Why Choose Organic? Our Story:

Less Chemicals: One of the best things about organic foods is that they’re grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. This means we’re avoiding those nasty chemicals that can sneak into our bodies. It’s all about keeping our systems healthy!

More Nutrients: Did you know that organic produce might have higher levels of antioxidants and vitamins? These little powerhouses are so important for fighting off free radicals and keeping our immune systems strong.

Gut Health Love: Eating organic can also be great for our gut health. When we consume nutrient-rich foods, it helps maintain a healthy gut microbiome, which is crucial for digestion and even our mood!

No GMOs: If you’re concerned about genetically modified organisms, organic foods are a safe bet. They’re grown without GMOs, so you can feel good about what you’re putting on your plate.

Supporting the Planet: While it’s not just about personal health, choosing organic often supports more sustainable farming practices. A healthier environment leads to healthier communities, and that’s a win for all of us!

Trish

Why should we eat with the seasons?

1. Maximum nutrition

Eating foods as close to harvest as possible means they have maximum nutritional content. All fruit and vegetables start losing nutrients once they are harvested. Foods that are out of season have usually been in cold storage for a long time, or shipped from another country.

2. Better Taste

Buying seasonally means your fruit and vegetables are fresher and taste better. Even more so when you have to wait all year for your favourite fruit to be in season - you can enjoy them so much more when you've had to wait so long for them!

3. Better Value

When produce is in season, it is at its peak supply, which means the price usually comes down. Buying things out of season means you are also paying for transport and storage costs, so the price of the product is higher.

4. Better for the environment

Transporting fruit and vegetables from all over the world is fighting against nature. The cost to the environment is huge - transport, refrigeration and irradiation treatment is wasteful of our precious world resources. If we all refused fresh food that has been shipped from the other side of the world, demand for those products would decline and our environment would be much better off.

5. Supports your body’s needs

Support your body's needs by giving it what it needs at the time it needs it - go with the flow of nature!. For example, right now Citrus season is upon us, but so is the Cold and Flu season! Citrus is a great way to get much needed Vitamin C and antioxidants, just what our immune system needs.

6. Supports local farmers

Buying in season makes it easier to buy locally and support your community. You can buy exactly what your local farmers are growing as they always grow what is in season.

At FROG Organic Boxes all our fresh fruit and vegetables are Australian grown. FROG makes it easy to eat locally, seasonally and Organic!

So go with the flow of nature and eat seasonally!

Have you been questioning the integrity of Australia’s current food system? Have you ever felt that cheap food comes at a hidden cost? Do you long to return to the good old days of wholesome local eating? A time when food was simpler, cleaner and more transparent?

You may have heard the news recently about the big supermarkets facing scrutiny due to price hiking and taking advantage of farmers and consumers. Shopping in the big supermarkets supports a duopoly system that underpays producers, rips off consumers, and prioritises profits over quality.

At FROG Organic Boxes we are committed to providing our customers with an alternative to the big supermarkets. We are a family-owned small business who is passionate about bringing customers easy and convenient access to Organic food. Together, we can create a more resilient and sustainable community by supporting Organic and local food growers. The Certified Organic system gives a fair price to the farmer and supports ethical and sustainable food systems.

We are also proud to support our local growers who produce chemical-free, organically grown products. We know all of our local growers personally and love supporting the great work they are doing. We are very blessed to have local mushrooms, limes, pasture-raised eggs, lettuce (aquaponics), Sunkist microgreens and sprouts, dragon fruit, pumpkins, and Dignity farm produce.

We offer our customers carefully selected boxes each week. In our Set Boxes we choose the best of the week’s fruit and vegetables for you. Alternatively if you prefer, you can choose exactly what you want in your own custom box. We also offer a range of Organic Groceries.

Thanks for being part of our FROG community!

Coles and Woolworths Duopoly

DID YOU KNOW...
A lot of our favourite Fruit and Vegetables don't grow here on the Fraser Coast in Summer in our humid, subtropical climate! Although we are very thankful to have access to things like apples, silverbeet, green beans, carrots, broccoli, onions and white potatoes, these traditional European Veggies do not grow here in Summer. They grow in other cooler parts of Australia right now and they are delicious and fresh and we love them!

However, if we want to eat local, we need to eat the things that grow local! That might mean expanding our tastebuds sometimes to include subtropical plants like dragonfruit, snake beans, chilli, malabar spinach, eggplant, amaranth leaves, limes and sweet potato.

So why not challenge yourself to try something new and support a local grower!

***NEW TO THE WEBSITE***
Local Dragonfruit
Local Radish
Local Amaranth Leaves
Organic Beef Salami Sticks
Sourdough Spelt Pasta
Paleo Snack Bars (coconut rough, berry ripe, chocolate brownie)


Simon and Trish
FROG Organic Boxes 

How's our amazing FROG community doing today?
I hope you are surviving the mounting pressures of the external world, staying true and connected to who you are, and nurturing your body and your soul in whatever way you see best.
Yes, its a crazy time we live in- one I'm sure no one could have envisaged. Now more than ever it is time for us to stay in our power, do what feels right for US and to really focus on building our local networks.

Everybody take a deep breath and say OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM

Remember the lessons we learnt way back in early 2020- when shit hit the fan, it was our local growers, suppliers and small businesses that pulled together, adapted and helped us all to thrive. I can see that some of those lessons have gone to the wayside as people have fallen back to their default settings (which is a very human thing to do), but remember, it's not the huge corporations that will ever have your best interest at heart, but it's also the small businesses that are struggling the most now... its time for us all to nurture and protect businesses and people that operate from the soul, for the good of those around them. If we help build them up, keeping them strong, we will always have the local strength we need to support one another whatever may come our way. Keeping communities strong is a team effort and we all play a vital role, so own your power and make empowering decisions as you go about your daily life.

Whilst I have so much more to say (some would say too much- but I have never been one for self-control or staying quiet!), it's time to shift our focus to FROG and give you a much needed update on whats going on...

Firstly local avocados from the Young family farm in Childers are finishing up for the season, so this will be the last week we will have them. They have been so lovely and will be sadly missed- but as they say, all good things must come to an end (for now anyway). 

Peter from Bauple had a week off picking last week, but he'll be back up his ladder this coming week, filling his picking bag with (floppy skinned) mandarins, Joppa oranges, grapefruit, lemons and starfruit. I hope having a week off gave you time to clean out the last of the citrus that was in the fridge, so you can get a fresh start again this week. Peters mandarins are starting to slow down so enjoy them while they are here.

The Veggie Patch has enjoyed all the lovely winter rain and has all your leafy greens covered- with lots of lovely lettuces, rainbow silver beet, rocket and endives, as well as all the herbs you love so much. 

It was so nice having Julies Hydroponic Harvest lettuce mix bags again last week, after an unexpected last minute hiccup in supply the week prior, which I know left many of you in the lurch (including us at FROG). Sadly some things cannot be avoided.

Fraser Coast mushrooms treated us with large flat mushrooms a few weeks ago, and anticipated that they would have lots of big ones again this week just gone. But sadly they just didn't grow big enough in time for the FROG pick- in fact they really didn't grow at all which has left Kim and Dave a little stumped. Keep an eye out for them though as they will be back on and off. There's a fine art to growing mushrooms, a lot hangs in the balance and sometimes they just don't want to play along, so we'll just have to go with the flow and enjoy them when they decide to grace us with their presence.

Brother Brother eggs are now available in all 3 sizes once again (600g, 700g and 800g). Their new flock of chooks have settled in well although they struggled through the nesting box training and needed a little more help to learn the ropes which has kept Nick and Amanda super busy. As the chooks are allowed to roam freely on open pasture they need to learn to lay their eggs inside the mobile chook caravan- turns out some flocks find it easier than others to get the hang of it!

As you can see by this FROG update, the main points are that in order to enjoy fresh produce, we need to remember to go with the flow. Ditch those mis-conceptions and mental images of supermarket shelves laden with the same, identical looking produce day in and day out 365 days of the year... true fresh produce comes in ebbs and flows ... supply hiccups can happen, farmers sometimes need a break, bugs get hungry too and when it rains it pours which is sometimes a good thing, but if the timing isn't right it can stuff up supply for many weeks to come.

Our job as consumers is to be grateful for everything that lands on our plates, and be willing to let go of the need for control. Cooking is a creative process, so be willing to switch out ingredients, treat your taste buds to different flavours as the seasons change and remember that Mother Nature knows best... so if its growing well, eat lots of it- it has all the nutrients you need to perfectly nourish your body at that very moment.

Oh and roll up your sleeves- and enjoy that nourishing, vitamin D packed sunshine too!!!

Life is good, lets enjoy it together.

♥ Celine

I'm re-naming Wednesday, 'Warm Fuzzy Day'...

Warm fuzzies as I roll out of bed in the dark (and the cool) of the morning, knowing that I am not doing it alone - I have an amazing team doing the same thing too. Kellie, Holly, my mum Monique and my dad Jean-Paul. All resisting the need to sleep just that little bit more, knowing we have a great morning ahead of us.

Warm fuzzies as we roll up the shed door, and see all the empty boxes, lined up in rows, ready to be filled with nutritious produce.

Warm fuzzies as the deliveries arrive. Connecting with amazing local growers- filled with kindness and happiness. Knowing we are all working together as one to support our community.

Warm fuzzies as the boxes fill up, and some start to overflow.. all the colours, textures and varieties- earthy, freshness grown as nature intended, and 100% good for those who have chosen it.

Warm fuzzies as the lids go on, the boxes get loaded, one after another, into their awaiting vehicles, ready to be delivered to those that support what we do.

Warm fuzzies as the team has a laugh, a hug (so needed in this time of chaos), sometimes a piece of cake, a quick de-brief and we all say goodbye for another week. Grateful that we have been able to spend a few hours together, enjoying the process.

Warm fuzzies as I deliver, from one door to the next, connect via text to my amazing community, and share a quick hello at any opportunity. FROG is connection, and Wednesdays are when I feel it the most.

Warm fuzzies when I get home, unpack my box, knowing that many others are doing the same.

Warm fuzzies as I crash into bed again, worn out but always grateful that I have this opportunity to do what I do. It may only be Wednesday but for me its a build up that releases as hump day ends... except that its not a horrible hump, its a day filled with excitement, connection and purpose.

Warm fuzzies as I know I could never do it without YOU.
Knowing that you choose to support what I do means the world to me. We couldn't do it without a group of us all saying YES to enjoying life 'eating out of the box'.

I hope you lift the lid on your box and feel the explosion of warm fuzzies... sometimes I wonder how the lids stay on.

Grateful for you, YES I am!

Celine

You see each week after we've packed the FROG boxes we do what we can to minimise waste.
I drop all our cardboard off to the council recycling depot at the dump.
We collect all our soft plastics- not only do we get the usual plastic bags but the pallet that a lot of our veg are delivered on also comes wrapped in plastic to keep it all together so as you can imagine that's a whole lot of clingwrap to dispose of...fortunately we now have the awesome RedCycle intiative who collect this plastic to turn it into things like heavy duty plastic furniture- how cool is that!
I know I look strange walking into the supermarket where the RedCycle bins are located lugging a massive armload of plastic - usually with kid in tow doing the same thing... in fact I've been abused for it once which made my head spin a bit- never thought I could get told off by some random stranger for recycling, but there you have it!
We don't get many produce scraps as all our produce is always so fresh that nothing has perished, but the small amount of food scraps like the outer leaves of cauliflowers get gifted to someone with chooks, or composted...even our potato sacks get collected and re-purposed!
So with all of that effort it doesn't leave much other waste except for one thing.... the elephant in the room you could say.

Our styrofoam boxes.

As much as we re-use them for as long as we possibly can, they don't live forever and do eventually reach the end of their life span. In the past I've tried to re-home them as best I can- I'm sure there are many gardens with an ex- FROG box full of herbs growing in them. But up until now any broken boxes ended up in landfill which was heartbreaking given the effort we put in to ensure FROG creates the least amount of waste possible. Plus styrofoam is 100% recyclable and terrible for landfill.

That was until the council recycling depot started collecting styrofoam to be recycled!
Best. News. Ever!!!! I literally did a hop, jump, skip AND a happy dance in the middle of the depot when I was given the news.
It turns out Styrofoam is used in the building and construction industry and so there are great advantages to recycling and re-using it... music to my ears!

It feels wonderful not only being able to contribute to peoples health by providing nutirtious food, free of chemicals and pesticides, but also knowing that as a small business we are minimizing our froggy footprint on our planet. Its a win- win and something I'm so proud to be able to achieve.

Maybe our planet does have a bright future after all- it's just up to all of us to make the extra effort to do our part.

♥ Celine

The essence of the message was to give your energy to the things you are FOR, rather than what you're against. Such simple words that can be broken down and applied to so many areas of our lives...

I have to admit it's hard not to get caught up in the turmoil of CV. You hear such frightening, negative things through the mainstream media that send shivers of fear as to the kind of world we might be headed towards. But then you also see the other side, the beautiful side of all of it- and being a small local business caught in the thick of it, the experience has been amazing!

Go back to around 2 months ago when it all seemed to hit- people flocked to their local businesses, they went the extra mile to buy local, and saw what their local communities had to offer one another. It was like our planet breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed that people had finally 'got it', got the message that a small percentage of people have been trying so hard to share for so long.
'We must support one another, we must produce our goods locally, if we want to survive this and survive this well, we need to look at what is around us, rather than looking overseas'. By looking locally at what we can do for ourselves, the ripples of positive change took affect so quickly too, less transportation, less pollution, more connection, as we went back to basics.
Did you feel it too?

It felt good, while it lasted, but sadly as the supermarkets have resumed normal operation, many people have stepped right back into their old habits, ditching the small businesses that worked so hard to look after their community in that time of need.
And so I have a question for you....

Who do you want to give your energy to? Is it to the large corporations who failed us when we needed them most? Or is it to the small businesses that rose up to lend that helping hand? When there was no hand sanitiser or toilet paper, it started showing up in unusual places (like the Beachhouse hotel for instance who were selling milk and toilet paper along with their takeaway meals) because the local businesses felt their communities need and did what they could to help. Now is not the time to forget these people, we may have dodged a bullet for now, but for how long? Who will be there for you the next time something happens? Small businesses need to know their efforts weren't in vain. They need to have the strength to rise up again, and they can't do it without your help today!

I wish everyone could take a moment to consider how they felt in that crazy time, buying from those local businesses, connecting with the owners and their staff, feeling that support, that they had your back... did it give you a renewed sense of belief in humanity? Did you appreciate their products more knowing where it came from? Did it feel good knowing that your money was going directly back into your community? If the answer to these questions is a yes, I urge you to carry on supporting them. We all managed to get a glimpse of what 'buying local' is all about, and if this created good vibes within you, imagine how much our community would thrive if we continued to shop like this into the future.

By carrying on doing those things that make you feel good, we can only create a better world and that should be our focus each and everyday- not only in times of need.

On a side note, I feel so blessed to have such an amazing community here at FROG. I feel blessed that in that time of need the connections I had with you all only grew stronger. I loved the opportunity to step up and create more goodness, to stretch my capabilities as a small business owner in ways I never thought I could. I have had more meaningful conversations with friends and strangers than I have ever had before. I loved getting those waves of excitement and feeling that driving force to expand in ways I had never thought I ever would via this little business called FROG. It certainly has been a journey, but the gratefulness and coming together we have had here at FROG has made it all so worthwhile.

Who knows that lies around the corner, but its up to us today to create the world we want to carry us into the future.

Choose to generate more good and always be a kind human!

♥ Celine

It all started with my old Yoga teacher Lynette, and her husband Wayne. They were desperate for organic food and 14 years ago Hervey Bay definitely did not cater to that market, so being resourceful and determined, Lyn contacted the old Natural Foodstore down at Forest Glen (now, known as Kunara) and organised a regular produce order to fill the 10 boxes or so for the group of friends she'd organised. Back in the old Dial-Up days it was all done by phone or word of mouth, using a calculator and continued like this for many years. As Lyns yoga class grew, so did the group of people ordering the boxes, and soon the group had doubled.
As the group grew the small garage we packed out of became unsuitable, and thankfully Pam and Max who owned Fraser Coast Free Range Eggs offered up the use of a spare shed they had out there. Each Thursday morning a group of us would do Yoga with Lyn then head on out to Dundowran to pack the boxes- often with babies strapped to our backs.

It was an exciting time for FROG (who finally got its name around that time- F.R.O.G back then stood for Fraser Region Organic Group- these days we're just called FROG Organic Boxes- its less of a mouthful!)... there was a buzz about the little group we'd formed...Lyn continued to try and keep things organised, but as the group grew the accounts and ordering required more time so we delegated the jobs out as best we could. FROG had outgrown the basic system it was based on and Lyn was pretty snowed under trying to keep all the balls in the air. As Lyn focused her energy on a new Holistic Hub, my friend Kellee and I offered to take FROG on ourselves with view to expand it- both our kids were at a stage where we had more time, and we were looking for something wholesome to sink our teeth into- FROG seemed like the perfect little venture, and Lyn kindly passed over the reins to us.

Kelly and I spent the next few months getting the word out about FROG- we held market stalls and told anyone that would listen.
Back then we only offered a few different sized set- boxes and all the orders were still placed via email. Even though my dad had stepped in and created a basic spreadsheet for us to work with (if there's any opportunity to create a spreadsheet, he WILL create one!), so much was still done manually, but we did our best and plodded along week after week....that was until Kellee fell pregnant only a few short months later, and moved to the Sunshine Coast.

Little did I know that this would be the beginning of what now feels like a life-long calling. With Kellee gone, I stepped up and took FROG on alone. I'd never run a business before so I was kind of thrown in the deep-end, but I enjoyed the challenge. Shortly after that I swapped my car for a van and got a website designed, and that's when FROG really grew up and became a young version of what it is today.
Looking at what FROG is today, compared to its baby tadpole days is pretty mind-blowing. The back of house processes- all so automated thanks to that gloriously improved spreadsheet, and ease of ordering we can now offer really shows how much technology has changed this world we live in.

There have been many highs and lows over the years, there have been challenges to overcome and oh so many amazing people have come through and played a crucial part in the FROG Team, but if there is any constant, it's always been my mum and dad, there to step in and help at every crisis, and of course my husband Liam- always my biggest supporter- and despite having his own rendering business even he has dropped his trowel and jumped in to help many times! Yes it always has and always will be a roller coaster of a team effort!

The awareness and need for organic and chemical free food has become a focus for so many of us these days.
For me the penny dropped when my kids were born- suddenly it really mattered what I fed my family. I'd always been health conscious and had a strong passion for natural alternatives, but nothing motivates you more than 2 helpless little humans totally reliant on you giving them the best start to life- feeding them with food covered in chemicals and pesticides never felt right.
13 years later as I look at my 2 healthy pre-teens I'm so thankful that I've been given the opportunities I had to follow my heart, and the best thing is that from this opportunity I have the ability to not only feed my family the best food, but affect other peoples lives in a positive way too.

FROG really is a business built on love and care. From its beginnings it was always community focused, and I love that there are still some people from the very early days who to this day still choose to eat from a FROG Box. If there is one thing that gives me the warm fuzzies its the fact that each week we supply the same returning families- some of you have been with us for many years, and I'm so grateful to each and every one of you who help create this amazing group. We might not know each other by face, but with each box I hope you feel connected and supported by this little business that started out with a group of friends and a desire for better food.

Life is a journey and its interesting looking back at the events that have occurred and how life-changing some of them ended up being in my life. I can't say I'm one to spend too much time focusing on future goals- so the day Kelly and I sat at the Purple Park playground with Lyn discussing the changing hands of FROG, I never would have thought that 8 years later I'd have been there each and every week, and to this day having packed a whopping 22,000 boxes! Wrap your head around that one!
I have no idea what the future holds, all I know is that right here, right now, I love what I do and the people I do it for. And that's all that matters to me!

Thank you for being a part of FROG, whatever role you have played in it, without you it would not be what it is today.

Happy Birthday to US!

Hip Hip Hooray!

♥ Celine