If you are like me, going to your neighborhood grocery store is not the most enjoyable experience of the week. The quality of produce is often a bit dodgy and no matter what time of day I go the checkout lines are always backed up like Jingmi Lu at rush hour. Never mind that there are a dozen registers not in use and staff milling about who could be checking shoppers out, the lines are always there.
So the more I heard about Beijing’s organic farms and produce delivery services, the more I began to suggest to Savvy, my lovely and always supportive wife, that we too should try out this fruit and vegetable home delivery method of shopping. After two short years of suggestions, I finally put my foot down and did an exhaustive survey of Beijing Kids readers to find out which delivery service I should consider using. After crosschecking the information from the multitude of responses I received, it was clear that both of the respondents use the same farm, DeRunWu. After forcefully, and in a manly fashion, showing Savvy the results of my research, she agreed to give DeRunWu a try if I would just stop nagging her about organic produce.
Here’s how it works. Each week we receive an email containing the list of vegetables on offer for delivery on Tuesday or Friday and we choose about 9-12 vegetables that we would like to receive. We choose what we want and they deliver 4KG of organic goodness in a bag. The minimum total order is 4kg for RMB80 and there is a RMB20 delivery fee for orders under RMB200. The farm uses no pesticides, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or hormones, and though they do not state it outright, I’m confident there is no use of lead-based paint or melamine in the produce either. Along with the veg on offer, we’ve also received organic rice, apples, pears and oranges from other farms that DeRunWu has arrangements with as well as their own fresh mushrooms and organic hand-made tofu.
After using the service for more than a month, everyone in the family is happy with the results. Each week, our refrigerator is brimming with fresh greens and fruit and we are eating more vegetables than ever and the quality is wonderful. Best of all, my trips to the grocery store have been greatly reduced.
For more information about DeRunWu you can call 8459-0809 or email Ji YunLiang at jiyunliang@vip.163.com. She is surprisingly prompt with email and speaks English well.
