This week, I was excited to place my first order with Cow-op. I’ll admit, I probably spent an hour going through the website (www.cow-op.ca) to see what the farmers and producers had to offer. There was SO much to choose from, it was hard to narrow it down. Fresh vegetables, dairy products, specialty cheeses, Pork, beef, and chicken options, even frozen meals. Since this was my first order, I decided to order a range of items from several producers to test it out and get an idea of the different products.
I ordered:
- Smooth Peanut Butter from Island Nut Roastery
- French White Baguette, Multigrain Pan Loaf , and Chocolate Buns from True Grain
- 1lb Mixed Greens, Potato Salad, and Nanaimo Bars from Farm Table Inn
- Gooddaahh Cheese from Cowichan Station Creamery
- Carrots from Wishing Well Farm
- Holy Stick Farm – Cucumbers from Holy Stick Farm
Well, here is my OFFICIAL food review (first publicized food review!!)
First of all, even though I remember what I had ordered, going to pick up my order from the Providence Farm Pick-up point made me feel excited!!
Once I got there, opening my two totes that had my order felt like Christmas! Everything looked better in person. I got to SMELL the fresh bread, unpack everything and it was really exciting as I took everything out. I didn’t know what to try first!!
Well, I am already a big fan of True Grain, so it was a given I was going to order something from them. The Multigrain Pan Loaf is my favorite. I ate it in a day…. Most of it with a little bit of Island Nut Roastery peanut butter ? Those chocolate buns were nice to have with my coffee in the morning, too.
The Farm Table Inn potato salad was very flavourful, it paired well with our BBQ hamburgers one night. The mixed greens were a great match with chicken dinner another night.
The Nanaimo Bars? OMG! I LOVE Nanaimo Bars, and these were the best I have ever had. Every layer was perfect, they weren’t too sweet. I wish I had ordered two!
I haven’t had fresh cheese since living in Ontario, when I used to go to a cheese factory every two weeks. The Cowichan Station Creamery did not disappoint. The Gooddaahh Cheese was very creamy, so the name lives up to the hype.
People often think, a carrot is just a carrot, but in the case of the carrots from Wishing Well Farm, I beg to differ. I have never had a carrot so fresh and so crunchy! I steamed them to go with our chicken dinner and they were so good.
The cucumbers from Holy Stick were exactly what I needed. Cucumbers are one of nature’s best autoinflammatory, crunchy, water-based vegetables. These fit the bill!
I will be ordering a few of those items again in future weeks, but I am also looking forward to changing it up for next week. Time to plan a few meals before I do that though ?
Have an awesome week.
Darcie Nolan
Food Hub Facilitator & Cow-op Blogger