I recently decided to try out Misfits Market . You may have heard of them. It’s a company that proclaims to ship fresh, imperfect produce right to your door (so far only in the northeast USA).

I have to drive about 45 minutes to get to a store that has a decent produce selection. Yes, I can get the standard iceberg lettuce and green peppers locally, but there are not a lot of choices otherwise. So I thought, this will be pretty neat, a variety of produce coming right to the house. I can have fresh stuff every week!

Misfits Market has 2 sizes of orders, and I choose the smaller one. it’s $19 per week for 10 – 12 lbs of fruit and vegetables, plus the cost of shipping, so about $22 total.

I got my first box last Saturday. I was so excited to open it up. I liked the idea of getting usually shaped food that is otherwise thrown away. I know too much food gets discarded because it doesn’t look perfect.

Here’s what I received:

Things I like, that I don’t get locally: celery root, English cucumbers, fresh green beans that aren’t in cellophane.

Much of it came in totally compost-able, reusable bags – I like that. And it was all food that I use regularly. So nothing strange that I had to figure out what to do with. And since I eat a lot of salads, especially now that spring is here, lettuce and kale are welcome.

Then I started going through each piece. Two of the cucumbers were broken in shipping. Not a big deal, I’m going to cut them up anyway. Nothing looked mis-shapen, but possibly just past prime value.

But one lemon was half rotted – complete with mold on the outside. And iceberg lettuce may have been rescued from a store, but it was just old. Once I took off the cellophane, I had to remove several outer leaves that were slimy and old. you know what I mean.

I was not impressed. Since the website says they welcome feedback, that’s what I gave them. Within 1 working day, I had received an email reply – an apology and a partial refund on my order.

I’m withholding judgement and will take a couple more orders to see how and what I receive. Having a box of produce come to the house is so much better than buying only every 2-3 weeks and running out of fresh vegetables and fruits after a week or so. But not worth the money if I don’t receive healthy fresh produce.

I will let you know how things go! Does anyone else use this or a similar service?

UPDATE: my 3 most recent boxes have been filled with produce with no spoilage, and even some things I would otherwise never by (okra anyone?) … and it’s forced me to try new vegetables and try new recipes. That’s a good thing! Try Misfits Market yourself and let me know how it works for you!