Supporting local farmers and makers while making a positive difference in the community is what Feed & Seed in Greenville, SC is all about and you can join in on the fun with their seasonal Harvest Box!
Thank you to Feed & Seed for letting us try a couple of the summer Harvest Boxes so we could write this review.
If you’re not familiar with a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, these are fantastic opportunities where farmers directly offer their seasonal produce to customers in weekly share boxes. I was a member of one for a couple of years when I first moved to Greenville ten years ago. The farm has since closed and I’ve missed those share boxes with a passion, so when Feed & Seed offered the opportunity to try their Harvest Box, I jumped right in.
I had an idea of what to expect – amazing seasonal produce and some surprise vegetables I hadn’t seen before – but I wasn’t prepared for what awaited me in those boxes.
For other places to participate in CSAs, see our guide to CSAs in the Upstate.
About Feed & Seed
We have a longer story about Feed & Seed that you can read but the short version is that they are a nonprofit at Judson Mill that is purposely located in a food desert in order to provide a place for the local community to get good, healthy, local food. They take SNAP and EBT, have a grocery area where they sell local produce, meat, dairy, and their own housemade take-and-bake meals, as well as a cafe where you can order breakfast or lunch. I’ve had their Italian sub and wow, I’ve been dreaming of that deliciousness ever since.
They also work with local farmers to buy their produce and fruit, which is awesome because farmers often can only sell their goods on-site or during the farmers’ market season, which is only about a third of the year or even less sometimes. That’s a small window to stay in business.
Feed & Seed also has a program for Oconee, Pickens, and Abbeville Counties called FoodShare where boxes of fresh produce are sold for $20 cash or $5 EBT. There are 10 pickup locations. These boxes are filled with 10-12 varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. Anyone can order a FoodShare box. In Greenville, Foodshare Greenville is run by Mill Village Farms.
The Seasonal Harvest Box
Feed & Seed works hard to have solid relationships with not only local farmers but bakers and artisans, which they leverage for use in their Harvest Boxes.
The Harvest Box is a box of the most delicious goodies that are in season for whatever time of year they are offering the boxes. They have three seasons of six weeks each: spring, summer, and fall, plus Harvest Boxes for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
You sign up for whatever season you want beforehand and then pick up the box every week for six weeks.
I got to talk to the team at Feed & Seed who puts together the boxes and I think they have too much fun. They were deliriously joyful about creating themes for the boxes where they put together recipes for the ingredients and tell people about the farms where the box goodies come from. They send out an email to all the subscribers early in the week telling them what’s in that week’s box so they can plan out their meals or just get excited to pick it up.
I absolutely loved those recipes because some of the ingredients I don’t usually buy at a grocery store or farmers market and I needed inspiration on how to use them.
Every item is from a local farm as well so you can be assured of the excellent quality of the box’s contents.
My Summer Harvest Boxes
The boxes I got to try from Feed & Seed were the first and last boxes of the summer season so I got a good idea of what they offered.
Like I said in the beginning of this story, I was not prepared for what I got and I mean that in the best way.
The first box of the season had strawberries, blueberries, squash, peaches, leeks, Napa cabbage, red onions, marjoram, freeze-dried BBQ carrots (these were delicious, trust me), and some kind of pattypan squash. One of my favorite items was the Spicy Peach Honey from Red Clay Hot Sauce in Charleston. It was incredible – the perfect blend of sweet and spicy.
I had a blast using all of those ingredients to make pork tacos, fruit salad, egg sandwiches, sauteed squash, and lots more. Amazingly I have not run out of the spicy peach honey and put it on everything.
In the last box of the season, I was even more blown away. I didn’t think the box could be any better than that first one but lo and behold, I was wrong.
The last box of the summer season consisted of a giant watermelon, tomatoes, peaches, mushrooms, blackberries, red potatoes, basil, artisan greens, squash, and peppers. One of the biggest surprises was a loaf of freshly made sourdough bread from Rise Bakery in the West End of Greenville and a jar of Peach Elderberry Butter from Brew Naturals. Oh my gosh, I was in heaven.
I had been wanting to try Rise and that loaf of bread lasted not even 24 hours at our house. It was so good. And the peach butter -whoa. It was perfection on a slice of that sourdough bread (and everything since).
Some of the local farms that provided the contents of the boxes were Dark Spore, JBO Ranch, Tyger River Smart Farm, Mile Creek Farm, Coo Saw Farms, Hartness Living, Hyder Farms, Brew Naturals, and Crescent Farms.
I used the recipe cards provided for inspiration for recipes and having those great ingredients pushed me to try new ideas in the kitchen, which all turned out pretty tasty.
Getting Your Own Harvest Box
If you want to be intentional about supporting local farmers and our local economy, this is a really fantastic way to do it. All the contents of the box are curated from local farms and artisans and provide a way for them to keep doing all the good stuff they are doing (and growing).
You can sign up online for your own Harvest Box, which costs $65/week. They have an option to add on proteins (eggs, sausage, or beef) as well. Pickups are on Thursdays and the fall season runs from September 5 – October 10, 2024.
It’s hard to say how many people the box feeds in a week. It really depends on what your family likes to eat or how adventurous they are in trying new foods. I was able to stretch the contents of each box easily throughout the week because I didn’t use any one of them as a main dish in and of themselves – I mostly added them to dishes to make the food I was cooking way better.
Honest Mom Review
I love surprises and the Harvest Box delivered on that aspect. I was truly floored at not only the amazing food in the box but the quality of it and the extras like the Spicy Peach Honey and sourdough bread. I wasn’t expecting those items at all.
I really enjoyed learning about the local farms as well. I’ve written about a lot of our local farms but hadn’t heard of some of the ones that provided the produce in the box, which was exciting because I love finding awesome places in our area and learning about what they do.
Overall, Feed & Seed does a remarkable job in curating the contents of the boxes each week by working with local farmers and I absolutely love this mission because it gives families a very tangible – and tasty – way to support those local farms and aid in Feed & Seed’s worthy mission.
Feed & Seed
701 Easley Bridge Road, Suite 6010, Greenville
864.412.4720
For other places to find local produce, see our Kidding Around® Guide to Greenville, SC Local Produce!
