Are there membership fees?

To help us with our overhead costs, including cold storage and other infrastructure, we ask that you pay an annual fee of $25 per household for one calendar year. You are welcome to try us for two orders before officially becoming members.

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Will I have to buy vegetables I don't want?

Unlike some co-ops, buying clubs, or CSAs where everyone gets the same box of stuff (and you don’t know what you’re getting until you get it), with Big Canoe Harvest you get to order what you want, in the quantities that you want, from the farms that you want. The weekly email lists the produce, milled products, fresh flowers, and artisan goods available that week, and you can browse the items on this website before you place your order.

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How do I order?

Each Tuesday evening, an email is sent to all of our registered customers letting everyone know the market is open. Customers must place their order for the week no later than Thursday at 9:00PM. Orders can be placed here on our website.
Once you read the item description and decide you would like to purchase it, click the “add to cart” button next to the item. After you add all the items and are ready to pay, click “proceed to checkout” found at the top left of the Market page. Review your order and MAKE SURE to finish the checkout process and receive your confirmation email.
If you do not receive a confirmation email, check your spam folder and email us at orders@bigcanoeharvest.com to confirm your order.
You are then ready to receive delivery of your order on Saturday between noon and 4:00PM.

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When do I pay?

When you submit your order, the system will ask you to enter your card information. Rest assured that this information is securely stored on Stripe’s servers, and we are not able to see or access your card numbers. Your card will not be charged until we deliver your order on Saturday between noon and 4:00PM and mark your order complete. Because our farmers only enter an estimate of their available produce and won’t know the exact numbers until they harvest, this gives us the ability to adjust your invoice to make sure you only pay for what you receive.

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How do I receive my order?

Please make sure when you sign up that you give us your physical address, not just your post office box number.

Your order will be delivered straight to your door on Saturdays between noon and 4:00 PM. You will need to be home to accept your order. Per the Big Canoe POA, we are not allowed to leave your order unattended. If something comes up unexpectedly, please call us at 404-358-5510 or 770-367-4949 as soon as possible so we can try to accommodate your availability. We are not responsible for spoilage of products once we make the delivery.

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Why support Big Canoe Harvest?

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.

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.

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How can I sell through this market?

If you’ve already created a customer account here, simply go to Our Growers and follow the prompts. This will add you to our system and our market managers will contact you with the next step.

To join our market as a vendor, please complete the information here and a Market Manager will contact you.

You will also need to read our Guidelines for Growers document. The link can be found in the text of the Our Growers page.

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What if I won't be home for my delivery?

When you place your order, and you know you will not be available, please advise us about your alternate arrangements in the comments. We are happy to leave your order with an at-home neighbor or leave your order inside your house, if you leave your door unlocked.

If you find out after ordering that you will not be home, please email us at orders@bigcanoeharvest.com or call us as soon as possible at 404-358-5510 or 770-367-4949 to discuss options. We cannot leave your order unattended at your home. We understand that life happens, and that the unexpected occurs. We will do our best to work with you, however, if you do not make arrangements with us to deliver your order, we will donate or it give away.

Because our growers harvested just for you, and (more importantly) since we paid the growers on your behalf when they brought their products to our market, you are still responsible for paying for the items.

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Can you explain the different product labels?

You may notice that some products are labeled “Organic”, and others are not. As a rule, no “conventional” growers are allowed to sell through our market. Everything sold on Big Canoe Harvest is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. All produce is grown according to Organic standards, although, for various reasons, most growers do not pursue Organic certification.
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 large, conglomerate farms over the small family farm.
A few smaller growers in the state of Georgia have decided that the cost and paperwork of Organic Certification are worth the effort, and because they have completed the certification paperwork and have paid the fees to be inspected by the USDA, they can legally use the word “Organic."
Many smaller farmers choose another route, a grassroots certification system called “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, but the cost of certification is minimal— about $200 per year, compared with $2,000 through the National Organic Program. There is still paperwork, but smaller farmers find it manageable. More importantly, the growers in the program inspect each other, rather than relying on an outside for-profit certifier. Several of our growers have gone this route.
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 they have, take a look at our Growers page.

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What if one of my items is not what I expected?

We encourage customers to inspect all products as soon as they are delivered and notify us as soon as possible if there is an issue.

Each grower is responsible for their own packaging, product listings, and labeling. If you receive an item that is not the quality you expect, please email orders@bigcanoeharvest.com with a picture and description of the product, and we will handle the issue accordingly. Please note we are not responsible for spoilage after delivery.

It is also very important to give feedback of any issues with products sold through this market. With our growers selling through this market, the only way for us to continue to operate is through your feedback as a customer, and the best ways to communicate satisfaction with the products is through email and our year-end survey.

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How can I contact the Market Managers?

Big Canoe Harvest is run by Big Canoe residents Whitney Carnes (770-367-4949) and Eddy Hodgson (404-358-5510). You can also email them at orders@bigcanoeharvest.com.

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What is the delivery fee?

We charge a $2 delivery fee on every order to help pay for transportation costs throughout Big Canoe. If we have to make a second trip for delivery because alternate arrangements were not made to prevent an unattended delivery, the delivery fee will be $5. Unfortunately, our location in Big Canoe is not suitable for high amounts of pickup traffic, although we are open to looking for locations for future pickup deliveries within Big Canoe.

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What is your delivery radius?

We deliver anywhere inside Big Canoe, and to any of the surrounding neighborhoods off of Steve Tate Road. If you want to know if you are in our delivery area, please email us at orders@bigcanoeharvest.com.

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