For those who are under the impression that living in or around NYC makes life a breeze…you’d be wrong. From the moment I moved to this area, four years ago, my life has been a whirlwind of experiences, but very few were easy. Not that I’m complaining…but if it hadn’t been for Fresh Direct (or as Mike calls it fondly, Freshy D), I never would have made it. The grocery stores here are crowded, small, pricey, and most importantly, you have to carry whatever you buy home…walking, on the SRO bus or on a crowded subway at rush hour. Not my idea of fun. Enter Fresh Direct.

It’s an amazing grocery delivery service that has been evolving right along with me. From their meager beginnings where I had to sacrifice options for convenience, they now sell the most amazing fresh foods and local products, along with delicious baked goods and pastas. The Freshy D delivery has been a weekly tradition for me for quite some time. It made posting here extremely simple, I didn’t even have to get up from my laptop to find exact product sizes or brand names. It was right there online. When I went home to Texas, REAL grocery shopping was quite a shock. You mean they don’t have organic, wild baby arugula? No fresh award winning goat cheese? No perfectly baked Black & White cookies? ::sigh:: Not even HEB can compare to Freshy D.

Granted not being able to test your own produce or pick your own steak has it’s frustrations. Occasionally our avocados would arrive less ripe than we’d hoped or the bananas were too far gone to make it another day. Nothing is perfect they say, but I was willing to look past it. Yet, even Freshy D wasn’t enough to make up for all of the other frustrations and irritations of being packed into one of the most populated urban areas in the US. After Mike had been hit for the fourth time on his bike commute home, (by a bus no less), we decided it was time to move on.

And move on we shall, right down to Central Jersey. The only part of the state that comes close to living up to it’s motto, The Garden State. We will be living 5 miles from a 400 acre organic farm with heritage pigs that roam through forests, cheese made from cows grazing on nearby pastures and fresh eggs from happy chickens. Fresh Direct, you’ve been good to us, but I think we just might be trading up.

Stay posted! We’re moving this weekend so hopefully soon we’ll have tons of new fresh veggie and fruit recipes for you guys!