farm to h-town

Totally Texan farm-to-table meal delivery service sprouts up in Houston

When Texas-based Farmhouse Delivery launched in 2009, the idea was to hit the meal service delivery sweet spot between those people who want food delivery services because they don’t have time for grocery shopping or meal prep — and those who want to support local growers and producers. Farmhouse Delivery billed itself as bringing the farmers market directly to customers’ doorsteps, with 100 percent of its products coming from Texas farms and producers.

Now the service is going one better, offering a new Quick Dinner option, providing customers with different meal options each week — all of which can be ordered within 48 hours, and don’t require a weekly subscription service.
Like other meal kit delivery services — think Blue Apron or Plated or Home Chef — Farmhouse’s meal kits tout dinners that can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. The kits arrive with prepared sauces and spice blends, which mean minimal cooking and preparation time for busy diners.

An off-shoot of that service, Quick Dinners keeps the organic and Texas-sourced ingredients customers have come to enjoy, and combined it with a farm-to-table restaurant style menu. With its new Quick Dinner option, as well as its existing concepts, Farmhouse Delivery is betting the service will appeal both to Houstonians’ desires for convenience as well as their passion for supporting Texas businesses.

Options for the Quick Dinners change seasonally, and include selections such as one-pan crispy chicken thighs with blistered tomato and garlic; fennel and orange spiced pork chops with onion jam; and Thai red curry with Gulf shrimp and zucchini. Each is priced at less than $25 and will serve between two and four people.

Houston diners can expect menu dishes such as their One-Pan Crispy Chicken Thighs with Blistered Tomato and Garlic, Fennel and Orange Spiced Pork Chops with Onion Jam, and Thai Red Curry with Gulf Shrimp and Zucchini.

In addition to those services, Farmhouse also offers services for groceries and produce boxes. With the grocery option, customers can select the items they want to stock their kitchens and have them delivered straight to their homes. (There is a minimum $50 order requirement). Those who don’t necessarily need the step-by-step instructions and already-prepped portions of a meal kit can opt for a weekly or bi-weekly delivery of a produce box, which is custom-tailored to their needs and likes.

Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Farmhouse Delivery’s roster has grown to include more than two dozen farmers and artisans, including Gunderman Acres, Animal Farm, Peaceful Pork, Texas Quail Farms, Slow Dough Bread Co., and Pure Luck Dairy, many of which will be familiar to Houstonians from the city’s farmers markets.

Farmhouse Delivery's tomato chicken.

Farmhouse Delivery Texas tomato chicken roasting skillet

Courtesy photo

Farmhouse Delivery's tomato chicken.

washed and folded

Texas-based 'DoorDash for laundry' tumbles into Houston

Photo courtesy of NoScrubs

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Laundry may seem like an endless task that piles up, but a new service offers a solution to overwhelmed Houston families.

Enter NoScrubs, an Austin-based home laundry pickup service that has just expanded to Houston. Described by the company as "DoorDash — but for laundry," they wash customer's clothes at local laundromats and return them the same day folded and ready to be put away.

The service took off like gangbusters in Austin, making an expansion to the state's largest city an obvious choice. It's not universal coverage just yet. For now, only the following zip codes have NoScrubs service available: 77002, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77009, 77010, 77018, 77019, 77024, 77025, 77027, 77046, 77056, 77057, 77081, 77098, 77401, 77030, 77003.

A single pickup starts at $40 for 20 pounds of laundry, while the basic monthly subscription is $60 for two pickups. All services use hypoallergenic detergents.

The average American family spends about 240 hours a year on laundry, making it a very time-consuming chore. For people with disabilities, difficult work schedules, and other circumstances, it can be a real help, says co-founder Matt O'Connor.

"Some of our favorite customer stories simply revolve around saving people time when they have something challenging going on," he writes in an email. "For example, one customer reviewed NoScrubs saying 'So happy I could cry! (Partially because I'm pregnant and my emotions are heightened!)...1000% recommend if you have time restrictions or physical restrictions! ' So, whether it’s saving time, the affordability, or the pleasantly surprising turnaround time, NoScrubs has a variety of benefits for any customer."

NoScrubs is also a new opportunity for Houston's gig workers. Because there are no passengers, it can be a safer alternative to driving ride share for women and other people apprehensive about having strangers in their cars. As NoScrubs partners with local laundromats, drivers are also going to centralized locations rather than all over the map, leading to less wear and tear on their cars. The laundromats benefit as well, since NoScrubs loads are ones that would otherwise be done at home.

"Our model makes driving a tiny fraction of the time, so folks who don’t want to wear down their vehicles and spend a ton on gas love working at NoScrubs," added O'Connor.

To celebrate the Houston launch, NoScrubs is offering 50 percent discount off the first two months for CultureMap readers with the code CULTUREHOUSTON at noscrubs.com.

laundry pickup service noscrubs apps