We
only deliver our own produce. Therefore, during the
growing season, nothing we sell is re-sold or imported!
By only selling what we grow, we can unconditionally guarantee
our produce for freshness and flavour. During the winter,
we often supplement our own fresh or stored produce with
imported vegetables of exceptional quality.
We
encourage you to "share in the harvest!" Click
here to read what our customers have to say about
us.
You
Don't Have to Be Home To Accept Delivery-We Deliver To Your
Cooler!To
avoid the necessity of you having to be at home when we
deliver, we simply ask that you leave a hard plastic
cooler (48 quart size recommended) with ice packs
in a predetermined, shady location around the exterior of
your home/townhouse/apartment. From our years of
experience, soft plastic coolers, or any cooler with zippers,
belts or buttons do not work. And the larger the cooler
the better! Small coolers do not work and will not give
your produce the protection it needs!We
can deliver to your front door or to your back door - wherever
you feel we can readily gain access and in a location where
we can leave the basket with minimal risk of loss or deterioration.
We leave the perishable produce in your cooler and the other
crops in the shade. We also ask that you leave a cheque
(made payable to "Bryson Farms") or cash in the
cooler for the week's produce. This
method has worked very well for us in the past - with the
only exception being a couple of years ago when one yellow
watermelon mysteriously disappeared from a customer's basket!
We have found that our baskets are quite safe in 99% of
Ottawa’s neighbourhoods.One
ingenious customer showed us the best way for leaving her
cheque in her cooler - which we recommend that our home
delivery customers follow. Instead of leaving her cheque
loose in the cooler where it could get wet from the ice
packs or placing her cheque in individual envelopes, she
permanently taped an open envelope on the inside lid of
her cooler in which she could simply place her cheque each
week. This simple technique makes your cheque easy for us
to find, keeps it dry, and saves many unnecessary envelopes!The
biggest problem we have had with home deliveries is customers
forgetting to leave their coolers out. In the heat of the
summer or the cold of the winter, this poses a unique problem
because we do not want your produce to become overheated
or frozen before you even receive it.To
try and solve this problem, we are now e-mailing you a couple
of days before delivery as a reminder to leave your cooler
(and cheque) out for us. If you are expecting a delivery
and do not receive your weekly reminder by e-mail, please
contact us because we have probably not scheduled you for
a delivery. Likewise, if you receive a reminder e-mail and
you do not need a delivery, please let us know as soon as
you can.But
even with e-mail reminders, some of our customers will inevitably
still forget to leave their coolers out. So this year, we
have decided to try something new. We will deliver your
produce to your cooler - but if you have forgotten your
cooler, we will leave your produce in the most protected
location we can find around your home and telephone you
at the emergency telephone number you have provided to let
you know where we have left your basket. You can pay for
the basket the following week.Many
of our customers leave a cooler in a permanent location
around their home all season long. This way, if they forget
the ice packs or the cheque, at least there is some protection
to the produce. This works well if you have a convenient
location which works for you.And
yes, we deliver produce to coolers in garages, on porches,
under shade trees, at front doors, back doors and side doors,
upstairs, downstairs, on steps, in foyers, in yards, under
benches - and anywhere else that works for you, will work
for us!
Why
You Sometimes Receive a Small Quantity of Some Vegetables:
As
the season progresses, we have lots and lots of produce
to include in our baskets. But as our crops begin producing
at the beginning of the season (such as tomatoes), we don’t
have very many of them to go around. In May, for example,
when our greenhouse tomatoes begin ripening, you may only
receive one or two tomatoes at a time. Then, as the season
progresses, there will be bushels! The same is true for
just about all our other crops, such as snap peas, snow
peas, broccoli, carrots, winter salad greens, etc. Just
be patient and the quantities will increase – but
we like to share all that we have, even when the quantities
are small.Environmentally
Friendly BasketsIn
2007, we will be introducing almost entirely environmentally
friendly baskets. This means that all plastic bags are biodegradable
and can be composed or placed in your trash with a clear
conscience that the bag will decompose within three to six
months. Of course, you may re-use the bags until they start
to fall apart, but please do not return them to us. Also in 2007, we are introducing biodegradable “plastic”
containers made from corn husks. Our micro-greens and peas
shoot will come in these containers. We ask that these containers
be returned to us (“open”) in your cooler each
week. We wash and re-use them until they break down at which
point they go into the compost pile .Please be sure to return
these containers to us! The Ziplock vegetable bags which your salad greens come
in are the only portion of your basket which is NOT biodegradable.
We are at this time trying to find a way to economically
clean and re-use these bags, but to date have not found
a satisfactory process. So please do NOT return these bags
to us. Please wash and re-use them yourselves. They are
great for storing vegetables, cooking greens, or lettuce
as they have tiny holes which allow the bags to breathe. The final component of our baskets are the outer bags in
which the vegetables arrive. At this time they are white
plastic bags which are NOT biodegradable. In 2007, we hope
to start using our own cloth bags which can be washed and
returned to us each week. The bags are colour-coded based
on what size basket you have ordered. We are very pleased, not only to have a farm dedicated to
sustainable agriculture, but we are also doing all that
we can to make sure that our certified organic vegetables
arrive at your door in containers which will not add to
greenhouse emissions.
Special
Procedures for Winter Deliveries:Many
people don’t think it possible for us to home deliver
fresh vegetables during the winter. In fact, we have been
doing this for several years, and every year, we add more
and more customers to our year-round service.
But
the winter rules are a little different. We ask that you
leave your cooler in a location close to your front door.
Ice and snow can often prevent us from obtaining access
to your back door or garage. Many of our customers bank
their coolers in snow during the winter for added insulation.
And in the winter, we don’t need you to leave ice
packs in the cooler, but rather a heavy old blanket or two
pillows. Two pillows work best because we can actually leave
the produce between the two pillows in the cooler where
it will be very well protected even from temperatures as
low as -30 degrees celsius. This is yet another reason to
have a large (48 quart) hard plastic cooler.
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We
generally deliver into the following neighbourhoods
on Tuesdays:
Sandy Hill
The Market
New Edinburg
Rockcliffe Park
Manor Park
Vanier
Riverview
Alta Vista
Hunt Club
Mooney’s Bay
Ottawa East
Old Ottawa South
The Glebe
|
On Wednesdays, we deliver into these general areas and more:
Kanata
Bell’s Corners
Stittsville
Arlington Woods
Craig Henry
Britannia
Bayshore
Leslie Park
Trend Village
Briar Green
Qualicum Graham Park
Crystal Beach
And
Rothwell Heights
Beacon Hill
Blackburn Hamlet
Alta Vista |
On
Fridays, we deliver into these general areas and more:
Centretown
Golden Triangle
Somerset area
Tunney’s Pasture
Highland Park
Westboro
Experimental Farm
Carlington
Central Park
Britannia Bay
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If you have a question about
your specific location, please just contact us. We will
do everything we can to accommodate the delivery date you
prefer.We generally deliver from
mid-morning through late afternoon. We cannot guarantee
a specific delivery time since our delivery routes vary
from day to day.
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High-Rise
Deliveries: Bryson
Farms already delivers into many high-rises in Ottawa. Please
contact us to see if we are currently delivering to your
building. Delivery
into high-rises can be challenging since most building managers
do not allow delivery personnel into a building for obvious
security reasons. Last year, though, we thought the only
way we could deliver into a high-rise was if a resident
was at home to let us in.
But
some of our customers came up with some innovative solutions
to high-rise deliveries. One customer left her cooler outside
her building so that we could deliver to her. The produce
made it through the season without incident! Others left
their coolers in the front lobby. This also worked well.
And another group of customers provided us with access to
their building (with management’s permission) so that
we can deliver to their door without the necessity of anyone
being at home.
If
You Are Away- Please Let Us Know!If
you are going to be away, please e-mail us with as much
notice as possible (at least two days before your next delivery)
and let us know the date of your last delivery and
the date to resume.And
please don’t forget to let us know you will be away!!We
deliver to you every week unless you tell us to stop. Thus,
if you have not told us you are away and we show up at your
home and cannot find your cooler in its usual location,
we will just think that you have forgotten to leave your
cooler out - not that you are away! We have no way of knowing
you are away unless you tell us. If we leave produce when
you are away, it could be very undesirable by the time you
return.Customers
who have been with us for the past two seasons tell us that
we are very flexible with delivery dates. We understand
that many people are on holiday during the July and August
- but this poses no problem for us - just e-mail us with
the date of the last delivery and the date we should resume.
We will send you back a confirming e-mail. It’s that
simple!
We prefer to have at least
one week’s notice of any expected cancellation. If
you know you are going on holiday or a business trip and
will not need a delivery, just email us you away dates when
you know them. While last minute cancellations are not appreciated,
we understand that sometimes life gets in the way and you
really have no choice but to cancel at the last minute.
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to the top
If
You Need More or Less: If
you are going to need more or less than your usual order,
please e-mail us by 6:00 p.m. Sunday for the Tuesday
delivery and 6:00 p.m. Wednesday for the Friday delivery.
Please
remember that we start harvesting your order on the day
before delivery to ensure freshness.
If
You Don't Like Something:
If
you don't like (or are allergic to) a particular product
that we've delivered, just e-mail us and we will substitute
other produce for you the following week.
How
Far Into the Season Will You Deliver? We
deliver year-round. Each year add to the our repertoire
of fresh vegetables available during the winter, as well
as our stored root crops, squash and pumpkin.
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Things
We Don't Grow:
We
do not grow strawberries, cherries, raspberries, or apples.
And of course everything we do grow is subject to crop success.
Summary The
process of home delivery is really quite simple: Just remember
to leave your cooler and ice pack out on the morning of
your delivery day (with a cheque) and you will arrive home
to a basket of farm-fresh vegetables to enjoy. You can enlarge,
decrease, or even cancel your order at any time with no
obligation.
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