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Basis Foods - you brought fresh California citrus to me in icy cold New York - I love you!

This cow looks happy, but....

If this isn't a plug for Basis Foods, I'm not sure what I can do to convince you to subscribe! (Please note: I'm in no way affiliated with Basis, I'm just a HUGE fan.)

Ever since I watched Oscar-nominated Food, Inc., I've thought a lot about what I eat and how our food supply works. Perhaps the Locavore feat was not the easiest way to educate myself on eating local, non-processed foods, but it was certainly an education. What I learned is that Whole Foods is not enough (especially when looking for local produce in the heart of the winter), but it is certainly a step in the right direction. Supplemented with trips to the farmers' market, you're on your way to not losing sleep at night over Food, Inc.

Enter - Basis Food. It combines the idea of a CSA with Fresh Direct. Food is delivered to your home or office (or you pick up from a designated delivery spot) every Thursday. All food is 100% traceable. As more and more people sign up, the transportation costs decrease, in some instances lower than commodity fare at the grocery store. While the service endeavors to use local farms, in some instances, farmers in other areas of the country are used, hence by ridiculously good raspberry orange and mello grapefruit from Deer Creek Heights Ranch in Porterville, CA.

My order arrived last night and I was super excited to see what arrived.

The veggies:
- Red ball radishes and Dutch heirloom flathead cabbage from C&B Farms in Clewiston, FL
- Red Norland potatoes and red onions from Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove, NY
- Organic green chard from Little Cypress Organics in Clewiston, FL

The fruit:
- Pink Lady apples from Kauffman's Fruit Farm in Bird-In-Hand, PA
- Organic strawberries fom Little Cypress Organics
- Raspberry oranges and mello grapefruit (as described above)

I couldn't help myself, so I also bought a dozen eggs and a quart of skim milk as well as a loaf of artisan 100% wheat bread from Orwashers. (This is what happens when I give up online shopping for a month, thank you very much DIY feat.) If you go all in, Basis also has dried beans, BACON, popcorn, yogurt, cheese, etc.

In any event, I've made two feral meals with my goods so far. It may be in my head, but I thought my feral breakfast was more filling than my non-Basis fare. I juiced the grapefruit and enjoyed it with a slice of toast made from the Orwashers bread and two of the local scrambled eggs. I didn't get hungry for hours. I've started planning what to do with the veggies. Luckily, with St. Patty's coming up (and considering cabbage's ability to keep in the fridge for several weeks, according to the Bittman Bible, I'm going to save my heirloom cabbage for a special Irish meal. (Let's cross our fingers that next Thursday's delivery does not include another head of cabbage, or I'll be in trouble and will need to make coleslaw a new food group.)

At this point, either you're as excited as I am about this delivery service, or you think I'm a total lunatic/loser/all-of-the-above. Either way, I hope you're more excited about thinking about your food, if only for the feral eating feat. It is better for you in the long run - yesterday, Reuters published an article on a Colorado State University study that found that a plant-focused diet may curb breast cancer risk, and today, the FDA recalled some processed foods that had salmonella-infected flavor enhancers. People shouldn't eat food with flavor enhancers!

Knowing where your food comes from is fun, too, as is learning creative ways to use it. The Barefoot Contessa has a great episode called "Farm Stand Food" during which she cooked the contents of her CSA box.

As someone who lives in New York, there's just something nice about having something from the farm in my kitchen....