Organics who I miss terribly). I thought about using a CSA in NYC but even the Farmer's Market produce's quality has really disappointed me. How is the NYC CSA experience?

I would rather have a CSA but I am concerned about quality. I absolutely love having my cooking proscribed for me; it is how I learned to cook. Being forced to figure out uses for vegetables--kholrabi, celeriac, a million cucumbers--was invigorating. I use Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," the bible of cooking with vegetables.

Hey everyone, don't forget about the only food coop in Manhattan: the 4th Street Food Coop, on East 4th street btwn 2nd Ave and Bowery. I'm not a member, you don't have to be one to shop there, but I am a regular and I love it. Tons of amazing produce and bulk nuts, grains, cereals, dried fruit, etc, etc. From talking to the staff I've learned they're in need lately of customers and new members, if anyone's interested. Their all-organic produce is local and delivered every week on Tuesday.

I just joined Urban Organic two weeks ago and have been very impressed with their service and quality. I like being suprised each week with what they deliver. It helps me stay out of food ruts. Plus, you can choose up to 3 items that you never want delivered, so you won't be stuck with things you don't like.

Although their produce was okay (although whoever said "small and dirty" was right on the money), their delivery folks are, well, a joke. At the time, I lived in the ground floor apartment of a Park Slope brownstone, and I was very specific about which door they needed to come to to drop off our produce and, most importantly, not to leave it if no one answered the doorbell.

So, when I got my first delivery, I found my box produce at the wrong door, sitting for 6-9 hours in 80+ degree heat. So, except for some fruit, that box was mostly a bust. I called and made sure they understood the directions I'd left for them.

When it happened AGAIN, the next week, they assured me they had it right this time (and at no point did they offer me a new box -- or even a replacement of the wilted items).

When it happened a THIRD time straight, I just cancelled my service. Granted, maybe these sort of bugs have been worked out of the system by now.