I tell anyone who will listen that I love everything about food: eating it, cooking it, growing it, healing the world with it. I have to stand corrected on this “everything”, though, as I realize there is one piece of it that I really don’t enjoy: grocery shopping.

In fact, I actually quite loathe grocery shopping. Ironic for someone as preoccupied with all things food, I know. But the fastest way to convert me from happy-go-lucky-foodie to grumpy-reluctant-whiner is to ask me to go grocery shopping. This has been the bane of my existence.

Which is why I was so thoroughly delighted earlier this year to hear that one of my favorite companies was opening in Los Angeles: www.SPUD.com.

SPUD was actually founded by friends of mine up in Vancouver, BC (the beautiful city I called home for 8 years before moving to the US) and they have been expanding down the west coast to major cities including Victoria BC, Calgary AB, Seattle WA, Portland OR, San Francisco CA, and now Los Angeles and Orange County.

Let me tell you some of the many reasons I love Spud:

• I am guaranteed high quality, fresh, mostly local and organic food.
• I don’t have to spend time at the grocery store, or traveling to and from the grocery store.
• SPUD gives me a list of my produce for the week AND I get to customize my preferences and change my order as many times as I want, so I have complete control over what comes to me – the ideal combo of their selections and mine.
• It’s a one-stop deal – I can get almost everything I use at SPUD, from produce, to toothpaste, to meat (and their meat is VERY high quality), to garbanzo beans. The only things I buy elsewhere are the little specialty items I am particular about (a specific type of olive, for example).
• They track the environmental impact of my purchases, so I can see where my groceries are coming from, what resources have been used in getting the various groceries to me, and thus more conscious decisions for future purchases.
• I spend less on groceries now than I ever did going to the store, and I get higher quality food and spend only a few minutes a week to customize the order.
• They are providing such a tremendous distribution vehicle for some small local independent farmers who wouldn’t have access to the markets SPUD has access to as easily.

If you live in one of the cities that SPUD operates in, I strongly encourage you to check them out. Go to www.spud.com and use the promo code: CR5-994937 to receive a discount off your first few orders. They are the ultimate Naked food resource.