Pittsburgh gourmands can enjoy the seasonal delight of organically-grown produce and flowers thanks to an innovative Internet subscription program offered by the Cherry Valley Organics farm near Burgettstown.
CVO is a certified-organic producer and a community-supported agriculture program on a 36-acre farm. Now on its seventh growing season, CVO expanded its operation this year after gross sales increased in 2007 by 300 percent, prompting the founders and growers, Evan and Jodi Verbanic, to give up their day jobs to run the business full-time.
Jodi, who has a horticultural background, oversees operations; Evan manages sales, marketing and deliveries. They’ve ramped up production this year, hiring 3 full-time people and one part-time intern from a local university to help during the busy growing season.
“Given the incredible interest in organic food and the diversification we’ve accomplished in the first six years, we made the decision to give it a go,” says Evan. “Our biggest challenge is we can’t produce enough, which is a good problem to have.”
Subscribers pay a one-time $50 membership fee and commit to at least $250 in produce during the 35-week growing season. A weekly email is issued and customers order online from an à la carte menu of produce, flowers and handmade products including soaps, herbal teas and baked goods.
“It’s a modern spin on the traditional farm share program,” explains Evan. “We quickly realized that people are happier if they feel empowered to select what they want each week. We wanted to emulate the Netflix kind of convenience.”
Orders are harvested by hand, filled and bagged with names and placed in coolers at strategic locations throughout the Pittsburgh region. A number of local restaurants are already counted among CVO’s best customers.
For information on subscriptions, click here.
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Evan Verbanic, Cherry Valley Organics
Image courtesy Cherry Valley Organics