The Produce Box

Many growers this year lost their peach crops due to the early spring cold snap. Fortunately, our farm partner, Mr. Johnson has peaches in abundance! Thanks to our partnership with Mr. Johnson over the past four years, we are some of the lucky North Carolinians who get to enjoy local peaches. The Johnson family farm was founded in 1934 in Candor, NC (Montgomery County). Mr. Johnson has seen a bit of change during his farming years. As a child, he rode the mule-driven wagon; today, the farm has an irrigation system and a website. Originally, the farm produced tobacco, cotton and a few peach varieties, and the season only lasted about four or five weeks. Over time, the Johnsons realized that changing times required a changing farm, so they grew less cotton and tobacco, and the primary crop became peaches. Mr. Johnson, now 83, tends to 50 acres of orchards, filled with 10,000 peach trees of 50 different varieties. That once short four to five week harvest season has grown to ...

Fresh, local produce is fueling a fun summer camp for children in need! Thanks to our farmers and members, we are donating $28,000 in fresh, local produce to YMCA’s Camp High Hopes. Camp High Hopes is a subsidized day camp for children in Downtown and Southeast Raleigh. Over 450 children participate in the weekly camps offered for seven weeks in June and July every summer. More than 30 million children in low-income communities receive free or reduced-cost meals during the school year, but what about summertime? Only 2.3 million continue to have access to free meals during the summer. Parts of downtown and southeast Raleigh are food deserts, where this is not ready access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. For four weeks, The Produce Box has been doing a weekly drop-off of healthy fruits and veggies for the children and families at Camp High Hopes. Nothing beats the big smiles on the campers’ faces when we come to the camp with berries in hand! And they are so prou...

We’re thrilled to say the The Produce Box was recently named a grant recipient of North Carolina's Clean Fuel Advanced Technology Project. In keeping with our mission to Do Good,  the grant will be used to convert six of our delivery trucks to run on propane fuel instead of gasoline and to set up a propane fueling station at our central produce hub. Propane is a more advanced and environmentally-friendly fuel that burns cleaner than gasoline and reduces the amount of carbon emissions released into the air.   The conversion is also cost effective from a business perspective because propane costs roughly half of what gasoline costs. We believe that produce that is grown in the state should stay in the state partially because that is what’s best for the environment, so we are excited to take that a step further and do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and the pollution in our North Carolina communities!

One of the marvelous aspects of having a Box of produce from TPB delivered to your doorstep each week is the opportunity it provides to get your little ones involved in the kitchen! Research indicates that kids who cook tend to eat more healthy. Nothing peaks a child’s interest in trying a new food like making it themselves! Getting your kids involved with cooking offers so many great benefits including self-confidence, understanding basic science, time-management, creativity, and an appreciation of real, healthy food. Here are 10 suggestions on how to get your kids involved with all of the goodies that come in your box each week! Younger children can peel carrots or potatoes, mash tomatoes with their hands for fresh tomato sauce, or scoop the seeds from squash or melons with a spoon.   If your child likes to stir and mix things, put cubed vegetables, olive oil & some salt in a mixing bowl and let them go to town! You can then put them on a baki...

Here’s our guide to a delicious three-course meal full of fresh, local produce. Is your Box filled with these goodies for this week? If not, add them to the Box you order for next week -- do a little prep, relax and enjoy!   Start off with Blueberry Summer Salad (from Scott Phillips) What You’ll Need: Head of lettuce Blueberries Feta or goat cheese 1 red onion Poppy seed dressing (or try Dreamy Creamy Vinaigrette from Little Black Dressing Co.) A small package of sliced almonds 5 Tbsp of sugar Steps: Rinse off lettuce, spin and place in mixing bowl. Wash blueberries and add to mixing bowl. Add your cheese. Take your red onion and thinly slice it. Place in bowl with lettuce, blueberries and cheese. Heat up your sliced almonds in a saucepan. Add sugar and continue stirring until the sugar liquefies. Once the almonds are toasted, remove from heat to cool. Continue to mix almonds so they don’t stick together. Put on parchment paper to coo...

Any given Wednesday, Thursday or Friday morning, our Neighborhood Coordinators (NCs) rise bright and early to deliver fresh and wholesome food directly to your doorstep! They make their way to the closest TPB truck stop where they begin the weekly process of door-to-door delivery. First thing, our truck pulls up stocked with local goodies of every kind. Coolers are full of meats and cheeses and boxes are packed with fresh, awesome produce. NCs begin by unloading recycled TPB boxes from their vehicles, later to be refilled with orders for the following week. Next, each NC carefully pours over their list of orders with their driver, ensuring that they’ve got enough boxes for their customers and that each box includes any specialty items that may have been ordered. NCs make their list and check it twice, or even three times, to ensure that customers will be happy! Once they’ve gotten their boxes in order, they don a pair of gloves and inspect each box individu...

TOMATO SALAD 2 cups cherry tomatoes 3 T oil 1 T balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar 2 tsp fresh oregano Salt the tomatoes and leave them in colandar for 15 min to get out water, then mix everything together and off you go! BLUEBERRY LEMONADE 1/2 cup sugar (to taste) 6 cups water 1 cup blueberries 3/4 cup lemon juice Dissolve sugar in 1 cup water in saucepan over medium heat. Add blueberries and bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Then whisk together berry mixture, 5 cups water and lemon juice. Enjoy! Check out the full segment on My Carolina Today. 

  This month we are extremely excited to announce a new and improved Christmas in July referral program! What does that mean? It means that everyone who refers a new member to The Produce Box, as well as every new incoming member, will get a little somethin’ for Christmas... in July! Current members who refer friends and family will receive a wrapped surprise in their weekly box, and new members who use the Christmas in July referral code will get HALF OFF their enrollment fee!!! So why should you refer? Why do we need The Produce Box to grow? More members means we are able to support more local farmers. And some of our farmers rely entirely upon The Produce Box for their business. That’s right, they grow just for us! So, the more members we have to order their produce – the better! Also remember, now with our direct delivery, we can deliver to almost the whole state of North Carolina. Here’s what one happy customer has to say about The Prod...