The Choku Bai Jo Movement - Fresh, organic and locally produced

Three years ago I lived in Lyneham and made a point of buying F&V at CBJ. It always seemed to taste that bit more like real food. I’d go a tad overboard sometimes and while it wasn’t the cheapest, it was cheaper than fast food, and infinitely healthier.

Unfortunately I now live in Queanbeyan, which has precisely zero F&V stores or stands worth visiting. The one across from Aldi is pungent to the point of rotten when I visit on my weekend shopping, the one in City Link got shut down to make way for a K-Mart (and wasn’t that great) and the supermarket produce is bland and tasteless as you’d expect.

Memo: CBJ: Queanbeyan is ripe for the picking.

I definitely support what they are doing, and it’s conveniently close to me, but the few times I have been in there I have found much of the produce to be fairly average. I do believe that produce doesn’t need to be pretty to be of great quality, but the few things I did buy were neither pretty nor great quality. But they also seem to be sold out or nearly sold out of a lot of things too, so perhaps I am just going at all the wrong times. Some time I will try and get in there when things are fresh and crisp still.

Hi, all I am one of the owners just to put that out there first.

Not everything we sell is Certified Organic, but every product displayed in our stores with a green sign or price tag is Certified Organic, please ask one of the staff if you need a certification number for any of these products.

We do sell fruit from Pialligo

We do sell apples and other produce from Lorindale at Hall

The owners also own Gleann na Meala, a Certified organic farm at Hall, produce is picked every morning and sold the same day.

On prices here are a few from instore today.

Certified Organic Lettuce, cos and butterhead $1.50/each

Certified Organic Pac Choi $1.80 per bunch

Unwaxed fresh apples and pears all $3.80/kg (these are not waxed seconds like you might find at other outlets)

Unwaxed Navel Oranges $1.80/kg

Premium Australian Cavandish Bananas, $2.80/kg

We stock local where possible, Organic were possible, and only ever Australian Grown.

The Logo is a pac choi

cheers for the feed back, hope you al have a great weekend

I haven’t been there for a while as it’s been a bumper season in our garden – but they impress me with
good honest produce at prices which gave small farmers a decent return. Huge farms with highly mechanised operations and goodness knows what sprays, etc. can put cheaper stuff to market than the small local guys who do lots by hand and with a deal more care.
As a local gardener with occasional excess, I have sometimes taken fresh picked stuff to Choku Bai Jo and they have given me a really fair price and sold it with a very modest mark-up. If I can keep the cockatoos away I’ll see if they want some sweet corn next week. If so it will be on a dinner table the same day that I pick it. The majors will never do that!
The best option for the planet is to grow your own if you have some space and inclination but farmers markets and places like Choku Bai Jo run a close second. Daylight to third. Good luck to them.

i get all my fruit and vege from choku – the quality (taste and longevity) compared to IGA and woollies/coles is a thousand times better. i also love other amazing locally sourced quality products like caramelised balsamic vinegar and olive oil. it may or may not be more expensive (i haven’t done direct price comparisons) than the supermarket – but even if it is, given the significant difference in quality, i think it’s absolutely worth going there. i cannot recommend it more highly!!!

EvanJames said :

It’s an Organic Pear.

That would be brown and yellow.

I visited some of the sites listed as organic producers – not many had websites listed – and only one actually said that they are in the process of seeking certification. They say on the Choku Bai Jo website that everything in the shop with a green label is certified organic. Unless the producers are not particularly selling that aspect of their product, then I didn’t see a huge amount of evidence that they are certified organic.

I used to go to the fruit and veg shop in Griffith until the owner demonstrated to me that she had no concept of what food safety was apart form saying that “nasty chemicals” were not used on their products. With these types of direct to the consumer outlets I don’t see much evidence of quality control – not all pesticides are synthetic and therefore some can be used in organic set-ups. Do the owners of these outlets and farmers markets ask when the product was last treated with any chemical or organic matter? What are their quality assurance processes around cleaning the produce after harvest etc etc.

I have nothing against the organic movement or places such as this outlet, and I admit to purchasing my meat from the organic butchers at Griffith and Fyshwick, however I don’t do it because I beleve that chemicals are nasty.

Mysteryman said :

Not sure what the green squiggle on the logo is…?

It’s an Organic Pear.

It’s fantastic! The freshness and quality of the in-season stuff at their Lyneham store makes you realise what crap the stuff you get from the supermarkets is. And it’s certainly not generally more expensive than the supermarket stuff – and often significantly cheaper.

I love apples that haven’t been coated with wax – I won’t buy those. And I love the fact that, when I buy from Choku Bai Jo or the Farmers Market, the farmer gets most of the money.

Sure, some things cost more than the supermarkets, but the quality is much better, and it’s a lot cheaper than say Wiffens or Ziggys. I went crazy when Choku had 500g of blackberries for $8.

What they’re not mentioning is the absurd prices. I’m willing to pay a little more to support local farmers, but not five times the supermarket price. A very small bag of snow peas (as in literally five or six) cost me $3.

Or you could get local apples from Hall: http://www.loriendale.com.au/apple_day.htm

“Choku Bai Jo gets apples throughout the year from the Davidsons at Hillside orchard in Borenore NSW”

Since the apple season is from February to June, in order to get “apples throughout the year” they must be getting fruit that’s been through controlled atmosphere storage, which one doesn’t really associate with “farm fresh” or “organic”. Nothing wrong with that, it’s what all the supermarkets do, which is why nobody knows when the apple season is.

If people want proper, tree-ripened apples, pretty much the only place you can get them is Pialligo, and that’s only during season (ie. now). Other apple regions like Batlow have farm-gate stalls, but that’s a bit of a drive.

The charming yet rustic décor assists in highlighting the quality of the local produce…

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Sounds like an interesting idea. I’d like to check it out sometime.

Not sure what the green squiggle on the logo is…?