The Produce Box

A HUGE thank you to ALL of our local Heroes!   Those who serve in our communities and make it a safe place to live! Our Hero members who donated Box H's! Our Area Managers and Neighborhood Coordinators who donated their time to make the special deliveries! We'd like to share a few of our treasured experiences we had with you this week. From the Karen T. area My kids with the guys at Raleigh Station 2 .  They especially loved it because they don't get many visitors.  Great guys, super friendly.  And they showed us the humongous HazMat truck!  They opened all the boxes and started asking about each item, making sure they knew what it was.  Asked for tips on cooking the acorn squash.  So glad I work on the recipe page so I could be a fountain of knowledge :). And they were also thrilled about the Box b/c they hadn't been to the grocery store yet.  Great job and huge thanks to all the members that donated. From the Ashley W. area Fuqu...

“Facebook is a personal newspaper about you curated by the people who care about you.”  ~ Matty from FB We had a very exciting week last week when American Express and Facebook representatives arrived to spend a couple of whirlwind days with us.  Thursday included many great activities such as: The prize presentation ceremony (We were going to be really sad if it wasn’t as big as the check in the Publishers Clearing House commercials and they did not disappoint!) A Facebook strategy session geared specifically towards The Produce Box We finished off the day with dinner at Mo’s Diner, a locally owned and operated restaurant downtown.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  You ought to check it out! On Friday night we attended an event downtown where other small local business owners were invited to come and get some training of their own.  A panel discussion was presented and we had an open ended question and answer session where business owners could ...

It's Apple Season!  What are you going to do with all those apples in your BOX this week?!!!  Wondering what variety you have?  Here's a little bit more information about the varieties that might be in your BOX. Magna Bonum  is medium to sometimes large, this fall apple is regarded as a good dessert apple. It is yellow-covered with light red and striped with darker red, and also has white or russet dots. The fruit is juicy, tender, mildly subacidic, and aromatic. The variety was recorded in 1854. Magna Bonum Jonathon  apples can be used cooked or raw and in both sweet and savory preparations. Add slices to a tart, chop and add to couscous or puree and add to a soup. The flesh of the Jonathon apple will breakdown just slightly when cooked. Pair with dense apples such as Granny Smith, Pippin, Green Dragon or Fuji to make pie filling or slow cook to make sauces or caramelized apples. Diced Jonathon will add sweetness and moisture to cakes, crisps and bre...

We'll be soliciting applications soon for our next round of FARM FUNDING to help farmers buy new equipment, build greenhouses, etc. And EVERY bit  of that funding comes from YOU through your purchases from their harvests during the season. We have another $10,000 saved up for September grants! Woo hooo! Last year some of the grant money went to farmers for tractor repair and building new greenhouses. We'll be contacting some of you to be part of our MEMBER BOARD to help with this process.  We'll also be reaching out to our farm-partners as well to find out what they need. LOTS of fun! 

The next 12 days offer a huge opportunity for us at The Produce Box and we'd like to ask for help from all of you! The exciting news: We are finalists in the "Big Break for Small Business" contest sponsored by Facebook/American Express Open. The 5 winners of the contest will be decided by public DAILY on-line voting from August 20th-31st. Obviously, we'd like to be one of the winners chosen and we believe that success will help us with our mission of teaching more communities across our region to create a more sustainable food system and supporting our local farm partners. How you can help: Please vote for us  once daily  through the 12 days of the contest by clicking on the image to the right. This will take you to the Big Break for Small Business voting page where you can watch our video and vote for The Produce Box! Once you have voted, please feel free to share your vote with your friends on Facebook and ask them to place a vote for us too. Thank yo...