Fresh. Fresh. Fresh.

Oberweis Dairy added a new service last year, fresh fruits and vegetables. I hadn't really been tempted by the idea until I got the tax return and could squeeze a few pennies to set aside. They have prepared boxes or you can make your own. I decided a mix catering to my tastes was in order.

There are 5 gala apples, 3 comice pears, 2 yellow peppers, a bag of 4 large carrots and a box of strawberries. I had a discount coupon good on my first produce order so the total for the box wound up being less than if I'd purchased all this in the store.

The key factor here is convenience. They have a wide assortment of fruits and vegetables. I imagine this is comparable grocery quality, although the peppers are huge. I didn't see anything like that in the store. In between brick and mortar runs, I can have fresh delivered on a Thursday morning.

I have eaten one of the peppers, 2 apples and a pear. Very good flavor. I slice them and eat them raw. Although I did get a bag of peanut M&Ms at Target, I feel rather smug eating sliced apples and pears instead of M&Ms when playing World of Warcraft. Plus, the pepper slices were great for noshing as I was transcribing an inspection tape at the office yesterday. The carrots are going in soup. The strawberries are going in muffins.

So, was it a good value? I'm on the fence about that. The produce is certainly stellar. Having it delivered to me and in my face, so to speak means that I'm eating it instead of bread or thinking about chips or something else that I really don't need to be eating. I've mentioned this before. Good eating is expensive. It just is. Fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than a bag of Cheetos. That is, from my point of view, the biggest problem in getting people, myself included, to eat better. I love the apples. I love the pears, but my pocketbook doesn't love the cost. I'm not sure what can be done about that, however, and still provide a decent profit to the farmer who grows the pepper, the guy who picks it and the company that gets it from farm to grocery. If I watch the store sales, I can spend less for the same items.

I think the best part of this experiment was after I removed the produce and the cushioning.

The box is perfectly Pilchard size. She just loves it. She can rest her chin on the edge and sleep. She can curl up completely inside it but it's not so deep she can't see out. I was going to use it to ship some things to a friend but it's been commandeered. Mija sits in it, too but it's not her box. This belongs to Pilchard.

Beverage:  Darjeeling tea

Deb