White Picket Produce- Delivering Farm Freshness to Your Table
White picket fences conjure up images of a crisp white border, surrounding patches of rainbow-colored vegetables and fruits, dotted with fragrant flowers and other edibles. Aromatic scents of fresh herbs and mouth-watering tomatoes immediately fill the brain with healthful, happy images. A menu plan that has sprung from the soil, to blooming produce, into your recipe-seeking mind comes to life.
A few minutes of dicing and slicing and perhaps sautéing succulent freshly grown produce is presented to a happy family where you’re not only feeding your family’s bodies, but also their souls with a beautiful and healthful meal. Now that is a daydream we can all strive for! As it turns out, a friendly service is facilitating the collaboration of hungry families, yearning for healthy meals, with farmers and growers of high quality foods. This is a union of a great idea meeting an ever demanding crowd, and the grower of this idea is Sharyn Vross and her brainchild, White Picket Produce, which is making the farm-to-table movement seem easy for Sarasota.
As a high school graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, and college graduate of University of Florida, Sharyn has long held Sarasota closely in her heart. Wanting to reside back in her hometown to be closer to family, she was just waiting for the right time with jobs and family to settle back into the community. While living in North Carolina, she discovered a produce delivery company, which proved to be the right inspiration to get her family on a healthful journey toward eating and to also set her on a path of regaining her Sarasota roots and setting up her own shop. Not only did the experience benefit her family with healthy food options delivered to her doorstep, but Sharyn was surprised how excited her kids got when the boxes arrived. She described it as “Christmas coming every week for the kids,” which to parents, who seem like giant meanies for pushing the green stuff, is revolutionary. Sharyn said her entire family became involved in meal planning and prepping and that finding new recipes to incorporate that week’s veggie box became a fun game. When Sharyn’s family finally made the move back to Sarasota, she immediately recognized a need for a similar service and began the process of finding the right growers and distributors to partner with to make hers a unique and successful venture. Her desire to help area residents incorporate fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits into their diets began the inception of White Picket Produce.
If you’re like most people, farmer’s markets seem fun until you get there and the available parking is scant or your Saturday gets eaten up with soccer practice and judo tournaments so you just can’t make it during the hours they are open. White Picket Delivery is like a farmer’s market on wheels in that each week, a bountiful box boasting the freshest and 100% organic vegetables, fruits, meats, honey, and the list of natural products goes on, can be delivered to your doorstep. Not always home during the day? Don’t worry, just leave a cooler with plenty of ice and your veggies, fruits and meats are good to go. A colorful, fresh, box of goodness at your doorstep could be the one push you need to set your family’s compass pointed on “N” for “Nutrition.”
So what can you have delivered and what is the price? Well, the answers are pleasing because whatever is in production during that week, meaning you are getting the freshest of newly harvested produce on a constant basis, is what goes in the box. And it doesn’t stop with what is growing in the field. Sharyn works with many different local companies, along with honey producers, so she has already ironed out the logistics of pricing, quality, freshness and over-all customer appeal. A weekly email between White Picket Produce and the consumer gives the option of customizing the boxes to accommodate special diets, occasions, dislikes and likes. A variety of sizes and combinations start out at $27 for a box for one; although with careful planning this could easily accommodate meals for more than one person. Options for larger families, office groups and co-ops provide pricing discounts and greater choices for everyone. Other benefits of receiving the weekly box mean you are sampling a variety of vegetables and fruits you would not normally eat. Gone are the days of boring carrots and broccoli (nothing against either) but why not explore eggplant or purple skin potatoes, for example, especially when they’re delivered to your door?
In a neighborly fashion, reminiscent again of a country road with friendly neighbors separated by perhaps a white picket fence, Sharyn offers another unique opportunity for the community. She regularly asks for volunteers to help box up that week’s goods for delivery and, in return, each helper goes home with a box full of produce. She sees stay-at-home moms, families, retirees and many different community members show up and it has created a nice pairing for her company and her customers who not only enjoy the work and the free box of goodies, but who also look forward to the comradery of the events.
If you’d like a little taste of fresh farmer’s market wares that show up at your door on a weekly basis, check out White Picket Produce. There are no excuses left! You can be enjoying a healthy, and fun dinnertime with family and friends while Sharyn Vross and White Picket Produce is lending a hand. Bring a little Christmas into your week with nature’s bounty delivered right to your doorstep! Be sure to check out their website for pricing and box options at www.whitepicketproduce.com.