Huntsville residents have a new option for organic produce – home delivery of vegetables and fruits from Organics Live has now expanded into the P1H postal area.
The company’s Muskoka franchise co-owner, Catherine Vellinga, brought the Toronto-based service to Bracebridge and Gravenhurst in mid-October and knew she wanted to expand into Huntsville as soon as possible.
“It was always our intention to service the entire Muskoka region,” she said. “As soon as we figured out the logistics, we opened up to customers in the P1H area.” Delivery begins on December 8.
Organics Live is the fastest growing organic box and delivery company in Ontario, said Vellinga. “It’s locally focused, 100 per cent certified organic produce delivered direct to your door for less than retail. The company focuses on sustainably produced food and supports local growers as much as possible.”
While there are no Muskoka growers included as suppliers currently, Vellinga hopes to see that change in the future.
“We have a huge partner in Cookstown – Cookstown Greens – they are a big supplier for us. There are a number of organic growers in the Muskoka area that we would love to partner with, too. Organics Live focuses on third-party certified growers and that’s a seven-year process for farmers so it can take time. If there are local farms that are certified or working toward it, we would love to hear from them.”
Vellinga and her husband Tomasz Szumski moved to Bracebridge in June 2014 and immediately began looking for a business to run, ideally in the health and wellness industry. After some research and input from friends already involved with Organics Live, they decided it was the business for them.
“We have been loving it. The response from the community has been wonderful – there’s lots of enthusiasm for it. We have some really great providers in our communities, but we are the first and only provider of home delivery of organics. We have grown really quickly in Bracebridge and Gravenhurst and we are hoping that Huntsville will be similar. We know it’s a great community focused on good lifestyle choices.”
The company offers three sizes of organic baskets – small for one to two people, medium for two to four people or large for four to six people – delivered weekly or biweekly on Tuesdays. An email the previous Friday will tell customers what’s in that week’s basket and orders can be customized with substitutions. “If there are things you don’t want, you can substitute other items,” explained Vellinga. “You can also do permanent exclusions of items you never want to see in your box, if you don’t like kale, for example, or can’t eat grapefruit because of a medication you’re taking.”
For more information, visit the Organics Live website or send a message to Organics Live Muskoka on Facebook or at [email protected].
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Yeah to more Organic produce in Muskoka!
I am a local farmer and I just wanted to point out that there are lots of home delivery programs already set in place around muskoka that maybe often go unheard of. My partner Oliver and I have been delivering organic produce (grown in Muskoka) for the last two years and dropping off produce at door steps. Our good friend Colin Sober Williams also does an organic delivery program with lots of local products. Gypsy is a farm in Burks Falls that does year round deliveries of all organic produce and they have been doing this for years!
I totally appreciate more organic products in the area, i’ts what we need. However, our local producers can’t go unnoticed. We are at such a disadvantage growing in Muskoka. Our soils are difficult to work with and our local farmers markets are hard to get into because we are competing with products that are grown in the Holland Marsh. There is no comparison – they have rich fertile soil and a longer growing season. However, the farmers in muskoka who are dedicating their lives to grow food for the locals living here are taking that risk and should not go unnoticed. There are multiple producers who are even trying to make a go of it during the winter months, including ourselves, Four Season Greens, Wild Auskoka and many more. So you CAN get local products here even in the winter. Another advantage we have growing in Muskoka is no pesticide drift. With so many commercial farms in the GTA its hard to get away from this.
It would be so nice to see this box program include local products. I have emailed them multiple times and my partner has called them and we have seen or heard no response.
I do wish them good luck. We in Muskoka are lucky to live close to the Holland Mash. In a way we can call these products local as well. Maybe all local producers can work together with bigger farms from the marsh to feed our community good, wholesome food.