New Year’s resolutions often involve eating right, and what better way than to eat produce from local farms. If you’re interested, you’re in luck. Catherine Sheetz and Steve Wright, owners of Treasure Coast Harvest, have collected a consortium of 20 purveyors of goods that are available online for either weekly pickup or delivery.
They have also teamed up with three local brewers to be a pickup point offering ‘Local Farms Local Beer.’
“We’re really trying to promote local farmers,” said Sheetz, who with Wright owns Pueo Farms. “There’s a lot of agriculture here, and it’s a shame that a lot of people don’t know it.”
The website offers a variety of products, all either made or produced in Vero Beach. The 20 currently listed on the website are: Pueo Farms, Pepper Trail Farm, Papa Bees Honey and Bees Wax, Berdie Hogan, Fojtik Flatwoods, Michael’s on 7th, Schacht Groves, Orchid Island Soap Company, Garden of Esther, Rio Coco Beans Coffee, Chef Lippe, the Parisian Hostess, Wang and Dickerson Tea, Mike and Honeybell Bakery, Grow Together Microgreens, Smokey Robinsons Spice Company, Giving Seed, Freedom Fungi, Treasure Coast Shellfish and Carlsward Farms.
One of the newer vendors is Treasure Coast Shellfish, which sells oysters and clams grown in Sebastian.
“They’re award-winning oysters; they’re delicious,” said Wright.
“The idea is that it could be a full market, but only with local produce, so you know that what you’re getting is fresh picked and it’s all from the Treasure Coast,” said Sheetz, who hopes to add additional farms, including producers of mangoes and avocados.
Berit Fagan, a Maitland Farms preschool teacher, is a fan.
“My interest really came when COVID hit and I thought that we needed to do more to support local businesses,” said Fagan. “The quality of the products is really good. Everything is fresher and lasts longer than the stuff you buy from the grocery store that has gone through shipping. This lasts a lot longer even if you don’t eat it right away.”
Sheetz and Wright are both from the area but had been farming in Hawaii when they decided to move back to Vero Beach and open a local food hub.
“We came back before COVID with the idea, and then COVID hit. We thought, we better get this thing rolling, so we launched it and got the other farms on board,” Wright explained.
“We describe it a lot of times as an online farmers market. You can shop for everything from your house instead of going out into public, or if you miss the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning,” said Sheetz.
Patrons can shop the website and pay by credit card anytime between 6 a.m. Thursday and midnight Monday. Home deliveries are made Tuesday evenings, or you can pick up your order from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays at Walking Tree, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Sailfish Brewery or 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays at Mash Monkeys Brewing Co. in Sebastian.
Make sure to grab a local beer while you’re there.
Although the pickup spots are primarily just that, farmers occasionally stop by with extra produce that can be purchased on the spot.
For more information, visit tcharvest.com.
Photos provided
