Abundant Harvest Organics Glendora

I had a pretty bad experience with Abundant Harvest Organics. This review is mostly for the central office policies.
Customer Service: My experience was terrible. According to their people, AHO changed their policy regarding what is and isn’t included in their non-​refundable $ 15 membership fee on February 28^th. Previously, they included a reusable insulated bag free with your fee; after the policy change, nothing is included with the fee, it’s just a fee to be able to order with them. The bag must now be purchased separately (for $ 15 I believe). I placed my order on March 8^th after doing my best to carefully read their website and with the understanding that the bag was included with the fee. I had been looking into CSAs in my area for a couple weeks, so some of what I read might have been during the previous week before they changed their policy. When I ordered online, there was nothing on their website stating that they had changed their policy recently, or otherwise highlighting that the bag was no longer included with the fee. I was already hesitant to pay a $ 15 fee even with the bag included, but would very unlikely have signed-​up if I had known the fee was for nothing, particularly since I didn’t know if their service would be a good fit for me. After finding out about their policy change when I picked-​up my first order, I emailed them to explain the situation. The response I got was basically, «you didn’t read our website carefully enough, too bad».
In addition to the whole situation with the policy change, they had also run out of an item that week, so it wasn’t included with my order. I understand completely that this can happen with a CSA and, in fairness, I did receive a refund for the missing item. However, in this case, I’m not sure why I had to contact them about the missing item before getting a refund, when they presumably knew they had run out when fulfilling the order and had not included it.
I’ve only ordered from them once, so it’s possible that this isn’t always how they do business. However, for me, the experience was enough to cut my $ 15 loss and not order from them anymore.
Quality: Overall, fairly good, but inconsistent — some produce was great, some only OK. In my opinion, it’s comparable (maybe slightly worse) than Whole Foods produce on average, but noticeably worse than other locally sourced grocery delivery services in Southern California (the one I’m thinking of with better produce is also more expensive). I did have a problem with damaged produce. Either from the way they packed produce in the crate, or from the crate-​to-​bag transfer process at pick-​up (which was done by their representative), some of the produce I received was beaten-​up.
Price: About what you’d expect for organic produce. I think, on average, their prices are probably consistent with Whole Foods.
Obviously, I didn’t have a very good experience and wouldn’t recommend AHO.

I picked up our first Abundant Harvest box today and to say I’m impressed would be an understatement. My boyfriend and I were trying out a couple different CSA’s to see which we thought was the biggest value/​highest quality, and Abundant Harvest has blown the other options out of the water.
Despite being a small box, it has plenty of fresh, crisp, healthy veggies and fruits to see us through the week. This is a deal at ~$ 23/​small box. For those interested, this particular box included:
— apriums (x20)
— potatoes (x5)
— tomatoes (x4)
— carton of strawberries
— spring onions w/​greens (x3)
— turnips w/​greens (x3)
— chard (x1 bunch)
— curly parsley (x1 bunch)
— red lettuce (x1 head)
— fennel w/​greens (x1)
— nopales (x1)
Christy, who is the one who handles pickup at this location, is also very friendly and kind. Pickup is at the back of the Glendora Community Church parking lot, in the shade where the boxes can stay cool.
I’m looking forward to seeing what fun things I can fix with our variety of local fruit and veggies, and I can’t wait to pick up our next box!

AHO is a transparent company that provides organic, non-​gmo food from local farmers throughout California. I have been supporting this organization for just a month now and have had nothing but positive experiences. I receives healthy seasonal produce weekly from this company.
It is encouraging to see a company that is a light in the midst of the dark (dark because it contributes to economic and environmental injustices that are present in our society) food system that dominates LA.

So far I’ve received 2 small CSA boxes from Abundant Harvest Organics. I’d been wanting to do a CSA forever, after reading my sister-in-law’s blog. (
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So far am pleased with the variety and quality. Am giving 4 instead of 5 stars because today I ended up with double lettuce and sorrel and no swiss chard, which I was looking forward to. It’s ok though, I ain’t mad at that delicious organic goodness in my fridge.

Wonderful CSA with many convenient pick up locations. The large box easily feeds a family of four for a week and the produce has been great! Welcoming hosts. They also have add on items like grass fed beef, wild salmon, dried herbs that you can order via the web. Really nice web interface makes keeping track of your order a breeze, and you can see what you will get in your box so that you can start meal planning!

I was looking for a CSA around my area that would be somewhat convenient to pick up from… and realized that there really aren’t too many. After some research, I figured out that the Glendora site for this CSA would be a bit of a drive, but still a decent option for me. AHO hadn’t started delivering to Glendora yet, so I signed myself up as an interested party, and patiently waited.
Fast forward a few weeks or months… and boom. A handwritten card (hallmark!) from Sandy, the host for the Glendora location, arrived at my door. She followed up with a phone call to see if I was still interested in joining. Unfortunately, by this time, I had already chosen another CSA that was much more convenient for me to pick up from. I felt really bad, but I think that this would be a great CSA for people around the area to join. I haven’t had any experience with the actual produce itself, but if Sandy’s personal touches are any indication of what she’ll be like as a host — I’d say you’re in good hands.