Local food on Bainbridge: delivery and pick up

by Roberta Lang
July 18th, 2008

You used the last of the vegetables from the farmers market in last night’s stir-fry. The berries disappeared on this morning’s cereal. You appreciate being able to feed your family fresh, locally grown food and you want to support local farms, but the next farmers market is days away. What to do?

You can drive to the farms or farm stands and pick up fresh produce, but that’s not always practical or convenient. On Bainbridge Island there are now a couple of new options.

Delivery

You can log onto the Farm Courier website: farmcourier.com, and select from a variety of fruits, vegetables, baked goods and other food, home and personal products, all either grown or handcrafted in Kitsap County. Place your order and it will be delivered to your door.

Farm Courier is the brainchild of Bainbridge Islander Carlee Ashen, a Bainbridge island High School and University of Washington grad who returned to Bainbridge Island after a stint as a naturalist and chef aboard a charter boat in Alaska. Wanting to start a food-related business, she recognized the need to get local food to island residents beyond what was all ready being provided by the farmers markets and CSAs.

Her Farm Courier website is updated frequently to reflect what’s ripe and available. Customers log into their personal account on the site and place their orders, which are forwarded to the producers. Ashen picks up and compiles orders on Tuesdays and Thursdays and makes deliveries in the afternoons. A fee for the order and delivery service is added to the cost of the goods. At this time delivery is available only within the 98110 zip code.

Are you a local farmer, baker, fisherman, florist or chef who would like to sell your products from your place of business? Ashen would like to hear from you. Contact Farm Courier by phone at (206) 842-2747, or by Email:info@farmcourier.com.

Pick Up

Wednesday afternoons pick up something fresh at the Sound Food produce stand at the Winslow Ferry Terminal. Sound Food, a non-profit organization, promotes local food and farming on and around Bainbridge Island. The stand sells vegetables and fruits from Kitsap County farms. One recent Wednesday featured snap peas, broccoli, stir-fry mix, garlic scapes, lettuce and strawberries.

The stand has proved wildly popular from the start. The first day of business it sold out before the 4:40 ferry was completely unloaded. The next Wednesday the stand was stocked with twice the amount of food.

Volunteers pick up the food from the farms and staff the stand from 5 to 6:15 pm, selling bags of produce for $5 each. All proceeds go to the farmers. Check out the Sound Food website for what’s fresh at the stand on Wednesday: soundfood.org.

Thanks to BuyLocalFoodinKitsap.org