Michigan’s agricultural diversity is one of its miracles, especially in the summer and fall harvest seasons.
However, for people in Michigan, figuring out the logistics of locally sourced food delivery is still a daunting task, and they are keen to make it easier to get fresh food from local farms.
Knowing where her food came from attracted Ami Freudigman. She said she likes the concept of buying agricultural products and meat from local farms, which undergo minimal processing before reaching consumers.
The blueberries in Freudigman’s online grocery delivery order are the protagonists of this story.
They will help explain how Michigan farm-to-family, a grocery delivery service based on a simple fresh market in Genoa town, can achieve its farm-to-table mission.
Branch manager Tim Schroeder said that Michigan Farm-to-Family focuses on natural products grown on Michigan farms.
“We mainly focus on high-quality products, and more are handmade and niche, which you can’t find,” Schroeder said.
Tony Gelardi, owner of Simply Fresh Market, said that people’s fast-paced lives make it difficult for them to manage food, especially when they want natural health products from local growers.
“We want more people to know who can’t go to the farmers’ market. They can deliver goods,” Gelardi said.
The bag of blueberries delivered to Freudigman’s door was grown at Better Way Farms in Grand Junction. Family farms adopt regenerative farming methods, and their main farms are organic farms certified by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Livingston County farms supply beef, garlic, onions and other vegetables. Michigan Farm to Family works with 20 to 30 farms in Michigan and a farm on the Indiana border. They provide poultry, goats, lamb, fruits and vegetables. They also offer pre-made meals from Simply Fresh Market and Zingerman products, and more.
People can also order food from outside the state, such as bananas that are not grown here. Schroeder said that offering products such as bananas can increase the value of delivery services and make people more likely to complete orders.
Back to those blueberries: On a Wednesday earlier this month, picker Heather Clifton prepared a grocery order for the next day behind Simple Fresh Market.
Clifton prepared Floygman’s order and strategically placed the berries on top of the other food in the cardboard box so that they would not be squashed. She said she would carefully pack the groceries into boxes, so they arrived in good condition and looked good to customers.
After the order was confirmed, Clifton stored blueberries and Freudigman’s other groceries in a refrigerator at Simply Fresh Market overnight to keep them fresh before delivery.
Michigan farm to family rotates by postal code every Wednesday to Saturday. They deliver goods in Livingston County and surrounding areas three days a week. They transport the Detroit subway several times a week. The farthest they went was Grand Rapids.
When Clifton packed the blueberries, Schroeder checked the grocery orders scheduled for delivery on Thursday.
He said they receive about 70-80 delivery orders every week. He believes that their two trucks may be able to handle twice as much cargo, and they hope to expand production capacity.
A delivery truck loaded with star blueberries drove to Northville, where Freudmann lived with his family. The box was delivered to her front door, where she found the now-famous fruit waiting for her.
She said that during the pandemic, she began to order from her family from Michigan farms. She likes the agricultural products they provide and Zingerman’s products the most. Zingerman’s is a nearby company located in Ann Arbor that has gained national recognition and expanded nationwide in the past few decades.
She said her family tried to eat a healthy diet and limit the types of chemicals they enter the body. Before the pandemic, they went to Plum Market, Whole Foods, Busch’s, Kroger and other stores to find everything they wanted.
She said that after the pandemic subsides, she may still order groceries from the Family from the Michigan farm, especially because she now works remotely.
On Sunday, Freudmann and her 6-year-old son Aidan made blueberry pancakes together. Knowing that they are making special blueberries destined to become local media stars, they used them to make a smiley face while the pancake batter was still on the stove.
The company was originally established in 2016, starting from a small scale. It opened a store in Simply Fresh Market in November.
Bill Taylor is a food expert in Ann Arbor and claims to be chief foraging officer. He previously ran Eat Local Eat Natural, a popular company that provides restaurants with wholesale produce. That company went bankrupt.
“The vast majority of grocery delivery companies you see are large companies because they can create infrastructure to do this. I think we are in a unique position during COVID.”
They have refrigerated trucks, and now they have a stronghold in the market and have integrated into the farm scene.
Please contact Jennifer Timar, a Livingston Daily reporter at jtimar@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @jennifer_timar.
Post time: Sep-07-2021