Farewell Veggie Boxes

Way back in June I waxed poetic about our veggies by mail. We tried the veggie boxes from Misfit Market for several month. Although I enjoyed the novelty of it at first it ultimately stopped working for us for a few reasons.

First we couldn’t really control what was in the box. We could make requests to have things left out (I’m looking at you kale) but ultimately we would forget to remove things or they would come anyway. It did get us to try a few new things. The volume was also sometimes too much for us to get through. A smaller box would make me need to go to the store for more vegetables–negating the benefit of home delivery. The boxes also came through the mail, so only occasionally we had some spoilage issues–mainly in the summer when we were out and about and couldn’t get home to put away the box right away.

We then moved on to try Imperfect Foods. They offer a lot of customization and the ability to order other grocery staples. We used it for several months instead of Misfits. We were able to tell them “kale NO!” We also ordered basics from time to time like pasta. We reviewed the list in advance and removed or added things to keep the value of the box the same. I also liked that Imperfect Foods had their own delivery infrastructure. The food was delivered in a refrigerated van and we had few problems with spoilage.

After a while, though we ran into the same problems that we had with Misfits Markets. It was too much to get through. We still got some things we didn’t like, and sometimes the stuff we wanted to make just didn’t match up with stuff we got. Variety is important when cooking for anybody, and managing variety with whatever you get got to be a bit too much for me.

These are good services, that provide a good product, but ultimately the luster wore off after a while. For now I will just go back to menu planning and getting what we need at the grocery store.