Deliver me from evil

Over the past couple of years, several local businesses have started to promise to bring organic, or local, or healthy foods straight to your home or business, but none of them have the reach of Front Door Organics (frontdoororganics.net).

Just about to celebrate its first anniversary, Front Door started as an organic and local produce delivery service, with about 125 items on its online shopping list. Now, there are over 700 products available, ranging from prepared foods to beer and wine to organic lamb and cleaning supplies. The only criteria are that it has to be organic or natural, and it has to be as local as possible.

Front Door founder Pat Bayor -- who operates the service with partner Travis Howard -- explains how their sourcing of local products works: "We run to local farms we deal with every week and pick up product. But when stuff is out of season here we try to source from the closest place its available, like Georgia or North Carolina."

You still might find California strawberries or avocado on the Front Door list, but that's only if there's no other option. According to Bayor, Front Door has the largest organic produce selection in the county, and "we're able to offer more aggressive pricing on some of the lines because we keep our overhead down."

He also works with local providers like Veggie Magic in Sarasota, or Sami's Bakery in Tampa, to find as much of Front Door's stock as possible. Eggs come from a local farm, and most of the seafood disembarks from gulf boats. The meat is humanely raised, but, unfortunately, isn't local, thanks to restrictive USDA slaughtering regulations.

Although there's nothing that beats hitting a farmstand or market and shaking the hand of the person who grew your produce, Front Door's convenience is appealing. "We take orders up to midnight for next day delivery," explains Bayor. Orders have a $35 minimum, and delivery is $6.50.