If you have a question that’s not answered here, please contact Tina at tlevy@tampabay.rr.com or at 727-515-9469. For routine questions, email is preferred over a phone call.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: When you open an account with our Market, please enter a phone number where we can reach you on delivery day. We will only call you if we have to speak with you about your order. (Please see QA’s for what happens if you forget to pay for a co-op order and we cannot reach you quickly. Remember that we have a delivery route and a schedule that we have committed to meet.)
Should you place an order online and you have not supplied us with a phone number, we will have to disregard your order. Thanks for providing us with this valuable piece of information.
Here are some frequently asked questions:
- What does it cost to use this Market?
- Will I have to buy vegetables I don't want?
- How do I order?
- What are my payment options?
- Why Support Locally Grown?
- How can I sell through this market?
- What about Unclaimed Orders?
- Why do you use the term "chemical-free" instead of "organic"?
- How do I cook with this produce? Do you have any recipes?
- Do you have a Calendar of Events?
- How do I generate my delivery fee?
- Are there any Volunteer Opportunities?
- Since you don't provide an invoice with delivery, how do I know what I owe?
- Do you deliver? Where to? How much?
- Why are you selling items that are not locally grown or produced?
- How should I inspect my order?
- What are Fresh Fridays Co-ops all about ?
- When does my credit card get charged?
- How can I keep raw dairy products fresh?
- How can I find what's new on the Market?
- Do you issue refunds, "no questions asked?"
- How can I help protect my order's frozen items?
- HOW-TO Buy a Gift AND Support Local Small Businesses
- How much salmon should I order?
And here are some answers:
What does it cost to use this Market?
We charge an annual membership fee of just $50 per family. That’s less than 15 cents per day for your entire household to have access to fresh, chemical-free, locally grown produce year-round. You get to try us out for two orders before you pay a membership fee. The website will automatically add the membership fee to your third order. If a membership fee is cost prohibitive, please call Market Manager at 727-515-9469 to discuss.
Our customers also support the cost of the Market’s online ordering system by paying 3.15% per order. In other words, when you purchase $20 of produce using the online Market, you’ll pay 63 cents toward website maintenance and hosting. We think it is best to be transparent about this cost, instead of building it into the price of our produce.
Delivery costs vary based on your location from the Market origin. See Q & A’s section for more info on this.
Will I have to buy vegetables I don't want?
With this Market, you will make your own choices from vegetables available in the quantities you want, and you can also choose NOT to purchase.
How do I order?
If you don’t already have an account with us, open an account, then sign in after the Market opens at 5 pm on Monday and place your order here on our website no later than Wednesday noon when the Market closes.
Be sure to generate your delivery fee each time you order. This fee is usually sent to you by the Market Manager when you open your online account. You can also Mapquest your distance from NE High School in St. Pete and find the rate in Q&A’s section. To apply the fee to your order, find the product called “Delivery Fee” which is listed as a $1 product. Then enter the number ‘n’ as quantity to generate the $n delivery fee. Finally, click the shopping cart to add your delivery fee to the invoice. Do not forget to click the SUBMIT ORDER button. If you do not receive an email confirmation immediately after you order, then you did not submit your order.
What are my payment options?
Prompt receipt of your payment is important because we need those funds to pay the Growers on your behalf when they deliver the goods you order next week. Should your order invoice change due to events out of our control (infestation, etc.) we will automatically apply an adjustment to your next order.
• Pay online when you place your order with either credit or debit card from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB, or Diner’s Club. You can tie a credit or debit card to your account. The CCA requested is the last three digits on the same line where you sign the back of the card. Once the card is validated, you’ll be able to pay directly into your account and draw down over time or charge your individual orders to this card. This page is secure, and the card information will be securely stored with our payment processors. The market managers will not be able to access your card information directly. You will be able to edit or remove this card or replace it with a different one at any time. Your card does not get charged until we have delivered your order so multiple orders from you (in a week) will result in just one charge to your card.
• In person, we accept cash or checks. Please make all checks payable to “ST. PETE LOCALLY GROWN”. Thank you!
• IN THE FUTURE We hope to offer our customers an additional way to pay online using a Dwolla account. Just like PayPal requires a Merchant to be willing to accept payments via PayPal, so does Dwolla. What tops PayPal though is that Dwolla Merchants are locatable by smart phones which shows you who is willing to take Dwolla payments for merchandise. These are called “Dwolla Spots”. Watch this brief video and decide if this option will work for you. Here is an interesting article on Dwolla compared to other payment services, including PayPal. Dwolla is coming of age with the advent of new smart phone technology.
Why Support Locally Grown?
Enhance your local economy: By purchasing produce and other items from local growers you are providing stability to your local economy through the support of local businesses.
Save natural resources: Buying locally makes you an invaluable link in the process of saving resources such as fossil fuels and packaging materials. Also, we are right here in your community so the expense of transportation and delivery is kept to a minimum.
Provide learning opportunities: Locally Grown supporters provide member growers the means to help educate our community about the importance of sustainable agriculture.
Supporting a way of life: The number of small farms in the United States has decreased dramatically in the last decade. Please help us preserve an honest and worthy means of making a living.
We believe that small, diverse, family-owned farms contribute to society’s overall health.
How can I sell through this market?
You cannot use synthetic chemicals to fertilize or to control pests in your garden if you want to be a Grower for this Market. You don’t have to be certified organic either. Please visit this link for more info.
If you are not currently a customer, at the very least carefully read through the entire website so you have a good understanding of how we operate.
If you’ve already created a customer account, simply go to Our Growers , follow guidelines at top of page and click on ‘Join this Market’. This will add you to our system and our market manager will contact you with the next step. We charge 20% of your overall sales as a “table fee” for selling through the market. Like at a traditional farmers’ market, you do get to set your own prices. Market Manager has final say on items listed for sale and will advise on pricing as needed. Email Market Manager if you want more information.
What about Unclaimed Orders?
If necessary, we will attempt to contact you on your account phone number if there are problems with delivering your order. We will not deliver your order if it is not paid for and, as such, it will be donated or given away. Since the growers have harvested just for you, and since we will have paid the growers on your behalf, you are still responsible for paying for items, even if you do not receive the order. We’ll charge your account for the forfeited order, and that amount is due immediately.
It is best to *SETUP A CALENDAR REMINDER for delivery day. Please be available for a possible phone call on delivery day. Make sure your account phone number is a place we can reach you.
Why do you use the term "chemical-free" instead of "organic"?
First off, no “conventional” growers are allowed to sell through our market. Everything sold here is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. But we still cannot call ourselves “organic” growers. To use the word “organic”, a grower must register through the USDA and keep up with a tremendous amount of paperwork. The process is very expensive and intensive, and certainly favors the larger factory farms over the small family farm.
Another system is Certified Naturally Grown. This nation-wide program seeks to correct the problems with the USDA certification system. The standards are just as strict (and in some cases, more so) as the USDA Organic Program, and there is minimal cost involved to become certified. There is still some paperwork, but not as much. More importantly, the growers in the program inspect each other, rather than relying on an outside for-profit certifier.
Finally, a few growers are not certified by anyone but still use organic sustainable methods on their farms. To find out more about our growers, and to see what certification, if any, they have, take a look at our Growers page.
How do I cook with this produce? Do you have any recipes?
We provide links to online recipes for many of the vegetables we sell. These are posted in our community blog, which is used to discuss and compare how we prepare, cook, and consume all wares sold by this Market. Every member gets invited to Author on our Blog. We’ll even teach you how!
Do you have a Calendar of Events?
Our Garden Lecture Series runs from October through April. Mark your calendars to hear these local experts.
How do I generate my delivery fee?
Be sure to generate your delivery fee each time you order. This fee is usually sent to you by the Market Manager when you open your online account. You can also Mapquest your distance from NE High School in St. Pete and find the rate in Q&A’s section. To apply the fee to your order, find the product called “Delivery Fee” which is listed as a $1 product. Then enter the number ‘n’ as quantity to generate the $n delivery fee. Finally, click the shopping cart to add your delivery fee to the invoice. Do not forget to click the SUBMIT ORDER button. If you do not receive an email confirmation immediately after you order, then you did not submit your order.
Are there any Volunteer Opportunities?
Yes! Members who wish to volunteer either in The Garden or for The Market are greatly needed now. Because our volunteers learn transferrable skills they can apply in their own gardens and beyond, we hope to attract repeat volunteers who will commit to coming back often enough to help so that we are not constantly training new volunteers. That said, if you want to volunteer once to “feel it out” we encourage you to do so. We need you. Details of opportunities are on Grower’s webpage for Nathan’s Natural Veggies. Contact Tina at 727-515-9469 if interested in volunteering. Your willingness to volunteer time is greatly appreciated!
Since you don't provide an invoice with delivery, how do I know what I owe?
Due to unpredictable delivery of items from Growers due to circumstances beyond their control, and due to growing customer traffic (yippee!) it is becoming too labor intensive to send out adjusted invoices. Plus, some folks are still forgetting to generate their delivery fee. At present, here is how we handle invoicing.
- You will receive an initial invoice via email when you order online.
- We do not provide a printed invoice at delivery. Our driver will tell you what you owe. If you “must have” a printed invoice then please comment each time you place your order.
- If you need to know your invoice total prior to delivery and you are concerned about overpaying, you can sign-in to your on-line Market account, click on Your Account tab and scroll down to the Customer heading. You can then click on Your Order History and a link to your most current invoice will be available at the top of that list. There you will find the amount you need to pay when you accept delivery. BE ADVISED that sometimes we don’t get all the adjustments applied prior to delivery. We regret the inconvenience this may cause you. BUT we will make the adjustments before we close out your order and allow the system to charge your credit card.
- The default action is to just let us track any adjustments we apply up or down to your account and either a debit or credit will be applied to your next order. You can track how well we are doing our job by checking your customer purchase history at your convenience.
Do you deliver? Where to? How much?
We deliver on Fridays from approximately 10am – 4pm. We have planned an efficient delivery route, saving fuel, and keeping the cost of delivery as low as possible. We always distribute our delivery schedule on Thursday to those who order. If you cannot be present for delivery, please leave us a well-iced cooler, large enough to contain your order with payment inside. See above for payment options.
Here are your delivery options:
- The most cost effective way to get delivery is to be part of a neighborhood or office co-op which only requires two people. Co-op members save an average of 50% on delivery. Read about our Fresh Fridays Co-op Program. Let us help you connect with fellow Market members in your neighborhood. We have everyone’s zip codes and we may already have customers who live nearby. We don’t deliver to Tampa or to the beaches but we do meetup with folks on St. Pete’s outskirts at public co-op sites.
- Take individual delivery at home or office.
All deliveries are available within a 9 mile radius of Northeast High School. If you have not been contacted by the Market Manager, you can Mapquest your distance from Northeast High School and find the rate below.
Distance one-way
4 miles or less: 4.00 per individual: 2.00 per co-op member;
4 – 6 miles: 6.00 per individual; 3.00 per co-op member;
6 – 9 miles: 8.00 per individual; 4.00 per co-op member;
9 – 10 miles: Pinellas Point only; 5.00 per co-op member; 10.00 minimum delivery fee (if only one person orders)
Why are you selling items that are not locally grown or produced?
In our last customer survey, many of you asked for fruits, nuts, and other items that are not locally grown or are tough to find. We have been told by the national network locallygrown.net that as long as the majority of our items are locally produced we can balance out our Market to provide more variety and customer convenience. This includes some international selections as well. That’s why you are now able to buy dried fruits, nuts, legumes, and even huge sea scallops for your culinary pleasure, among other things! We respect a customer’s decision to decline on purchasing international products if they are intent on purchasing only from the USA. Point of origin is designated for all international items as well as those made in USA.
How should I inspect my order?
INSPECT YOUR ORDER Please check the condition of your order and contact us immediately if all is not the way you expect it. In rare cases, you may notice vegetables are wet; that is likely from morning dew, recent rain, or when appropriate, condensation from refrigeration. In few cases, it means we had to rinse some mud off the vegetable because of inclement weather. With our see-through plastic bags, moisture is more visible and that moisture is going to be your cue to take action. Please vent any wet bags of vegetables to let the refrigerator absorb some of the moisture or insert several paper towels into the bag to absorb excessive moisture. If ignored, depending on the vegetable, they may begin to decline and start to mold. The more delicate the vegetable (like lettuce) the higher chance for degradation from too much moisture.
What are Fresh Fridays Co-ops all about ?
Our Fresh Fridays Co-op Program is designed to save fuel and lower delivery fees. This document explains it all… Note: You don’t have to join a co-op to enjoy our Market goodies but delivery fees for a single order delivery are often double that paid by co-op members.
When does my credit card get charged?
We wait until mid-day Friday, after deliveries have started, before we mark all Market orders “complete”. Once we do that, the system takes over and charges all the credit cards. We have NO access to your credit card information.
How can I keep raw dairy products fresh?
Refer to Grower Page of The Dancing Goat for HOW TO MAINTAIN FRESHNESS OF RAW MILK. Pam Lunn has posted a great one-page document to print and attach to your refrigerator.
How can I find what's new on the Market?
Our Growers are always trying to offer new items for you to enjoy so be sure to check what’s new on the Market each week from “The Market” tab. From there, the “What’s New” revolving marquis is the best place for you to see what new products have been posted this week. The default setting on the Market page is for you to see the revolving marquis’ of both “What’s Featured” and “What’s New”. Those settings can be controlled from the lower left side column of the Market page. Call Market Manager at 727-515-9469 if you need help with these settings.
Do you issue refunds, "no questions asked?"
We try to but we cannot always issue a refund when a customer has not taken sufficient time to read a product description before purchasing. Our Growers invest their time to put this info together for your education and safety. Their income from our Market depends on your satisfaction with their products. Remember you can always contact the Market Manager prior to purchasing if you don’t have sufficient info. Call Tina at 727-515-9469. We are also open to your email suggestions for improvement.
How can I help protect my order's frozen items?
We guarantee that we will deliver frozen goods to you in frozen condition. From that point—Whether you have purchased frozen goods from us before or you are just beginning to buy frozen foods from our Market—here are suggested guidelines to follow to keep your frozen goods safe—and FROZEN—once delivered to you. 1) Move frozen goods from your kitchen counter into your freezer immediately upon receipt. 2) If you leave us a cooler, please assess—on a weekly basis—how many ice packs are required for the frozen goods you have purchased. When in doubt, please contact your Market Manager at 727-515-9469. If a large volume of ice is required, then please leave multiple coolers to provide adequate space for your order. Please note that we cannot take responsibility for frozen goods once we have delivered them to your door. Also, please leave loaned Market coolers and ice packs in a visible place for pickup at your next order. We loan these out as a courtesy to get you over the hump but we need them back! With hot weather coming, we would appreciate ice pack donations if you have lots extra. Thank you in advance.
HOW-TO Buy a Gift AND Support Local Small Businesses
Please support these local small businesses all year round, many of which can be found ONLY on our online Market at www.stpete.locallygrown.net.
- Chef Roux’s Gluten Free Chocolate Cake from GateauOChocolat (variety of pates too!)
- Pink Himalayan Salt Bricks from Savory Spice Shop
- A Market Gift Certificate from St. Pete Locally Grown (minimum $5)
- Organic Sprouted Breads from 20 Shekels Bread
- Seasonal Remedies from Imperial Gardens (raw desserts too!)
- Fresh Chevre Torte from The Dancing Goat (soaps too!)
- Workshop on “Successful Urban Farming in St. Petersburg” from Nathan’s Natural Veggies
- Fresh cut Aloe Leaves from Sustainable Me
- Locally roasted coffees from Java Planet Organic Coffee Roasters
- Prepare a platter of Fresh Key West Shrimp from Offshore Seafood Company
- Gluten-Free Maple Nut Granola from Mindful Meals Whole Personal Chef
- Greek Oregano from Brenon’s Homegrown
- Cuban Oregano from The Faith House
- Lip Balms & Soaps from Rebecca’s Bees
- A healthy tray of Wheatgrass Micro Greens from Urban Greens
- Ghost Peppers from Barchie Farms
- Habanero Peppers from Velouria Farms
- Herbal Teas & Pain Management Remedies from Herbalwise (other Remedies too!)
- Walking Iris plant from Affordable Plants by Nathan
- Crystallized Ginger from Organically Inclined
- 28 pounds of goodness from Jane’s Earthworm Castings
How much salmon should I order?
TO HELP US SERVE YOUR BETTER: when you order either a fillet or portion, please leave a comment on the item and let us know how many people you hope to feed. We’ll do our best to accommodate you. “Fillets” average 1.5 lbs. and “Portions” average 3/4 pounds but their weight can vary enough to be either too small or too large for your household. The USDA recommends 3 oz. portions for salmon; however, Nathan and I shared a portion of just under 7 oz. between the two of us and I could have eaten just “a bit” more. It just tasted SO good and we did nothing to season it! YUM!