If you’ve taken part in a CSA or other produce delivery service, you probably know the score. “I have subscribed to a bunch of different services. It’s frustrating when things aren’t just ugly looking, they’re going bad and it’s such a random assortment of things that I don’t know what to do with it,” laments Julie Safa, co-founder and marketing manager for Farmsy. She and husband Kaveh Safa, who also own Arlington biergarten Courthaus Social, conceived their business based on their own needs as a family with young children. They desired lots of fresh, healthy, local food delivered to their door, but didn’t want someone else’s picks.
That’s why Farmsy, a partnership with farmer Casey Feezle, allows customers to customize their box, collected from local farms and producers. The flexibility extends to frequency, too. Families can subscribe to a weekly or bi-weekly program, or just get one box. Singles can also do it. Boxes start in the “farmhouse” size, intended for just one or two people and go up to “harvest,” intended for at least four. Clients can choose to get produce delivered from Spring Valley Farm & Orchard (where Feezle is market leader) and Shenandoah Seasonal, or get a box that also includes meats from Valentine’s Bakery & Meats, and baked goods from Baguette Republic. The options are quickly expanding to include items like hummus from Little Sesame, jam and jelly, and dairy.
“We get everything literally the morning of,” Safa says of deliveries. On those days, she and her husband begin work creating boxes at their restaurant at 3 a.m. “It’s real food–no chemicals or additives-that’s amazing quality.” Farmsy delivers within an hour-and-a-half south of its Arlington home base and plans to continue to expand its reach.
Though Safa hopes to help people get healthy one-by-one, Farmsy is based on a couple of big ideas: supporting sustainable agriculture and bringing families together at the dinner table. Collaborations with small farms achieve the first. Farmsy makes the second easier by providing guidance in how to use the box of ingredients. She’s working with chefs to create videos to explain what to do with, say, a family’s first celeriac. “It takes courage to cook,” says Safa. “We have to empower them.”
And Farmsy is doing just that, one delight-filled box at a time.
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