Aisa's shortlist of places she goes:
Freshfield Farms Market is a busy grocery store located south of downtown Orlando. So far, it seems like this place has the cheapest Organic produce in town. They have separate departments for produce and fish/meat. There are always so many people shopping here, so its got quite a following. I appreciate the fact that they sell variety of vegetables including Bitter Melon, Bok Choy, and Chinese gourd, as regular food staples in their store. If you are juicing on a regular basis, you will love this store for its variety of Organic Kale, Carrots, and fruits.
Eat More Produce is a smaller family-owned grocer that mainly sells fruits and vegetables and wines. They now have a Deli counter that offers sandwiches to-order and cold cuts. This is one of my favorite places to get local free-range pasture raised eggs from Todd's Mini Farm and Amish churned Butter. Yum. This is also my go-to place for ripe fruits and avocados, that you want to eat the same day or so. Funny to say, but this is quite rare. Most major supermarket throw away any ripe fruits, leaving only the unripened as optimal produce with longer shelf-life. Not necessarily the best if you want to eat it now, and not have to wait a few days till the food ripens. They also sell some locally grown produce, which I always appreciate.
Orlando's newest addition is Trader Joe's. Its newly opened location near Winter Park Village seems to be doing very well for itself. Parking lot and store are always bustling with shoppers. Trader Joe's offers some affordable choices for Organic foods. Although I've noticed they sell many foods that have the Trader Joe's brand, but are not GMO-free or Organic.
Home Grown Food Co-op is still a growing venture. They have a weekly online market that you can order direct from local farmers and pick up on assigned days at their storefront. It still hasn't thrived in Orlando, despite the high demand for Naturally grown, Organic produce. Membership to Co-op is recommended if you're going to order from them regularly.
On weekends, there's always farmer's markets around. There are some local produce available, but most are the same source of foods you see at your regular supermarket. So in essence, most of the produce sold at these Farmer's markets, are not direct from the farm in the US. This defeats the purpose of a Farmer's market, but still popular none the less. 3 Farmer's markets around town that are nice to stroll through on a weekend are, Lake Eola Farmer's Market, Winter Park Farmer's Market, and Maitland Farmer's Market . Its important to remember that no matter where you are getting your produce, if you're eating a colorful array of seasonal fruits and vegetables, you are on the right track.
If you'd like to find out more information on local produce, visit http://www.localharvest.org/