Green B.E.A.N Delivery Review and Discount Code

I recently had the opportunity to try a week of produce from the fantastic company, Green B.E.A.N. Delivery.  In case you haven't heard about them, they are an Indianapolis-based organic produce and natural grocery food company.  Their mission is best stated on their own website, as follows:

"Our goal is to make healthy and sustainably grown local food affordable, accessible, and convenient to the Midwest communities we serve. We serve our mission by building food systems and businesses that address our communities’ greatest food challenges. We work with a network of local farmers and artisans that have both urban and rural roots."

Keep reading for my experience with Green B.E.A.N Delivery AND a super-generous discount code for you to use when you set up your first order (or reactivate a dormant account).  I had a great experience in customer service and quality.  I also want to tell you a little bit about how the price compares to going to the grocery store for produce.

To get started, I set up an account by going to their website, http://www.greenbeandelivery.com.  The site is very user-friendly and easy to navigate.  You enter your info and then set your standing order, which includes what size bin you want and how often you want it to arrive, weekly or bi-weekly.

Here's an idea of the bin sizes and costs:

The weekend before your delivery, you customize your bin, where you can take things out your family might not eat and add things they will.  This is done with a very easy system that is fun and easy to use.  

  

During the sign-up process, you are asked where the bin should be placed. This small produce bin ($35) was what I found on my porch!  All of the produce was wrapped and there was even an ice pack to keep things nice and cool.  The best part was when I started taking things out and I got everything assembled on the table.  

First of all, aren't they pretty?  Notice the HUGE ears of corn, and the different colored carrots.  This was CHOICE produce, friends.  There were no bad spots to cut out, not a piece was wilting or molding.  I don't regularly find this in the grocery store.  In my opinion, the 'appearance' of the veggies was superior to that found in the grocery store.  Also, the selection (when customizing my bin) was much more varied than the average farmers' market.  

I will be honest, I wasn't expecting the produce to taste much different than what I buy from the store.  I was surprised to find that this was not the case.  My husband, who normally drowns his corn in butter and salt did not add a thing to this corn.  I do not recommend cooking this for a hot date because it is so juicy that you have sweet corn juice dribbling down your face no matter how daintily you try to eat it.  Needless to say, my four boys don't do anything daintily so we needed a mop by the time we were done with our seven ears! 

In general, everything tasted noticeably better than conventional produce.  I am not sure if this was in part because it was delivered to my door like a Christmas present, but either way it works! 

By this point, you might be thinking, this is Frugal Fort Wayne, how frugal is this, Audrey?  Well, here's the damage... I priced what my bin would have cost in the grocery store if I had gone that week and just picked things from the shelf without worrying about sales.  

Before I tell you that number, though, I want to preface it with a few comments.  First of all, my bin was entirely 'certified organic' aside from the corn, which was sustainably grown.  I generally shop at Meijer for my produce and I could not have found everything pictured above in organic.  

Okay, I would have spent roughly $29 on the above produce at the grocery.  For the items I could not find in the grocery, I simply double the price of the conventionally grown item. This is less expensive than the $35 to have it delivered, but I do not think that the taste or quality can compare.  Also, if you have an interest in supporting local farming and local business, Green B.E.A.N. does that in spades. You can read all about it here.  

I did not expect to consider signing up for this service, simply because I was looking at it from a strictly numbers perspective (as I am inclined to do).  However, I haven't completely made up my mind now.  There are lots of positives, other than price, that you have to consider.  

If you are thinking about signing up, I would highly recommend checking out the Green B.E.A.N. Indiana site. There are lots of great recipes and links to fantastic information.  If you decide to give it a try, use the code 15FFWml when you sign up to receive $15 off your first order.  This is for new members and reactivations only.

This generous offer expires one week from today (on 9/17/2013), so don't think too long!