Pioneer Organics

Just started and so far so great. Everything was fresh and delicious and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do much better if I headed over to the grocer myself (price wise).
Plus its like a gift each week (or every other week depending on how often you choose to get it).

I’d been with Pioneer Organics over a year ago and decided to shop around. I finally realized I had a good thing to begin with and restored my account within the past four months.
This place doesn’t beat going to the market and picking insanely fresh and flavorful produce yourself. However, if you’re too busy to run to the market or pick up a box every other week, Pioneer is the best all-​around produce/​organic grocery delivery service in town. If your produce is going bad shortly after delivery, you may consider checking what is in season, paying attention to where it is traveling from, and possibly checking the produce storage tips section of their website. Being realistic, I don’t expect produce that is delivered from a warehouse to stay fresh quite as long as anything picked up in the market or farm.
As for Pioneer’s customer service, they receive a bajillion gold stars from me. I rarely find the need to call or email them, but when I do, the staff is friendly, follows through, and is very easy to work with.
Finally, the prices are comparable to any organic produce you’d find at a large organic grocery chain. I don’t expect to pay less for food that is delivered to my door. If i want to pay less, I get off my hiney and bus to Pike Place. But really, the delivery fee isn’t bad and the prices don’t kill me. I suppose I don’t mind paying slightly more for convenience. Overall, I’m a happy customer.

Pioneer Organics is great. They have consistently inspired me to eat outside the box.(veggie wise) I love that they include recipes with your order and you can find more on their site. Not sure what to do with that rutabega (just an example)? They have a recipe for you! I even took a couple months of shopping at PCC to compare in price and the result… Pioneer is a better deal and they deliver it-​perfect for all of the working crazies who don’t have time for Farmers Market outings.
My only negative is… because you can’t pick the produce yourself you may end up with a few bad apples in the bunch. They are awesome about crediting you for the bad produce, but you have to keep on top of it. Also, you get a lot of sorry out of this instead you get that. Sucks when your looking forward to something. I always had a feeling the earlier in the week deliveries got everything that was promised and by the time it was our delivery they had ran out of things.

We’ve been getting our produce from PO for about 6 months, every-​other week delivery. I never bothered with other CSAs because you have to go pick the stuff up and, let’s be honest, most of the time I’d probably be too lazy to go get it.
One time they mixed up our address with somebody else’s… we got to keep her delivery and were credited for ours– SCORE!
The freshness is good, you just have to pay attention to what you’ve been delivered and plan accordingly.
It’s a nice way to expand your veggie repertoire too… I usually just take whatever they send me so you get a nice variety. You also have the option of reviewing the order they’re gonna send you online ahead of time and you can switch out stuff you don’t want, or add to your order. Easy, quick, painless and highly recommended!

update– 12÷03÷07
The Chinook book has a $ 15 coupon for first time delivery! We’ve used Pioneer Organics for a few months now. They kindly responded to my email request and they will redeem our coupon even though we aren’t «first timers». What a great company!
I am one of those people who adore grocery shopping. That said, I still haven’t been to the store since pre-​Thankx. We just got a delivery from Pioneer Organics so who knows when I’ll go next? I ordered mainly fruits and durable root vegetables, since the in-​laws are coming to town and I don’t know whether we’ll be eating in or out.
Usually we get a box every other week ²⁄₃ fruit, ¹⁄₃ veggie. If I don’t specifically customize our order, then there’s the mystery of which veggies we’ll get. It has been a small goal to introduce myself to new veggies and Pioneer Organics will help cover that. They include recipes, too (Zucchini Hummus! Turkish Carrot Salad with Yogurt! Black Bean Citrus Spread!). I’ve set several aside to try, but luckily I’ve been able to prepare whatever I’ve had delivered simply and easily.
They have sweet potatoes. At $ 4.99 for 2 pounds, I’m not sure that I’ll order them again at this price.
Many of the products are grown or produced locally– your delivery sheet will reflect which ones are.

Update: great customer service! Had a couple of bad apples in a shipment, and I emailed them, and they apologized AND gave me a $ 10 credit on my account!
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I just received my 2^nd delivery from these folks. I had originally resisted the whole CSA thing, because I really like to pick out my own produce myself, browse the farmers market, etc…
But working on Sundays as I do, I just don’t always get my sleepy ass out of bed early enough to go to the market. So a customer at my work was telling me about P. O, and told me that not only do they deliver right to your doorstep, they also allow you to choose what ever produce you want! And they have other stuff too. Like MIGHTY O’s, folks. You can get Mighty O’s delivered to your doorstep.
The prices are fair, it’s organic, and if you go that route, you can completely support local farms, as I do. I just look at what’s available and alter my choices to just Northwest sources.
And if you do decide to try them, if you mention Chinook book’s coupon, you get $ 15 off your first delivery. You don’t even need the book. Just put it in the referral box, and let the delicious fried cinnamon balls come to your front door.

Pioneer Organics has one advantage over the other CSAs; they deliver to your house.
Get past that, and I wasn’t very happy with them. The produce would often go bad within a day or two of me getting my box (and, yes, I do know how to store fresh veggies and fruit), they are pretty pricey for what they offer, and I didn’t think their produce was that good (besides going bad, the produce was often small and really lacking in flavor).
On the other hand, they will deliver organic produce to your house. That is worth quite a lot.

Five quick reasons to love Pioneer Organics:
1.Gorgeous produce. When they arrive, I ogle the tomatoes in ways that should get me slapped.
2. Customizable boxes. They e-​mail you a list two days before delivery and you can go in and modify it, subtracting, subbing, and adding from their entire inventory.
3. More than just green things. They have cheese, soup, bread, flax flour, breakfast food, meat, tea, dish soap, and on and on.
4. Competitive pricing. With Tiny’s we paid slightly more for less – both in terms of service and quality of the goods.
5. Guilt-​free dinner on your doorstep. Why PO is my new BFF.

Like getting a present every week.
Excellent service.
Gorgeous fruits and veggies.
The driver was very conscientious about where he left my box — he definitely cared more than I did!
I give him a big *Holla* for navigating Bainbridge Island: we are full of unmarked dirt roads, homes without proper numbers at the end of those dirt roads, and chances are he has to back out of some very narrow places.
Pioneer Organics is a great way to try things you might not normally. Each order comes with a little newsletter and recipes.
My first box included baby cauliflower.
I don’t like adult cauliflower, but I thought I’d give it a try.
There was a recipe for a dish that added spinach and indian spices to the babies mmm mmm — so good!
I would have never tried that other wise.
I used them a couple months and then decided I would make the trek up to a local CSA and buy from local farmers around the Island.
When I cancelled my service, they asked why, and when I told them, they sent me a very nice note thanking me for supporting local farmers.
They walk their talk.
Highly recommended.

This can be spendy if you choose to dip into the store portion of the web site. They pre pick your fruits adn veggie box based on your likes and dislikes. It is delivered in a box that is used over and over for conservation. Once I had a problem with my delivery, they creditied my account and gave me the product. In better condition than the last one I wasn’t pleased with. This is a graet service for busy Seattlites.

Front doorstep, home delivery of organic and fresh groceries? How can you lose? A friend uses this service and I have enjoyed the fruits of her boxes, literally. The fresh and organic produce is marvelous, and you can choose what you want delivered in your box. The choice of other groceries is varied and yummy as well, like the organic peanut butter the whole office munches on. I’ll be signing up for this service very soon as my friend has been using it for years and has never, ever been disappointed by the service or food and I’ve seen firsthand the quality they deliver.