No more excuses for not eating healthier! A new Hamilton County-based business is bringing fresh, organic and natural foods right to your door.

Hoosier Organic Connection (HOC) was created by two local families coming together with a vision to provide a convenient way for other families to connect with local, family-owned farms. They do this by supplying fresh, healthy, nutritious food. This adds value to all involved, providing a relationship between area families and local sustainable farms. HOC is integrating social, economic and environmental values in to its business model by buying local whenever possible.

Since beginning in July, the group has purchased from over 20 Hoosier farmers, delivering the freshest local, organic produce directly to homes and businesses — with no charge for delivery.

Geist resident Laura Hormuth tells of how she came to contact the Hoosier Organic Connection. “Early in May, I read the book Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This is a story about a family who for one year vowed to buy only food grown locally or in their own garden. I had no intention of growing vegetables, but I loved the idea of buying fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat that were produced locally…at least for the summer. I started buying all of my produce at the Geist Farmer’s Market on Thursdays. When I heard about Hoosier Organic Connection, I thought, ‘what a great idea; farm stand produce and fresh eggs delivered weekly to your door year round.’”

By profession, Laura is a Registered Dietitian, so for her, this was a bit of an experiment to see how different her diet would be if she only ate seasonal produce grown locally. No big surprise, she says she didn’t miss mini carrots, the lack of tomatoes in May, iceberg lettuce in July or being able to buy strawberries year round.

Laura reports, “The results of this experiment are my family ate more fruits and vegetables at every meal and a greater variety. My meals were planned around the produce delivered that week. This could be a challenge for those who don’t like to cook. I, however, love to cook! The highlight of my summer was opening the box to see what ingredients I had to work with for the coming week. I would recommend this service for anyone who loves fresh produce and wants to support local agriculture and change where they spend their food dollar.”

Laura works for the Indiana Department of Health, Community Nutrition/Obesity Prevention Division. She lives in the Shorewalk neighborhood at Geist with her daughter Elizabeth, son David and dog Tobi.

HOC offers healthy, nutritious food; convenience by saving time, money and gas; and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Once you sign on to the subscription-based service, you have the ability to add local, organic and all-natural groceries. Examples include: Goss Family Farm free-range, all-natural pastured eggs; Traders Point Creamery milk, yogurt and cheeses; and Fair Trade organic coffee and cocoa. Additionally available is gourmet Italian cuisine (by Sicilian born and raised Salvo Bruno) offering handmade ricotta, pasta, ravioli and lasagna. More local farmer and artisan products are planned as the service grows to meet customers’ needs.

This is an exciting, year-round service based on a CSA (community-supported agriculture) model. The Indiana growing season is limited, so in the off-season, HOC sources certified organic produce from wholesalers. This enables continuing support of sustainable farms, while providing a year-round variety of fruits and vegetables.

The business is owned and operated by the Goss & Fiore families. The Goss’s own and run the Goss Family Farm in Arcadia, a transitional biodynamic sustainable farm. They provide HOC with seasonal fruits and vegetables, lamb, chicken and year-round free range, all natural pastured eggs.

HOC currently delivers to all of Hamilton County and the Indianapolis area.

For more information or to establish delivery, contact: info@hoosierorganicconnection.com or call 698-9068. HOC’s website will be up soon at www.hoosierorganicconnection.com

We encourage you to nominate a business or individual that incorporates giving back to the community or to charity as a standard part of their business practice. Each month we will select a business to recognize as the “Geist Gives Corporate Citizen of the Month.” The selected business will receive a case of gourmet coffee courtesy of Mission Coffee & Tea Company. To make a nomination for GeistGives visit www.atgeist.com.

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