Food obsessed, us?

I don't want to point fingers, but I just want to point out that not one of our eco-tree-hugger-mother-earth-green-sustainability friends here in Vancouver told us about SPUD. Oh nooooo. We had to read about it on The Group News Blog.
And you know, we only recently started reading The Group News Blog, because we were so upset when Steve Gilliard died we just didn't think another blog would do it for us. See, Gilly (whom we didn't know personally or anything) was this awesome left-wing blogger who ran The News Blog, and when he died earlier this year at the age of 42, we just kinda thought, well, it's good we're leaving America because without him we just won't stay sane.

But recently we decided we should support those friends of Gilly's who are now producing The Group News Blog in his memory, and on the very day we decided to do so, there was a post by Sara Robinson about SPUD.

What is this SPUD, you ask? It is Small Potatoes Urban Delivery. It's kind of a cross between a CSA and FreshDirect. You get a bunch of seasonal produce based on a profile you set up in advance: I like avocadoes, don't like cabbage, *really* like apples, etc. Then you set up your standing orders for groceries and household products you want all the time: toilet paper every week please, nuts every second week, olive oil once a month. So that stuff just comes, you don't have to do anything once you've set up your account. Then starting on Thursday evening every week, you can start ordering other food or products you want just this week.

Last week we set up our account and ordered. I spent the whole weekend thinking of more stuff and adding it to the order. Most of their food is organic, and when possible it's locally grown. Imagine: no standing in line, no humping the stuff home. People come and bring you organic, locally grown food! What could be more lovely and caring than that?
Frank arrived with our tub Tuesday morning, but didn't want to be photographed. Here's his van standing in.
Opening it was like getting a present. A bag of mushrooms! I love mushrooms! How did they know? Oh yeah, I told them.

A woman and her chard. Check out those beautiful multi-coloured stems.
Beneath the green leafies, the harder and heavier stuff, like a litre of juice and some gorgeous fruit. A re-used piece of fruit-packing cardboard separated the dry from the wet: our fish came with dry ice packs in case we weren't home and it had to sit on our porch for a few hours.
And our mangosteens had some mangoes to frolic with in the fruit bowl Shmu made for us. The brown and purple bowl is a perfect match for the mangosteens.

The packing slip tells you things like substitutions, the name of your apple (we got Sunrise, new to me even though I'm an apple addict), and how far each item traveled to get to you. I'm a bit worried by the 10,000 km* the cashews came. On the other hand, the salmon only came 7 km**. On the back of the packing slip are some recipes and some information on food politics. And: a $25 off coupon for one lucky friend. If we refer a friend, you get $25 off your first four deliveries, and we get an unspecified gift. So, Vancouverites, the first of you to post a comment gets the coupon, but you have to promise to use it because I want that gift! Apologies to our New York friends that we can't extend this offer to you. We'll think of a way to make it up to you.

*6,213 miles
**4 miles