Review of organic groceries-to-your-door service – Misfits Market
Our family tries to eat as healthy as we possibly can. You would think with our advances in technology, farming, shipping, etc, that would be easy today. Not so I am afraid. We live in a rural area in the country. There is a small town near us where we have a Kroger and a Walmart both of which offer a FEW organic options but not enough to satisfy our eating plan. I usually make the trek to Whole Foods which is about an hour away about every 2 weeks to stock up on things we can’t get locally. There is also a co-op food store we can go to as well if needed. But, with things the way they are right now in the crazy year of 2020 with mask mandates and hassles just being out and about… I would just assume not have to make this trip to the city on a regular basis. (And as much as I would love to have a garden of our own – with our upcoming move, this simply is not the time to start, but we will once we get settled!)
A few years ago, we joined a great co-op based in Oregon that ships all over the country called Azure Standard. (See AZURE Review here) They have a great selection of healthy options and many organic foods including canned/boxed and even fresh produce. They even have some animal items like chicken feed and oats that we have bought on occasion for our horses. We have greatly enjoyed this service and highly recommend them! But they only deliver once a month. Many times, I have wished they came at least twice a month so I would not have to make the trip to the city for much of anything!
So, recently I have been seeing ads for this new company called Misfits Market. They buy fresh produce that doesn’t make the cut to go to the big chain groceries due to not being perfect cookie-cutter examples of produce we have come to expect at the store these days. From their website –
“Think of us like an online grocery store, except one that specializes in rescuing food that is unnecessarily thrown away. We source high-quality organic produce that has a few quirks—onions that are too small, potatoes that are shaped like your favorite celebrity, and carrots that fell in love and got twisted together. It may sound like a joke, but billions of pounds of this fresh and delicious food is tossed each year because grocery stores only want “perfect” foods on their shelves. We step in and buy this food from hundreds of farms across the country and bring them to your doorstep, saving you money and helping you save the world.
We have a two-pronged mission here at Misfits Market: to provide affordable access to healthy food and to fight the food waste crisis.
All of the produce in your weekly Misfits box is certified organic and non-GMO, sourced from hand-picked farms and partners in our region and across the Americas. This means that they avoid using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, are prohibited from using genetic engineering or genetically modified organisms, and, according to the USDA, “rely on natural substances and physical, mechanical, or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible.”
Sounds great, right?!!
So, I decided it was worth a try and placed an order through their website. The first order came yesterday by FedEx on a nasty weather day which was about 34 degrees, raining and windy. Needless to say – I was pretty excited to see this big box of awesome healthy, fresh, organic, non-GMO goodies delivered right to my door and I didn’t have to go out in the nasty weather to get it! I did feel sorry for the delivery guys having to be out in it… but at least they are getting paid to.
So, I will share my very first box with you right from opening it up and going through it with each item.
Some items were loosely packed in the box and more delicate items like mushrooms, strawberries and tomatoes were in separate packaging. Did you notice the OYSTER mushrooms??? We love mushrooms and have family that occasionally share wild-foraged ones with us and I occasionally have found them at Whole Foods…. So what a treat those will be!! Strawberries looked better than what I find in the local store many times I thought. The roma tomatoes were slightly less ripe than I would prefer – but what can you expect in December?
LOTS of healthy GREEN stuff!! We use a LOT between salads and throwing them in green smoothies!
More great healthy veggies- spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes which we love for salads, bok choy and even Napa cabbage which I have searched for in Whole Foods many times for a recipe and been unable to find on most trips.
Lots of great fruits! Mangoes, oranges, lemons, apples and pineapple! The pineapple was a little on the small side and pretty green… but nothing too out of the ordinary from a trip to the regular grocery store. Plus, my experience is the larger ones at the store can lack much taste. We will wait and let it ripen a bit before eating and see what our thoughts are on it. Mangoes look good as well as the rest of the fruit, which between us and the 3 macaws in the house, we eat a LOT of!
To be honest, when I first looked at the website, I was a bit afraid it was going to similar to a local co-op we had been members of a few years ago where you did not get any say-so in what your weekly box contained… you just got what you got and that was it. And many times, is had things in it that would not be something I would normally purchase or use – like okra… not a fan. When I looked at the website, I saw things like eggplant, beets and celery… things I don’t care for and will very rarely buy or use. So, I was very pleased not to find any such items in our box when it arrived! Just all thing we will use and eat!
You can stick to the minimum order or even add a few extra things as well which I did. I found jarred salsa which we use a lot, sourdough bread, granola and some cool cookies – all ORGANIC!
I tried to arrange it all into one photo but not sure I got it all in! So, for our first order – I am very impressed with the quality as well as the whole process of ordering and delivery. I will be looking forward to the next orders to see if the selection and quality continue to be as good as with our first box. The more time goes by, the more I value my time. Keeping up with writing for the website and planning for our upcoming move along with the normal household and farm duties keeps my schedule pretty full. So, I really appreciate a service like this that will save me lots of time and effort as well.
So here is a rundown of what came in my box this week including the extra items I ordered and the total I paid. I did receive a discount with this shipment for it being my first order. I have not priced out each item individually to see if I saved much money, but it seems pretty in line with or less than what I might have paid for this amount of food at Whole Foods, etc. Plus, you have to figure in your time, gas and convenience and what that value is. It was a win-win in my book! I will be continuing to order!
Plus, in the end, there was even something for our spoiled house cat Chester to enjoy once I emptied the box as well! Good to keep the critters in our family happy too!
If you would like to check out Misfits Market please go to their site using the link below and they will give you $10 off your first order and also toss us back a couple of dollars which will help us to keep providing this website and information free for everyone. Thanks! https://www.misfitsmarket.com/?promo=COOKWME-TP1XSV
Happy shopping and Blessings to you all!!
Shawn
**UPDATE!! I have continued to order from Misfits Market for the past several weeks and am thrilled to have this quality of healthy, fresh, organic produce and other items delivered right to my door and will be continuing to use this service! Mixed with my Azure Co-op monthly order – I may never have to darken the door at Whole Foods again!
