BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Forward thinking

Costa Mesa residents now have a whole new way of buying organic produce at Avanti Café, which is offering baskets of fresh produce for pick-up.

About 20 people have signed up to receive the baskets.

Seasonal produce is grown and put together for bi-weekly baskets by San Juan Capistrano-based South Coast Farms, as part of a community-supported agriculture program.

“I love the idea of buying locally produced food,” said Costa Mesa resident Denise Flanagan. “It’s better for the environment and it’s got higher nutritional content, because it’s picked right and not stored as long.”

Flanagan, who eats at Avanti Café every day, said she gave her sister in Washington D.C. a year-long subscription to a community-supported agriculture program there as a Christmas gift.

“Avanti,” which means forward in Italian, professes to integrate the best of traditional European fare with Asian cuisine.

Alicia Italiane, a long-time organic food lover and vegan from north Tustin, said she loves the program because it enables her to get hard-to-find vegetables.

“It offers me adventure in my food and I can get creative with my cooking,” Italiane said.

The baskets are not customized so the program doesn’t work if customers aren’t flexible, explained Rebecca Noble, farm manager at South Coast Farms.

“We pick things when they’re ripe,” Noble said. “We select for flavor first, not shelf life.”

Customers pay $196 for a three-month, bi-weekly supply of produce in a sizable basket.

South Coast Farms, originally started by George Kibby, has about 200 members in its community-supported agriculture program. Most members are local or live in Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo and San Clemente.

Avanti Café co-owner Tanya Fuqua said the restaurant had been buying produce from South Coast Farms for years.

“It’s vital to support organic community farming,” Fuqua said.

Organic produce is much more nutritionally dense, tastier and healthier, Fuqua said. The restaurant is on East 17th Street.

Each basket would contain seasonal fruits and vegetables as well as “heirloom” or older varieties of everyday vegetables such as lettuce, napa cabbage, organic pineapples, mangoes, ambrosia melons, avocados, chard, celery, apricots, oranges, lemons and blackberries.

One of the things that Flanagan likes about the program: “Often you get vegetables that you might not choose to buy or normally buy. It opens you to new tastes and new dishes.”

“I learned how to use parsnips and lemongrass,” said Italiane, who is a vegan. She had been getting organic produce delivered to her door-step for the last seven years when the company closed shop.

Avanti Café’s customers like the sense of surprise and getting the pick of the season, Fuqua said.

“The term ‘pick-of-the-season’ is overused but it’s so true,” she said.

For more information call (949) 548-2224 or visit avantinatural.com.