Sunday, August 30, 2009
Food, In this Issue...

Getting fresh

Vegetable Husband delivers produce and fruit to your door

BY H.M. CAULEY

It all started because Margie Thorpe had too many vegetables. Much like that friendly neighbor who insists you take another bushel of zucchini, Thorpe would ply her friends and neighbors with the overflowing bounty she’d bring back from local farmer’s markets each week.

“I’d go to an organic farmer’s market on a Saturday morning or a weekday afternoon, and I’d come home with so much, I had to share,” says Thorpe, who lives in East Point. “It soon got to the point where I had five or six friends saying, ‘Remember that green you gave me? Can you get more of that?’”

It wasn’t long before Thorpe moved from the farmer’s markets to the growers themselves. She took two months off from her job as a customer relations manager for a wholesale designer and trekked around to local farms to see if the owners would sell to her directly. When they agreed, “I just decided to jump off the cliff,” says Thorpe.

The result is the year-old Vegetable Husband, Thorpe’s thriving business that delivers an array of fresh produce and fruits to the doorsteps of clients around the metro area. An initial customer base of 15 has mushroomed to 80 people who look forward to a fresh infusion of local goodies on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

“If you use the word ‘husband’ as a verb, it means to manage in a frugal and responsible way,” says Thorpe. “That’s what I’ve really taken on. I’m managing vegetable needs for myself and other community members.”

There’s no telling what will show up in the delivered baskets each week. “It’s whatever is fresh in the fields that week: okra, peas, green beans, yellow tomatoes, figs, various varieties of large heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, a fresh herb or fruit if I can get it,” she says. “Sometimes I get eggs from one farm and coffee from a roaster along the way. I try to get everybody the same things I want for my week; then I feel that I’ve given them a fair amount and variety.”

Thorpe makes the rounds of local farms every Wednesday morning, traveling as far as Athens or south Fulton County. By afternoon, she’s back in the carport of her East Point home, where she spreads out her haul on several old farm tables. She and a crew of workers sort through the selection and make up the delivery baskets that go out that day.

The cost for a basket of goodies is $35 per week, delivered to areas as far north as Brookhaven; east to Avondale and Decatur; and to East Point on the south. Those in the East Point area can pick up from Thorpe directly for $30 a week. She also has pick-up locations in southwest Atlanta. But most customers opt for home delivery, performed in many cases by folks Thorpe has bartered services with.

“I wanted to be a customer, but I’d just gotten laid off and the cost was prohibitive,” says Edgewood resident Brian Fulford, who has been delivering for Vegetable Husband for about a year. “So we worked out a barter deal that makes it possible. I pick up the groceries from her and then deliver baskets to six of my neighbors. The best part is I’m eating healthier, and I’ve also gotten to meet people in my neighborhood.”

Thorpe doesn’t just deliver produce. Her baskets and Web site come with information on what to do with the squash, figs, Swiss chard or cucumbers. “Just a few weeks ago, we had an unusual variety of spinach that grows on a vine and I had to tell people, ‘That stuff on the vine—it’s spinach.’ I’ve found out that a lot of people have never eaten fresh figs and didn’t know what to do with them. In fact, they’re easy: You just eat it. Pop it in your mouth and it’s like a candy bar, but not bad for you.”
Clients have contributed their own recipes to Thorpe’s Web site to help others to put their produce to good use.

“Some of the vegetables I got, I didn’t know what to with them,” admits Fulford. “But I’m learning a lot. I’m even eating okra these days, which at one time was one of my least favorite things on the planet.”

Along with educating her customers with recipes and cooking techniques, Thorpe has had to instruct consumers about the growing cycle. “I’ve really had to educate some of them who didn’t quite understand that these things are all being grown locally and as the seasons change, we’re not growing a particular thing anymore,” she says.

Between her role as educator and produce provider, Thorpe says the job has countless rewards.
“It’s an honor, in many regards, that people allow me to find fresh ingredients and to help them see how many great farmers are nearby,” she says. “It’s also an honor that the farmers work hard and share their food with me for this community.” SP
For more information on Vegetable Husband, visit www.vegetablehusband.com.