By Lara Alexander

Locavores — people who keep their diets as local as possible — are practically drooling over the prospect of juicy plums, tender salad greens and sweet snap peas returning to the plate for spring and summer. Whether you are a locavore yourself,  like supporting small businesses or just love good food, you may want to consider getting some of your groceries from a local produce delivery company. Besides the health benefits of increasing your fruit and vegetable intake, the biggest advantage is the convenience of quality food appearing weekly on your doorstep. Each of the companies below delivers groceries to Edmonds residents.

Full Circle Farm
(866) EAT WELL
Full Circle Farm originated as a CSA Farm back in 1996 and has now expanded beyond the confines of a simple produce box delivery service. In addition to the basic produce boxes, customers can add organic dairy and bread products, local meats and fish, as well as other “artisan” grocery items. Full Circle works with local producers such as Fresh Breeze Dairy, Steibrs egg farm, Heritage Meats and Tiny’s Organics. Any customer who doesn’t want to be surprised by the contents of their produce box are able to fully customize their boxes on a weekly basis with no extra charge.

Full Circle Farm currently provides a weekly or every-other week subscription farm-to-table service to Edmonds They deliver to both community pick-up sites ($34 for standard box) and directly to the home ($37). Pick-up sites in Edmonds include both Café Ladro locations (Main Street and 196th Street), Harbor Square Athletic Club on West Dayton, Seaview on 188th Street SW, and Edmonds Community College Culinary on 68th Ave W.

Klesick Family Farms
(360) 652 GOOD
Longtime Snohomish County residents, the Klesick family used to own the Organic Produce Shoppe in Mountlake Terrace and grew their own family’s vegetables in a little 4 foot by 8 foot plot at home. In 1998, the family bought their first small farm in Machias and moved up in 2003 to a 37 acre farm in Stanwood, with plenty of room for the family’s 8 children and the Belgian draft horse used for plowing and planting.

Klesick Family Farms deliver boxes of organic produce, coffees, breads, and other grocery items
to Edmonds every Thursday. Customers indicate the size and type of box that they prefer. Choices start with the “Essential” box for single people ($16.50) to the “Harvest” box for families of 6 to 8 people ($45). Speciality boxes are available such as the “Juicer” for those who make fruit and vegetable juices at home and the “Northwest” box for families who want their produce to be local.

Potatoes, spinach, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, onions, beets, winter squash, green beans, cucumbers, cabbage, sugar snap peas, strawberries and grass-fed beef are all raised on the Klesick farm. Although they are not certified organic, no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers are used. Other produce, and the grocery items for delivery, are sourced from organic suppliers, with an effort to stay local when possible.

Customers can place a one-time order or set up weekly or bi-monthly deliveries. You can make changes anytime to the type of box you receive or you can build a custom box for an additional $3.50 delivery fee on orders under $37.50.

Local Choice Food Box
(206) 458-0264
Local Choice Food Box is a “CSA” program: Community Supported Agriculture, and is run by the non-profit Growing Washington. All of the produce in the box is organic and unlike most other programs, every fruit and vegetable is locally grown by a hand full of small Washington State family farms.

The program runs from June 13th to October 16th and the sign-up deadline is June 1st. Customers choose to customize their box every week or pick a “farmer’s choice” for a happy surprise, indicating the size that suits your family best (small weekly boxes for $34 to large for $48). Organic fruits, vegetables and flowers are being grown for you, as close by as Redmond and Monroe! Go to the website to sign-up for this years 18 week season. Edmonds residents will pick up their box every week from a host site at 20018 Maplewood Drive, Edmonds.

Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery (SPUD)
(206) 621-7783
SPUD is a grocery delivery company with an organic focus. They deliver to homes up and down the West coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles, with an easy to use on-line shopping website where customers can fully customize the produce and grocery items in their cart. Boxes are delivered with all perishable items kept cold in insulated packs for up to 8 hours on your doorstep.

Each item on the website can be measured in the miles that it travels to reach the warehouse, and a bio of the company that produces the item can be read for each loaf of bread, carton of milk and bunch of beets. Customers can set up a standing order for a discount of 5% on most standing order items, or start from scratch each week building a fully custom delivery. Delivery to Edmonds is free on any box over $43.

Smith Brothers Farms
(877) MILK MAN
Each week, 48 Smith Brothers milkmen (and two women!) drive around town delivering milk to 45,000 households who appreciate the convenience of door to door delivery. The milk may not come in glass bottles like it did for your grandmother, but you can still get to know your milkman by name!

Smith Brothers Farms delivers milk, dairy products, eggs, bread, bagels, coffee, juice, and cookie dough. Items are kept cold in an insulated pouch and delivery is free on all orders over $10. Customers establish a standing order, which can be changed at any time.

A culinary adventurer, Lara Alexander grows, cooks and writes about food from her home in Edmonds. You can read about her garden and kitchen fun on the blog Food-Soil-Thread.