Our Mission

Harvest Market provides our community with the highest quality, most nourishing foods and related products available while conducting our business in socially responsible ways that are both sustainable and rewarding for our customers, our employees, our producers and our environment.

Product Standards

Our Product Standards

There are thousands of chemicals that have been introduced as ingredients in our food supply during the last 70 years. Very few of these chemicals occur naturally and an even smaller number can be considered to be truly benign. Harvest Market has developed the following standards for the foods we sell:

  1. Our Foods may not contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
  2. Our Foods may not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup or Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils.
  3. Our Dairy Products may not be from animals injected with the synthetic growth hormone rBGH (rBST).
  4. Our Meats may not come from animals given growth-promoting hormones. Preference will be for Certified Organic or Grass-Raised Animals.
  5. Our Eggs may only come from Certified Organic or Pasture-Raised Chickens that are not fed Genetically Modified (GMO) corn or soy. (Note: Harvest Market has never sold an egg from a caged hen.)
  6. More than 90% of our Produce is Certified Organically Grown. We also sell locally grown produce in season from farmers that we know who, while not certified as organic, use sustainable growing methods and do not use synthetic pesticides.
  7. With the rapid development of Genetically Modified (Bioengineered) foods in the last 20 years, Harvest Market became alarmed by the infiltration of these foods onto our shelves. Many of these GMO crops have been created to withstand increasing applications of herbicides containing glyphosate, deemed a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization.In 2014, Harvest Market banned the introduction of any new food that contained ingredients that could be “at-risk” for being bio-engineered.

Our criteria for all new products is therefore:

    • Must be USDA (or European equivalent) Certified Organic for any at-risk ingredient, or,
    • Must be verified by the Non-GMO Project to be free of bio-engineered ingredients, or,
    • If not otherwise certified, must not contain any at risk ingredients from the following list of commercially available bio-engineered crops: Corn, Soy, Alfalfa, Canola, Papaya, Potatoes, Summer Squash and Sugar Beets. New bio-engineered crops and technologies are being introduced on a regular basis. Harvest Market will continue to monitor and act upon this troubling trend. GMO at-risk products remaining on the shelf since 2014 are phased out as acceptable alternatives become available.

 

Did you know that Harvest Market is home to an American Cheese Society (ACS) Certified Cheese Professional? Our Cheese Monger Abby passed her exam in November 2025.  The ACS is the leader in promoting and supporting American cheeses, providing the cheese industry with educational resources and networking opportunities, while encouraging the highest standards of cheesemaking focused on safety and sustainability. The Certified Cheese Professional Exam (formally known as ACS Certified Cheese Professional®, or ACS CCP®) is a 3-hour, 150 multiple choice exam that measures candidates’ mastery of cheese knowledge and best practices. It evaluates candidates’ understanding of core competencies common to most of these cheese industry jobs: retailers, cheesemongers, cheesemakers, distributors, importers/exporters, restaurateurs, educators, and food writers. Today, there are 1,000 Certified Cheese Professionals globally. On being certified, Abby told us:“Attaining this certification has been a goal of mine since early on in my cheese career. Working at Harvest Market has given me the opportunity to build my skills and pursue the level of knowledge that this certification demands.”

 

Our History and Philosophy

Harvest Market was founded in 1995 to provide Hockessin and the surrounding communities with a broad selection of wholesome and nourishing foods, nutritional supplements and related products. Now in our third location, we have expanded to offer one of the region’s best selections of natural foods—or what our great-grandparents simply called “food”. In 2013, we opened the Harvest Market Kitchen which produces a variety of grab-and-go soups, salads, sandwiches, sides, sweets and more—all made from scratch with the highest quality ingredients we can find.

Harvest Market’s product guidelines are strict. Like many independently owned natural foods stores we do not sell foods with artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Our emphasis has always been to stock the broadest selection of organically grown foods. Locally produced and Fair Trade products are likewise important to us.

Now that foods produced though trans-species genetic modification (i.e. GMO’s) are ubiquitous in the American food supply, Harvest Market has announced that it will no longer stock new foods containing GMO at-risk ingredients. Additionally, any existing foods containing at-risk ingredients will be eventually phased out as non-GMO alternatives are found.

Payment Methods and Return Policy

We welcome cash, all credit cards and debit cards, personal checks with valid photo ID, Apple Pay and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) payment methods.

We fully guarantee every product we sell. If you are dissatisfied with an item, please return it along with your receipt within 30 days of purchase for a full refund or exchange. Special orders, however, cannot be returned and therefore should be inspected prior to purchase for spoilage or damage.