Organic groceries, delivered, from Boca to S. Miami

Organic food is beyond fad or trend. We know it's good for us and the environment. Many folks are trying to incorporate as much of it into their diets and hectic lives as they can, but eating organic can be time-consuming -- searching various markets and checking labels and lists of ingredients.

Do you ever dream of having someone to do the work for you and deliver enough organic fruit and vegetables to your doorstep to meet the recommended daily nine? Wish there were a one-stop place to get organic cheeses, grass-fed beef, chicken, eggs or cream-on-the-top milk? Not to mention organic bread, pasta, rice, miso, seaweed, spices, olive oil, dish soap and garbage bags?

All of this and more is available from Delicious Organics, based in a North Miami Beach warehouse. Fill a shopping cart online and your selections arrive carefully packed in a cooler, and, if you are home, laid out on your kitchen counter (organic personal shopper, anyone?). Or pick it up and finish your shopping once you see the shelves stocked with organic chocolate, teas, snacks, juices and healing balms.

Owners Annie and Jack Malka started the company out of their Golden Beach home in 2003, after progressively getting into organics after Annie's first pregnancy seven years ago (they are now the parents of three).

They started cooking to eat more healthfully, and Annie was always sending Jack out to look for organic lemons because she uses the zest in everything from pancakes to salad dressing. Soon they were buying crates of organic produce and selling it to friends. With the crates taking over their house, they relocated the business to the warehouse last year and hired Jack's brother and two others to help pack and deliver the coolers.

Annie says she shops for herself and her family, simply buying in large enough volume to share her organic finds with the 100 regular customers who order every week (members get a 10 percent discount). Many opt for the customized box with the contents chosen by Delicious Organics (fine-tuned to the member's family size and preferences) within a price range between $30 and $50 chosen by the customer. You can order produce by the pound or the piece, ensuring you get the amount you want or will use within peak freshness. Annie's goals are to make organic food affordable and healthful eating easier.

She has sources all over, with as much produce as possible coming from Florida as well as California, Chile and Israel. There are unique vegetables such as candy cane beets (small and sweet), golden beets and watermelon radishes (baseball-sized, green-skinned daikons with hot pink interiors) to rainbow carrots in hues of red, orange and yellow, and Okinawa yams (pale tan and sweet).

Tiny fingerling potatoes with names like Russian banana and Ruby crescent are jammed in the large walk-in cooler with large, fragrant Meyer lemons, sunchokes (the tuber of a type of sunflower), mini sweet peppers and a forest of leeks, artichokes, asparagus, zucchini, sprouts, greens and lettuces.

For people who are eating raw, there is whole line of organic raw snacks and desserts based on nuts, seeds, dried fruits and dates. They also offer products you can't get elsewhere in South Florida such as fresh Wise brand organic kosher chickens (whole and in parts), that cook up incredibly juicy and flavorful.

Annie's background is in law and Jack's in computer consulting, but they have found a calling in retail, and it shows in what they say is their way of changing the world one organic day at a time.

Log onto their website to see what is available, and click for links for information and recipes. Delicious Organics delivers from Boca Raton to South Miami. By the end of the year, the Malkas plan to add a kitchen and offer cooked meals to go -- or delivered to your door.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

Place: Delicious Organics.

Address: 20815 NE 16th Ave., Suite B38, North Miami Beach.

Contact: 305-655-3344; www.deliciousorganics.com

Hours: 7 a.m-6 p.m. daily.