The saying goes, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ In the case of Salem Delights, a Winston-Salem-based fresh produce and local goods home delivery service, two families had a ‘need’ for fresh produce and were having the same experience over and over: disappointment with the lack of flexibility of existing delivery services, as well as with the quality of the items that arrived. So they ‘invented’ Salem Delights in 2012 to help families like their own access quality produce and goods to eat fresh, healthy and local.
Salem Delights started out small, working with other local small businesses looking for a way to market their products to those in our area. Each vendor along the way has led Salem Delights to another, and there are more still to come based on the requests of customers looking for a particular, difficult to find item or a local favorite. If you are thinking, ‘Why should I sign up for a service like this when I go to the grocery store every week?’ Shelby Taylor, Marketing Director with Salem Delights, has a good answer.
“Taking the $30 you would’ve spent at the grocery store on milk, bread, eggs, etc. and shifting them to a local farmer, baker or artisan makes a difference in the lives of the people in your community. It allows for passionate, small business owners who care deeply about what they produce to grow. When life gets busy and you don’t have the time to go to the farmer’s market every week, or don’t know where to go to get something like locally milled flour, that’s where Salem Delights comes in! We try to make it easier to stock your fridge or pantry and support local businesses,” said Shelby. To buy the breadth and variety of items that Salem Delights offers through their service, you’d have to drive all over the state of NC!
Besides the variety of items, you can customize your order, not settling for ‘you get what you get.’ “With Salem Delights, you can get exactly what you want, nothing more, nothing less. We also operate year-round, unlike other similar services, by sourcing some produce from non-local farmers during the winter months. We also offer a lot of Certified Organic items,” Shelby commented.
Each week Salem Delights carefully curates a selection of 10-12 items, mostly in-season fruits, and vegetables, and pairs them with 1-2 local ‘pantry’ items like bread, pasta sauce, granola, etc. This is called the Standard Weekly Box, but customers also have the option of customizing their order, swapping out any item they don’t want for one they prefer; or you can create a custom order from scratch. “Shop anything in our online store of over 500 items and add it to your delivery. The minimum order for delivery is just $30 with no delivery fee ever! All of our orders are hand-picked, packed and delivered in our insulated wooden boxes, which we reuse every week,” stated Shelby. There are no fees, obligations or commitments to becoming a member and you can skip delivery or cancel whenever you need.
One of Salem Delights’ partners is Crossnore School & Children’s Home. “We offer their locally grown produce every week. When you order produce from Crossnore for delivery by us, you’re not just supporting local agriculture and eating healthier, you’re also boosting their efforts to assist families. In many ways, our partnership reflects perfectly how we as a community can find ways to come together to support each other in a way that benefits us all,” Shelby said. But as they say, ‘the proof is in the pudding’ or in this case the proof is in a satisfied customer.
For Sara March Barber, Salem Delights meets an important need in her busy life. “We love to grow our own veggies and get our supplements at the Farmers’ Market, striving to have healthy meals in our house. With our delivery from Salem Delights, it saves us a lot of time and we get excited to get our box every week,” Sara commented. Many customers love the specials sales from Salem Delights as well, like wild-caught salmon, local turkeys for the holidays and fresh Fraser fir wreaths this past Christmas. If you’re too busy to get a meal on the table, Salem Delights offers prepared meals from local restaurants, The Porch Kitchen and Cantina and Quanto Basto, too.
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to eat healthier and support local businesses, there’s no better place to start fulfilling that decision than Salem Delights!
For more information, visit salemdelights.com, call 336-283-6054 or email at concierge@salemdelights.com. Check Salem Delights out on Facebook at facebook.com/wssalemdelights and on Instagram at instagram.com/salemdelights
