Blue Apron

Jennette wrote a piece on Blue Apron.

I thought it sounded very interesting.

I forwarded her link to my oldest, with a note that said it sounded like something he would like.

He read Jennette's piece, and said he had heard of it, maybe when it first started in 2012. And he said it did sound like something he would like.

So he signed up for delivery.

And he does like it. He said it was fun and interesting. He said the directions are very easy to follow. He said he had never done most of the skills it required, but he learned. And he said (as Jennette said) he used nearly every dish in his kitchen. That is not a lot of dishes in either kitchen, I suspect. Everything is included in his box except salt, pepper and oil. Everything is premeasured.

He also mentioned it would be a great couple's thing. No one has to plan or shop. The work, split between two, would go very quickly. Or at least quicker. He said it would be a good dating thing too.

He likes food. He likes to cook. He is interested in more (than I am) gourmet type meals. He likes to build his food and cooking skill knowledge base.

He said his grocery shopping will now be down to string cheese, yogurt, fruit. He will keep some frozen veggies on hand incase he needs to expand one of the meals.

He is on the three meals plan which is designed to feed two people (so six servings total) each week. He said when he finishes cooking, he divides each meal in two, and puts one away, so he does not just sit down and eat the whole thing. (We had discussed this in advance, hence the veggies in case he needs to add to any meal. So far he said the servings are just about right.)

He is really excited about this.

He said although it looks pricey at first glance, he thinks it will be less expensive for him. Because he was mostly eating out recently. His meals out will be greatly reduced.

His deliveries come late afternoon on Friday. He then plans to cook Friday-Sunday. And then start the week with ready leftovers in the refrigerator. It might be 3-6 leftovers depending on his social plans over the weekend. But he said cooking is too hard for him, right now, after work, because he is still very slow. And he is cooking by himself. He can suspend any week's delivery if he is going to be out of town, but has to do it well in advance.

So far, really good idea for him. And it is organic food.

We did not go to one farmer's market this summer, on purpose

Summer 2012, the kids and I went to a farmer's market nearly every week.

And in my mind, it was the summer of the bread stuff.

Yes, we bought fruit and veggies at each market.

But the kids also bought rolls, bread, muffins at every market.

Most of these carb products were from the same lady. And this started because her selling point was home ground grain.

I did not eat any of these bread stuffs, but the kids did.

I was enabling the kids eating the bread stuff by going to the farmers markets, all summer.

Early spring 2013, I started ordering organic fruit and veggies thru our farmers box.

I can order very specific quantities from a very large list of produce.

No baked goods.

No impulse buying.

No influence from anyone else, I do the ordering each week.

No enabling anyone else to poor food habits, because my farmers box is all whole foods produce, while the farmers markets are full of all kinds of poor food choices.

Organic Farmer's Box

We belonged to a CSA (local Organic Farmer) program in 2009.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. 

We paid for the season up front. We got what we got in the box each week (which was way too many starches and peppers). We had to travel to pick up the box.

The "food/organic farmer box/farmer markets" label at the bottom of this post will take you to all posts related to that topic.

The program we belonged to in 2009 did not work well for us.

I joined a new program this week which I think will work for us.



The differences are -

This program is large (regional, and buying from organic farmers across the country rather than one, local farmer). The diversity of products is pretty huge.

There are organic products available through this program that are not offered (organic) in my local stores.

I am emailed a list of what is (to be) included in my box one week in advance and I can change items to better suit my needs (I can delete items, increase volume of items, add other items). So I can plan what I need to put in my box and what I can buy in my local stores.

The box is delivered to my front porch.

My box arrives on Friday afternoon and I normally batch cook/prep over the weekend.

The program runs year round.

I pay for one week at a time. I can drop at any time. I can suspend a week if we are gone.