DOVER, Fla. — Ordering your groceries online isn’t anything new for most of us, but how about getting items from local farmers delivered to your doorstep?
A new website called Farms That Are Delivering is doing just that, providing a one-stop database for customers to find out which farms around them offer delivery services.
Among them is Olivor Heritage Farms in Dover.
John Roberts is the owner of Olivor Heritage Farms. He started the small farm shortly after retiring in 2016, hoping to provide quality meats for his family and the community.
“We wanted to do something and raise our own meat and make sure we could raise them ethically, so basically we started by trying to raise our meat humanely and know where it came from,” said Roberts.
Now, five years in, John says the farm just became profitable in February, and suddenly, business is really booming.
“Thanks to the Lord, it’s just like we had customers lined out the door trying to get chicken, we had like a two-week waiting list for chicken and meat and we went from selling 60 or 80 pounds of ground beef a week to 400 or 500 pounds,” said Roberts.
John says empty shelves at grocery stores prompted more people to shop local.
Olivor Heritage Farms is now one of nearly 900 farms listed on a new website called Farms That Are Delivering, created by two men in New York City who were searching for ways to conveniently purchase local ingredients.
“Going out wasn’t a risk that I wanted to take so, I looked at delivery services like Amazon Prime Now and Instacart but they had no times available,” said David Pham, co-creator of the website.
So David and his partner Jason created a delivery database of their own, showcasing names and websites of farms in locations across the country who deliver items right to your doorstep.
“The farmers behind the small farms, they tend to have a different mission than maximizing profits and keeping costs low, and as a result they have a tougher time but I think they should be supported the most,” said Pham.
And those small farms just hope the boom in business continues.
“The other local farmers around, most of us know each other, there is enough of that business to quadruple all of our businesses without making us competitors,” said Roberts.
You can find the Farms That Are Delivering database by clicking here, and you can also submit the name of other farms that offer delivery.
And you can order delivery from Olivor Heritage Farms by clicking here.
